In January, I had the privilege of speaking at the Milwaukee Biztimes’ Economic Forum. I knew little about the event when I said yes to it, but I somehow assumed it would be a panel discussion in front of a small group, involving mostly off-the-cuff Q&A and little preparation. So, I was a caught off guard when the Senior Editor called three days before to give me some last-minute coaching and make sure that my “speech” would be “no longer than 15 minutes for sure, and 12 would be better.”

“Speech?” I asked. “What am I speaking about?” He replied that they had me down for two topics: “How to Revive American Manufacturing” and “The Future of Retailing.” (Oh, I thought, is that all? Why not throw in Health Care Reform, too?) Then he added, “Go ahead at the end and talk about men’s fashion trends if you want. There’ll be a lot of men there who’ll want to hear about that… but, remember, 15 minutes max, 12 is better and no Allen Edmonds commercial.” “Got it. How many people are you expecting?” “Over 600 -- it’s sold out. Congressman Paul Ryan is kicking it off talking about fiscal discipline in Washington, and he’s a big draw. As the head of the House Budget Committee, people want to hear what he has to say about what’s going on.” Indeed.

Well, I got some slides ready and showed up. It was actually pretty fun to do. My comments about the two BIG topics needed to be pretty broad-brush, but the audience seemed interested. They definitely perked up more, though, when the Men’s Fashion Trends Slide went up. People started talking at their tables and, when I cracked a couple of one-liners, I got way more reaction than I expected. I noticed immediately that the sudden buzz had a disproportionate number of female voices in it. When I made this point -- “Brown is the ‘new black’ in men’s serious business shoes. You can definitely wear brown now with a classic blue or charcoal grey suit to any important meeting … unless you wear bad shoes, then stick to black because brown shows off how really cheap that leather is.” – the hearty laughter seemed 70% female, which maybe confirms again that women definitely do judge men’s shoes… and a lot of guys get failing grades.

This time of year is good for discussing Men’s StyleTrends. Warmer weather gives us more options, which can be a double-edged sword if we wander too far off-base. It’s also a good time because our team has just finished doing trade shows across the U.S. and in Europe, and we have an up-to-date sense of what’s going on out there. Here’s the slide from the presentation, filled in with the comments and edited to incorporate some impressions after the shows.

Quick Primer of Men's Style trends

-What's Hot: Classic American Styling, authentic American heritage brands (i.e. pre-WWII), long-lasting quality, sensible values, fewer luxury splurges, i.e. Mad Men attire. This "new normal" era means more classic sensibilities and made in USA is big across the globe (even bigger in Asia).

-Brown is the "new black" in high quality leather shoes for the office (but not in those low quality "hide-of-the-Nauga" shoes where brown looks especially plastic). Suede is great now all year long, for both dress and casual wear in all different kinds of dress and casual shoes.

-Brogues (wingtips or captoes with perforated designs) are really big. Tasteful leather shoes are the right thing for weekends (men aren't wearing last year's running shoes with their jeans anymore). Brogues can also be made of saddle leather types and thicker soles that give them a rougher look.

-Stylish vests work in place of sport coats at the office or social events. French cuff shirts with personal-connection cufflinks are back in the office and with upscale weekend wear (cufflinks reflect the man's individuality with hobby or city themes).

-Tasteful plaid ties or Brooks Brothers' rep-stripes are preferred again over $150 patterns depicting aristocratic equine paraphernalia.

-Leather is displacing ballistic nylon in briefcases, duffel bags and rolling carry-ons. After 20 years of never using their bags for cover in a gunfight, I guess men feel safe switching back to classic and natural materials.

-College baseball caps in winter have been displaced by Stormy Kromer or Scottish caps and Indy Jones hats.

-Moderate-length leather coats (longer than aviator cuts) will make a comeback in fall 2011.

P.S. I asked a colleague for input on the above list. His comments are so good, I thought I’d quote them here…
From Brett Klein, our wholesale salesman in New York City who has great fashion sense…

Men are really caring and taking pride in how they look and dress again. Not just dressing up for the office (which we all know has been more important over the last couple years), but it’s clear how much effort men are putting into their casual looks. Across the country (and clearly evident in and around NYC) at first glance a guy may look like a modern day lumberjack to some degree, but it’s clear how crafted and put together his outfit is. Every item speaks to heritage, quality, made in the USA. Most of it is brand new out of the box or off the hanger, but it has a vintage look and feel and is clearly authentic.

Your first few bullet points on shoe trends, plus my above paragraph bring something else to mind regarding our specific new product (Elgin, McTavish, etc): The trends are clearly classic, the consumer wants authentic American brands, men are putting more effort into dressing, and classic dress looks are being worn in a way that they haven’t in modern times. All of these things allow us (at Allen Edmonds) to take some liberties and have some fun with our new SP11 and FL11 designs, creating new looks with our classic patterns, but having the freedom and opportunity to reinterpret them in a manner we haven’t previously with new casual leathers/materials, contrast stitching, raw and natural finishes on leather and soles, etc. Shoes are really fun again in a way they haven’t been for awhile.


Best wishes,


Paul D. Grangaard
President & CEO
Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation

“It’s great to work with pros!” is one of my favorite sayings these days. Normally when I use it, I’m referring to a solid idea or insight from one of our experts at Allen Edmonds. We’ve assembled quite a team of key people across our company – insiders with career-long experience in shoe design, shoemaking, leathers, Recrafting®, sizing and fitting, shoe sales, finance and systems. And to these we’ve added some relative newcomers with career-long outside experience in marketing, retail management, wholesale management, international markets, quality assurance, recruiting and smart men’s business and casual fashions from head-to-foot. They’re an outstanding group of first class people in every sense of the term.

Lately, though, the saying applies more literally – It’s great to work with golf pros! We just introduced our new line of golf shoes -- called the “Honors Collection” -- at the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. Ben Crenshaw is our spokesman for our line. Not only is Ben a Hall of Fame golfer, victorious Ryder Cup Captain and two-time Masters Champion, he’s also a first class guy who is generally regarded as one of the foremost experts on golf history and tradition. He also has designed some highly-ranked, classic-inspired golf course around the country. We’re truly honored to have Ben represent our Honors Collection.

At the PGA Show the “buzz” around our booth was palpable. We were asked to do live interviews on ESPN radio, we talked to golf magazine editors and, at their request, we supplied samples to a TV crew doing a feature on golf fashion. Our booth was full for three days straight. We met pros from many of the best courses from coast-to-coast. Many told us of the gap they see in the market for the classic, 360 degree welted golf shoe – the kind of shoe serious golfers have worn for years and years. The whole line was given thumbs up reviews with the shark-skin REDAN and the DOUBLE EAGLE being the most jaw dropping. The innovative DOUBLE EAGLE shoe offers the feel, stability and support of a classic golf shoe when you swing and the comfort of a breathable running shoe mesh when you walk 4+ miles on a hot day. By the way, the whole line is available for Recrafting® which, for golf, we’re calling our “Mulligan Service.”

I was especially impressed by how many of these pros knew our Allen Edmonds history in the golfing business. In the days before surlyn-covered balls, we made the shoes that one of the greatest legends of all time wore exclusively, on and off the course. Now we’re back in the business and some touring pros have already called to ask us to fit them.

Several of us at the company are life-long golfers ourselves, so this is more and more fun all the time. Check out our video at www.allenedmonds.com/golf and see what I mean. It really is good to work with pros.

Hit ‘em straight!



Paul D. Grangaard
President & CEO
Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation

Last week, Wisconsin’s Gov. Jim Doyle visited our plant and made some great comments about Allen Edmonds. While he spoke, I was able to see his staff-prepared notes and noticed he wasn’t really using them. So his remarks were especially impressive and uplifting, given that they were so well delivered in his own words. Our production people take great care and pride in what they do. Having the Governor praise their efforts the way he did was just terrific for them to hear. Below is the link to a video of his visit…

The occasion was to announce a $1.5 million Economic Development Loan that the State of Wisconsin and Ozaukee County together have awarded to Allen Edmonds to help fund investments in our manufacturing capacity and increased employment in Port Washington. If we hire 200 or more people, the loan will be converted to a grant. Currently, we have about 285 full time employees in our Port Washington facilities, so an additional 200 represents significant growth in jobs in the area. Here’s what’s happening:

We’re expanding manufacturing capacity with an entirely new shoe production line that will be located in our building on the west side of Interstate 43. This line brings handsewn shoe production to Port Washington for the first time (it’s a different construction than our existing welted shoe manufacturing), and we’ll be able to produce some 50,000 handsewn pairs a year. With the growth in demand for our welted American Classics dress and casual shoes, we will be expanding employment on our welted line as well. We’re also adding employment in Wisconsin to our Recrafting, shipping, inventory management and headquarters operations as we grow our business.

None of this would be happening, of course, without the support of our loyal customers. We’re grateful to the Governor, the State and the County for helping us make these investments more aggressively than we might have otherwise. And we’re grateful to you, our supporters, for the momentum that makes this growth possible. It’s a great feeling to be growing American jobs again. Thank you!

Best wishes,



Paul D. Grangaard
President & CEO
Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation



Read the Press Release

With the leaves turning color and fall upon us, I thought I’d revisit some themes of this summer one last time for this month’s blog.

In mid-July I wrote about learnings from my various travels during the first half of the year. I can say that the three months since then have reinforced those experiences. First, about the economy. There continues to be a dire tone to newspaper economic reports these days. But one of the apparent advantages of being close to actual daily consumer activity is that we can read the economic pulse pretty well, maybe better than the newspapers that seem always to be looking back a few months and highlighting bad news. Based on what we’ve seen, I feel confident that the erudite (yet very pragmatic) economist I heard in L.A. in May was right – the average employed American consumer is recovering to a New Normal of spending behavior. The craziness of a few years ago has not returned, of course, and most likely never will in my lifetime, but the consumer is again driving economic growth.

A week ago, I was in our store in an upscale mall in suburban Detroit – a place where economic woes have hit especially hard. Well, our store there has had an upsurge in the past few months and the entire mall was much busier than I expected on a late Saturday afternoon in early October. The Starbucks upstairs from us had a constant line of people extending out the store’s doors, despite it being past the time to switch to decaf. The entire mall had almost an early-December vibe to it. Improving consumer confidence with 90% employment seems a powerful force, and that’s good news for everyone in the U.S., I hope.

Second, I mentioned in July that international fashion trends have turned decidedly toward authentic American Classic styling. The Fall Collections that have now made their debuts in stores across the nation certainly bear that out. Pictures tell the story better than I ever could. Here is a link to some photos of a Spring 2011 runway show by fashion designer Marlon Gobel, who used Allen Edmonds shoes throughout his collection. You see plainly here the trend toward traditional brown dress shoes paired with very casual apparel, even shorts. I had a customer ask me recently what to wear with khakis and jeans and I told him to look at walnut Strands or McAllisters, burnished brown San Marcos or the Players Shoe that we made for the PGA Championship.

Speaking of the PGA, the golfers in that tournament liked our shoes so much that the PGA asked us afterward to makes shoes for the entire U.S. Team competing over in Wales. If you look at photos of the opening ceremonies a couple weeks ago, you can see the team wearing our walnut Lombards with their suits. At the closing celebration, when tuxes were the order, the team wore black Park Avenues. Some men like patent leather shoes more with a tux, but Park Avenues work just as well or better at today’s formal events, and they’re much more versatile additions to the wardrobe.

Best wishes,



Paul D. Grangaard
President & CEO
Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation

This week, the best golfers in the world converge for the 92nd PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, just north of our manufacturing plant and headquarters. It’s a tradition for the host course to give the competitors a gift and, couple months ago, the Director of Golf Operations for Kohler Co. and the Head Pro at Whistling Straits came to us to talk about Allen Edmonds being involved. They said they were hoping to give the players something special and custom-made, rather than the typical engraved glass dish that often gets left behind. Colin Hall, our head of marketing and international business, led our effort. He and I and a bunch of us here at AE are big golf fans, so we were particularly delighted to be asked and to be able to help out such a great neighbor.

Together with our production and product design teams, we chose a new shoe style that’s pictured below and named it, “The Player’s Shoe.” As I mentioned in my last blog, American classic styling has returned to the top of the charts, here and internationally, and suede is also “en fuego” as they say on the golf course. We chose our popular blucher wing tip pattern, added a new “toasted” treatment on the double-oak sole and offered it in five different colors of suede for the players and tournament executives to select their favorite. In the various colors, it’s a shoe that transcends age – as attractive to one of the flashier newcomers on tour as it is to those whose class has epitomized the great traditions of golf throughout their illustrious careers.

We’ve been taking sizes and choices all weekend and into yesterday, and hearing great reactions from the players. Our factory is suddenly like the short order breakfast kitchen on a Saturday morning, whipping up shoes from scratch in rapid fire. The shoes will all be delivered by the opening rounds on Thursday, placed in the players’ lockers. We’ve added custom shoe trees to the gift, each one engraved with the Whistling Straits PGA Championship logo and the player’s name underneath it.

It was clear we had a winner when a certain UK player, a great guys’ guy who sometimes plays with a cigar in hand, asked to order a second pair in blue as he was selecting his first pair in white. If you’re wondering….the overwhelming favorite is the Dark Chocolate (slate colored) version. Second is the Sand color, but all five are well represented in the field.

We’ve really enjoyed working with the Kohler people. They have been great. As Harvey Penick famously said, “If you play golf, you’re my friend.” I also always liked Ben Hogan’s mantra, “The harder I practice, the luckier I get.”

See you at the Tournament,



Paul D. Grangaard
President & CEO
Allen Edmonds Shoe Corporation