My Time in NYC Until Now

***pictures mixture of my life here in NYC and shoes to keep the shoe people interested****

(started on Monday) — I am currently on a flight to Los Angeles but wanted to give a small-ish write up on how things have gone for me and the business since landing in NYC on June 15^th, 2017.

They say that if you can make it in NYC you can make it anywhere in the world and I see how that statement could be true. The city is beyond expensive, there are more crazy people roaming the streets than quite possibly anywhere else on earth, it is fast paced, unforgiving, daunting and the rest. But it is great. You feel that you can make the ‘American Dream’ happen with a bit of tenacity, perseverance and self-belief. NYC living is the stuff that Entrepreneurial dreams are made of. The city forces you to be strong, tenacious and relentless in your actions, all of which make up great inspiration for a business owner that aspires to do great things…..Or maybe I am just green and still in a la-la-land from finally getting to the city that I have always wanted to end up in. I guess only time will tell!

But I will tell you that since landing less than 3 weeks ago, I feel that I have gotten more done than the last 1.5 years in London. And this is not to discount my time in London but having been stuck there for 1.5 years without travel, I feel that it put a massive blow to my progression not to mention was also mentally crippling as I hate the feeling of regression. But putting that all behind me, I felt that I have made some great pathways for my business in the US and the new expansion of The Shoe Snob US. And for those of you that have questions on what exactly we are planning to do with the business here in the US, allow me to explain.

What I want to do is recreate my business in London but in NYC, a hub that serves solely North and South America with a dedicated stock, showroom and website for both The Shoe Snob and J.FitzPatrick Footwear. London will then serve the rest of the world. The US being our biggest market, by far, I feel that it deserves its own treatment, but also sharing with Canada, Mexico and South America which I am not easily able to serve from the UK with the amount of duties taxed onto products imported into all of those countries, or in the case of Mexico simply not being able to ship there at all. Which is crippling for a market that has a lot of affluent people that like shoes.  But this will take time. It won’t happen in a month or two, especially as ordering a stock takes 4 months alone, not to mention setting up the business, getting bank accounts and the likes. Therefore we are planning for all of this to kick of between 6 months to a year. So get ready!

Back to my time in NYC, I have already sat down with a suiting company that has 8 showrooms across the country (with 2 more in the works) that has basically opened their doors to J.FitzPatrick Footwear for US Trunk Shows. That being, I will hopefully be able to come to a city near you, after all of this time only going to NYC for my US trunk shows. My first four cities planned are D.C., Houston, San Fran and Chicago. I also have an opportunity to go to LA but that is with another friend/tailor so do stay tuned on that. Most of this will start happening next year as my A/W schedule is already quite packed out. Another exciting event is a collaboration of English brands — bespoke tailors and shoes — scheduled for next February and to be held at the rooftop of Bergdorf Goodman. That I look forward to!

So as you can see it is exciting times for The Shoe Snob/JF Footwear.

On a personal level I managed to find an apartment relatively quickly which I am excited to move into and start giving away all of my money for a place that I won’t often be at. But hey ho, such is life I guess. I have already met some cool people in the city and look forward to meeting many more while things are still difficult from the whole debacle of having to uproot my life across the planet, I think that it can only go up from here. And therefore, I am staying positive with progressive thinking.

Just want to thank all of those that came to our trunk show last week and also those of you that have kindly welcomed me back to the US, and to the great City of New York.

Hope to meet many more of you soon!

Justin

ALL SHOE PHOTOS COURTESY OF SEPTIEME LARGEUR AND THEIR BEAUTIFUL PATINAS