Will Goloveyko, founder of Sandalista
Sandalista, an innovative footwear company located in Southern California, has created a new dimension of sandals. Their vision is “Sandals, Creativity, and Comfort,” where their technology and your creativity can create a customized and one-of-a-kind sandal. Sandalista gives people choices, whether it’s picking out an existing design from their site, or uploading your own image to be printed and shipped to you. TransWorld Business caught up with founder of Sandalista, Will Goloveyko, to get more details on the new sandal line.
What was the motive for creating this innovative sandal line?
I founded Sandalista after I left Quiksilver in June 2009. I was working for Quiksilver as VP of Global Footwear Development. Before Quiksilver I spent 4 years working for Reef as Development Director and 5 years as a footwear developer for Nike.
My goal was to find a way to make custom printed sandals with high resolution images on the footbed. Most sandal graphics are screen printed in large numbers, months in front of their selling date. I wanted to be able to print high res images on the sandals and let the wearer or shop decide what those images should be. In addition, I knew that I would need to produce the sandals with a turnaround time in days, not weeks or months.
What makes Sandalista sandals different than other brands such as Reef, Sanuk, Olukai, Havaiana, etc.?
At this time, we don’t offer a Sandalista product line through traditional brick and mortar retailers. We sell our sandals direct to the public through our website- Sandalista.com. On the site, customers can choose an existing graphic or upload an electronic image, photo or artwork of their own, place and position it- then purchase the sandal with their own custom image on the footbed. We produce our sandals in USA, so we can send the sandal to the customer a few days after purchase.
We also make private label sandals for surf shops, some bands, and a few beverage companies. The private label sandals have the shop or company’s graphics on the footbed and the shop or company’s logo on the strap. The minimums are 48 pairs, with reorder quantities as small as 12 pair. We are giving our private label customers their own sandal brand.
How does Sandalista compare in price to other brands?
Our sandals on the website sell for $24, which is the same cost as other companies custom sandals. But with our sandals, you are getting your unique image on the footbed. Our private label sandals seem to sell for around $20-$24. Some of the private label sandals are given away as promotional items. We are getting a lot of interest from the promotional products world.
What can you tell me about the “Series” Collection? What does each series offer to a prospective consumer?
The “Series” sandals are just are way of grouping sandal images with a key word to make it easier for the consumer to browse existing designs. We have series names like- Beach/Surf, Abstract, Photographic, etc. The images change as we put up new ones, find artists to feature, or just feel like creating some new graphics.
Sandalista also offers the option for consumers to create their own design. What else can you tell me about this? Why did you choose this option for your line?
I wanted people to be able to make their own sandal. So much is being done with the personalization of every day objects, why not sandals? On our site, you can choose from an existing graphic, photo or image or upload and position your own graphic, photo or image. Either way, you still can choose the footbed color (black or white) and the strap color, (black or white). We’re working on offering more footbed colors and strap colors in the future.
I think the graphics, photos and images people come up with are much more creative and interesting than anything we could create. We have a feature where artists can contact us about having their graphics, photos or images be featured on the site. For example, we have a few designs from Lorin Fleming. We pay the artist each time a pair sells with their graphics. We also link back to the artists site and provide some background on the artist. It’s a win for the artist, they get some publicity and some dollars and we get some cool, fresh artwork on the site.
You recently made an instore sandal series for Surf Camp Surf Diva, congrats by the way. Do you plan on eventually reaching out to more retailers?
We’ve had a lot of success with our private label program. With the program a retailer can place an initial order of 48 pairs with their graphics on the footbed and their logo on the strap. Reorders are as small as 12 pairs. Since we manufacture in the USA, we can provide samples within a few days and order processing can be as short as a week. It’s made a private label sandal program available to a large group of customers that could not afford long lead times or high minimum quantities.
Some of our clients are: Surf Diva, Wave Riding Vehicles, Farias, Hansens, Heritage, Maui Built, Local Motion, Water Brothers, Carlsbad Pipelines, Thalia Street, Plain White Tee’s (the band), Peligroso Tequila, a bunch more and a few others we can’t list.
Do you differentiate your product offerings for smaller core surf shops vs. big box retailers?
We are not selling to big box retailers. I’m not sure how we could run a “custom” sandal line for them. I know it goes against the grain of getting big dollars, and we do want to make money, but our niche is providing a product for the individual customer, surf shop or someone looking for some cool promo items.
What opportunities and challenges do you foresee within the sandal and footwear category?
The opportunity is building a business on the customization of the sandals down to the level of each pair being unique, if necessary. It hasn’t been done before.
What do you see in the future for Sandalista? Where do you want to see your brand grow?
Our website is the heart of our brand. Now that we have worked out the technology issues, we are going to be putting a lot more effort into making it a creative, fun and artistic destination. We’re also working with some partners to see if we can produce a traditional retail product but still with the Sandalista customization feature and spirit.
I’d like to see the name Sandalista be part of the beach lifestyle with the large dose of customization, creativity and fun added in along with it.
For more information and contact info, check out http://sandalista.com/
