Vox Stitching Snafu Becomes Retail Deal
adamsullivan
- February 23 2009
- 1,211 views
- 2 comments
When 500 pairs of Vox Troopers came in with the wrong color stitching, President Dave Ross could have sent them back to be corrected, but he didn’t. He had a different idea. The idea, Ross says, came from an episode of 60 minutes he saw on Remote Area Medical, a relief organization that donates time to people who can’t afford health care. “I thought by taking this particular Trooper model and offering it initially to our mom and pop skate shops, it could only help get them more sales,” he says. “It helps Vox by showing people that we are aware of the tough times our shops and even our customers are having out there. We are showing support.”
Ross decided to call the shoes the “Relief Troopers,” and sell them to core shops for $19.50, versus the regular price of $27. “Of course the shops can mark it up for more, but we hope that they will honor what we are trying to do with this,” explains Ross. “We want to let our community know we care about them by offering a killer price with one of our known best sellers without sacrificing the quality in the meantime.” The Trooper, a staple shoe in the line since Vox began, is a lowtop vulcanized shoe. The only difference in the Relief Trooper is the black-on-black stitching, instead of an accent-colored stitch.
Not surprisingly, the shoes sold out within a week. Everybody loves a deal. And it was such a hit, Ross decided to do more. “We’ve put an order in with our factory, and are already pre-booking them.”
The danger inherent in offering a discount to a shoe that’s no different from the other Troopers, is of course that sales of the regular Trooper will suffer. But Ross isn’t too concerned about that. “To be truthful, we’re not a huge company. I think it’s more like a quantities issue. Do we want to sell 1,000 pairs of a regular Trooper? Yes. Do we want to sell 100,000 pairs of the Relief Trooper? Yes. We hope people will still support the regular Troopers. I guess we’ll see.”
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February 25th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Bravo! Props to Dave and VOX for making the decision to do this. The real skateshops (not McMall franchises) are hurting more than ever and anything that companies within the skate industry can do to get people in the door makes a huge difference. Hopefully more companies realize the good stuff like this can do for both customers and the industry itself. $19.50 is a steal for skate shoes when you consider what some other companies are gouging skaters for these days.
The Trooper is a great skate shoe and an epic Iron Maiden song!
Keep fighting the good fight over there at VOX.
-Andy D (Scottsdale, AZ)
February 25th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Mad props! Especially for keeping it core. Things like this help out soooooo much! I don’t care if it was a snafu. The color came out great. I ordered doubles of every size and sold out in a week. I’ve already put in my prebook for more.
Good job guys!!