SOMing Up The Year!
With the year coming to an end, the SOM Team is looking forward to 2015 with great expectations, as do our fans.
The Beginning
What a year! July 2014 finally saw the launching of a long-term project we were working on for over 3 years. The early months of the year wrote many chapters of SOM story! You can read the past newsletters to learn more about all the “fun” we had. We can tell you that we are very happy it is now behind us and it feels almost like it happened a decade ago!
SOM Footwear Fuels
There are two things that fuel our company and the owners’ motivation. First, the employees are showing up with enthusiasm and ideas to perfect the shoe, its production process and bringing in new marketing ideas. The second highest motivating factor is the response of SOM Footwear clients to the feel of our fashion sneakers. “I love my SOM” is a general statement we hear that keeps the entire crew moving forward.
SOM In Motion
The past year has brought us challenges but also huge progress in production and with the company. We now have our trademark registered, an outlet store which opens once a month and retailers and other online companies carrying our lines. As we listen and learn from our customers, Olie and the SOM Team are creating more styles to be presented to you some time next year. When working on new styles, we keep in mind our customers comments: comfort with a roomy toe box, lightweight and versatile, which are all the qualities SOM Footwear is starting to be well known for.
What Do People Do
It is very impressive to learn that, although our shoes were first designed for comfort and to help people rediscover their natural sense of motion, our customers use SOM Footwear for all of their favorite activities. SOM-os (owners of our footwear) are wearing their shoes for activities such as; cycling, mountain biking, zumba, dancing, crossfit training, parkour, gymnastic, olive harvesting, rock climbing route approaches, barefoot running, and working shoes just to name just a few. It is even more impressive to learn from people with foot issues how happy they are to find a fit for their sensitive feet. They can’t be thankful enough to SOM Footwear’s toe wiggle room and wide foot freedom it offers.
A loyal SOM-o who was among our first pre-orders and who had waited as long as it took to receive a pair. A. Kincer from Tennessee, is harvesting olives in Greece in his SOM Footwear. “If anyone asks, the shoes work just fine for olive harvesting. Here they are on an island in Greece keeping my feet happy under the load of a heavy bag of olives!”
We want to thank you all for responding to the customer satisfaction survey, which helps us to learn how are they serving in daily activities or if there are any issues we should be aware of. Preliminary customer feedback is revealing that we have a product that people find very comfortable- they constantly recommend them to their friends and would be likely to buy another pair. We are discovering the various activities and benefits that our shoes are providing for people that we were not aware of before. Please note that we will continue to contact our SOM-os in the coming months, to keep learning from each of you. Together, we grow!
Southwest Media Earthquake
We recently received local media attention that we are very thankful for. The public is learning about our company and showing enthusiasm about what we are doing. Since there are more and more SOM-os in the Southwest since all that exposure, maybe we should start a fan club of SOM-owners! After all, we are one of the 3 sneaker factories in USA and may be the only one who does everything in-house. This makes Coloradoans very proud!
So far, SOM Footwear is or was featured in the Watch, Montrose Style, The Adventure Guide to the Western San Juans, Montrose Mirror, Montrose Daily Press, The Daily Grand Junction Sentinel, KJCT8 and KKCO 11 News Channels.
2015
With the New Year, there will be changes in our production process. We have just acquired a new machine who's purpose is to stitch the sole to the upper, allowing us to change out the glue for a water based, less toxic one. The new process will also reduce the production time, making it more efficient and lowering the waste shoe rate we had during the last stage of the production.
We can’t wait to see what the next year is going to bring us. We are working hard to improve on our product to make revisions and provide what our customers are asking for. As a result we will be retiring some of our first models, CAM-L and SP-L, but keep watching our website as new models are coming out in January 2015.
SP-L3 and the SP-L3 Classic are replacing our retiring models offering the soft sole in four different colors or the Classic version. However, for our bikers who love the firmer sole, we kept some in stock and you can have it on special order.
The SP-L3 Classic is an all leather version of our SP-L3. It comes with or without an optional bamboo viscose liner.
We will keep you posted as to what is going on here at SOM as the year progresses. We will also be making special announcements when new styles will be ready for pre-order. Until then, keep spreading the word about innovative SOM Footwear!
Our footwear is currently sold at Nina Suzanne’s located at 336 E. Main Street in Montrose, Colorado
And Jagged Edge located at 223 East Colorado Avenue in Telluride, Colorado
Thank you to all of our loyal customers and supporters for making this an excellent year! Watch for new styles coming out in January 2015.
The outlet store will be open again on January 30, 2015 and starting in February it is going to be on the second Friday of each month.
Happy Holidays from the SOM Team!