To say it’s been an unpredictable few years is, well, a bit of an understatement. However, you’ll be pleased to know the purpose of this blog is to focus on the future and talk about some exciting developments and plans we have been working on.
IMAGERY
This ties in nicely with our website update (more on this later) as of course you need good photos to show off your products. The last few years we have been working with a very talented photographer, Dan Hall (view his website here), who has helped us find an identity and elevate our imagery. We will be showing this off more when our site has been refined but you will have noticed his images on most of our Facebook and Instagram posts, as well as our home page images.
We have now reached the stage where we want to start campaigns and create stories, this will reinforce our credibility and really show off our products in a way we haven’t done previously. I am excited to announce that we have already shot an autumn/winter campaign, which we cannot wait to reveal. We did have to think carefully about the mood, styling, models, and location, to make sure that the imagery would appeal to not only our current customer base but also to potential new customers, so we look forward to the feedback once the campaign is live.
LOOK WHO’S WEARING
This is where we like to talk about influential people who wear our shoes, whether they are famous or simply inspirational (view here). We are looking to update this and we already have a few people lined up that we know you will love to read about and see wearing our shoes, but if you know someone who fits the bill then feel free to email me and discuss on chris@herringshoes.co.uk and I will be more than happy to consider them! We love a good story and having inspirational people wear our shoes really solidifies what we are all about: good shoes for good people.
WEBSITE
We think you will all agree that our website is easy to navigate, nicely laid out and contains all the information you could possibly need, all at your fingertips, and this is thanks to our in-house web developer Gareth (or Gaz as I like to call him). As our website is completely custom-made, we don’t have to rely on any outsourcing to make the changes we feel need to be done to enhance the customer experience.
However, as the years have gone by we are aware the site has started to feel slightly dated or even a little ‘busy’. We are always happy to admit where changes are needed and this has lead us to start thinking about new website designs. We don’t think it needs to be dramatic, but just a bit of tidying here and there which should not only make navigating easier but also aesthetically it will be more appealing. We hope to complete this in the next few months (sorry Gaz), so keep your eyes peeled!
PRODUCTS
As you may know, many British manufacturers are struggling to get materials (and in some cases they’re struggling for workers too) and so this is why you may be seeing a few of our own styles currently ‘due in’ stock. Of course, we are proud to also use some non UK factories make our shoes and we have carefully selected certain factories that specialise in the styles that we feel deserve to have the ‘Herring’ name on them.
This means we are able to offer excellent, welted products at a competitive price but it also means we can make sure we always have enough stock to meet our customers’ demands when stock may be shorter with our usual UK manufactures.
Naturally, it is still imperative that we offer a large selection of UK-made shoes, so we have decided to go through our entire catalogue of Herring branded shoes and condense the range down. This will mean that there will be fewer similar styles and so we can focus on making sure these ‘core’ styles are always in stock and on back order, as we will now also have the space in our warehouse due to us not carrying so many similar styles.
But there is no need to worry about not having much choice, there will still be options, but they will be more refined. This will also make shopping much easier for our customers, especially if you are new to quality footwear and find it a little confusing with so many options for a nice classic Oxford.
COLLABORATION
With the above in mind, we are always open to doing one-off collaborations and having some ‘limited edition’ styles that offer something different to our current designs. We have already got something in the pipeline after working closely with Jerry Tharapos, one of our longest serving customers who resides in Australia and of course, has quite impeccable taste (he has even written some blogs for us here). They are going to be spectacular, and I have a feeling they will appeal to the real boot aficionado. Hopefully we will have some exclusive photos within the next few days of them going through the Cheaney factory…. (that’s enough hints for now).
I hope the above has given some insight into what goes on here. We have a small team of 10 working here at Herring HQ in Kingsbridge and all of the above developments won’t stop us offering our usual service to all of our UK and non UK customers.