Website is go, and we have bags

Something happens every week with the shop to move things forward, but not always something very interesting. Our carrier bags arrived this week so no longer do customers have to take away their purchases in a black plastic bag to protect them from the rain. The bags are very, very big and white with the "LB" logo slap bang in the centre in a reasonably matched shade of blue and other bits of text around us. Soon every trendy man about town will be sporting one for his large transportation needs. Take three briefcases into a meeting? Not any more, now you can just half fill a Lo-base bag and go. Or something.

Anyway, more importantly and potentially more exctingly, the website is now up and running too. Avoid the hassle of coming into Edinburgh and trying the shoes on in a comfortable, warm shop by having us send them to you instead. There's also a bit of info on there about Scotland's very own Bigfoot and I'll be trying to update it with some more light-hearted/hilarious pieces like this in the future too. Have a look here Big Mens Shoes

In the shop we currently have walking boots and shoes from Merrell, Columbia and Hi-Tec, running shoes from Hi-Tec with ASICS and New Balance hopefully following shortly, rugby boots from Gilbert and a few other bits and pieces including some very comfy socks.

We'll be trying to get some more brands and styles in soon, so let us know if you have any preferences.

Our first club night is coming up soon too. Mailings went out to pretty much every rugby club in Scotland last week inviting them to our night on Thursday 4th February between 6 and 8pm. If you play, work for or support a local rugby club and didn't see our flyer then firstly have a strong word with your club secretary, but secondly and vitally come along on the night to get a 10% discount on any shoes you buy.

Up and running

Happy New Year everyone. Its been a hectic few weeks so the blog hasn't been updated recently at all.

However, the shop is up and running now and most of the initial teething problems have been dealt with so there's a little bit more time for this.

We had a successful opening party on Sunday 13th December with about twenty people along to see the shop and mgo on a ghost tour through the haunted cellar (if you haven't seen the cellars yet then you're missing out!!). We opened on the MOnday and had our first sale on Thursday from a gent who worked locally and had seen the shop on his way to work. Up to Christmas it was pretty quiet though as our marketing hasn't really started yet, so we are relying on people seeing the shop or hearing about it through word of mouth, which is going to be quite limited at this stage.

We opened again today after New Year and sold a pair of our most expensive shoes (Titanium Bugaboot XTM Omni-Tech) to a chap who was going boar hunting in Lithuania and needed something warm for his feet whilst he stood in the cold. The Titanium is waterproof and insulated down to -54 celsius, so it should ndo him just fine.

We're working our our first flyers just now to support our marketing campaign. If you can think of anywhere we should be marketing or know of any opportunities (e.g. if you work for a big company and their intranet has an offers/discounts section etc) then please let us know. The more people know about us the better.

Game On - It begins here

Well we finally got all ofthe documents for the lease of the premises signed up last week so get the keys to the shop on Monday morning. Two weeks of hard work will follow fitting it out ready to start trading at the beginning of December in time for Christmas.

We also are starting to get our suppliers sorted out, with a few in pleace already with shoes up to a size 16. There isn't much bigger than this in the UK market so it will set a natural maximum, but hopefully in the New Year we will be able to source some larger sizes from the States.

Website Happenings

Website is starting to come together. Quite liking the look of it so far.

Visit it at www.lobaseshoes.com for all your CD-ROm needs apparently!!

Big Shoes for Big Adventures

As we're going to be selling activity footwear rather than Oxfords and brogues, we needed some sort of slogan to reflect that, so "Big Shoes for Big Adventures" is it. Criticisms and praise to the usual address please.

Quite a few things happening this week. Website is under development and is sounding promising. I would say it is looking promising, but as I haven't seen any rough drafts yet that would be tricky. Still, I am optimistic.

Bank account has been set up and company finally exists (Lo-Base Shoes Limited, catch us now at Companies House for all your exciting limited company information www.companies-house.gov.uk) so we can now move on with suppliers.

We've managed to identify suppliers across a range of disciplines who make large shoes and activity footwear so are currently getting in touch with their reps. Anyone for snowboard boots in a size 22?!!!!!!!

Struggling to find ski boots in anything above a 14 though so if you have any thoughts please send them our way. That said, I've found somewhere in Austria that do them, but at about £1k per custom fit pair, it could be a bit toppy for most people.

Just got a new logo designed which we are quite excited about and should see us right for a good few years.

Slow Week

Not much has been happening with the shop this week unfortunately. Trying to register as a limited company has been held up by Companies House, who are apparently having some sort of software problem. This is different to the explanation they gave me last week though, but there isn't much I can do about it.

However, after having some crossed wires with my website guys about the timescales they could do the website in, I think I have found someone else who should be able to do it in fairly short order, and the websites they have produced so far all look pretty good. There's no point having the website open in the New year and missing all the potential Christmas sales, especially with Scottish spending in the high street showing good signs of recovery just now.

A friend of a friend was round the shop last week doing a basic survey and schedule of condition, which included about 88 pictures of the shop to allow me to agree the condition with the landlord. This stops me having to potentially spend a fortune making it good when the lease expires, as I'll be able to show what condition it was in when I moved in. If anyone needs any building survey or similar work done then I can strongly reccomend Steve Thomson. Drop me a line if you would like his details.

Premises Located (Hopefully)

After a few months of looking it seems like Lo-Base Shoes have finally found the site for opening the first dedicated large shoe shop in Scotland.

We will be based at 11 Howard Street (which is essentially the town end of Inverleith Row) in Canonmills, not far from Inverleith Park and the Botanics. Find it here http://tinyurl.com/ykse4t8

Parking is good nearby. If you come down Dundas Street and round the corner you can usually get a space just before the lights opposite the tapas restaurant. Its only half hour parking though, so if you're planning a longer visit then Inverleith Terrace has plenty of parking at 70p an hour (although shortly to be going up to a pound).

Unfortunately, the guys we had been hoping to get to do the website are snowed under with work so we need to start looking at that again, but I'm sure we'll find someone.

We should be getting access to the shop from 1st November and we hope to start trading in the middle of that month. Hopefully see you there.

Lo-Base