Carmina Shoes - Definitive Thread (reviews, advice, sizing, etc...) - official thread.

[jischwar]

And nice looking at that!

It's a good looking loafer.

Yeah, looks like their classic last actually. Most are on Travellers. I like the elongated round look

 

[jet-stream]

True, I suppose it’s a matter of how low the top of loafer’s vamp is. I have this mental tick that finds it disgusting to wear shoes with no socks. But, socks constantly slipping off my foot, drives me crazy.
View attachment 1577048
View attachment 1577047

that helps - many thanks!

Would you share what the lasts and leathers are on these two loafers?

Neither of them are Carmina, I was simply using them as examples.

Pretty sure that second one is an AE Randolph.

 

[stephenaf2003]

Yeah, looks like their classic last actually. Most are on Travellers. I like the elongated round look

that helps - many thanks!




Pretty sure that second one is an AE Randolph.

Meermin & AE actually, so yeah you guessed right on the second one JS.

 

[jischwar]

Meermin & AE actually, so yeah you guessed right on the second one JS.

Oh damn, my eyes deceive me

 

[Wcutsmart]

No offence taken.

Currently 1 and if I put out poor quality or wrong orders I get bad Google reviews, corporate complaints, nasty Facebook post, nasty voicemails, nasty emails, bad Yelp reviews the list is long this all leads to lost customers and sales. Times are hard sales are slacking with covid I need all the customers I can get so yea keeping them happy is important to me as a manager. So yes I personally make sure things are getting done right so I don't lose customers they are what is putting food on my table and a roof over the heads of my family.

As for past exp (seems you may think I don't have much) in the past 40+ years I have managed as high as CEO level several companies positions held for up to 12 years. So yea I know what I am talking about here my comment to Carmina is solid advice and I am following it myself right now during covid to keep things going.

No offence but how many companies have you managed???

Thank you for the reply.
However, you don't seem to be mentioning your employees at all. If they get sick or someone in their family does and depending on their level of expertise, highly skilled people can't be replaced that easily and the company will see consequences regardless of how many yelp reviews, phone calls you answer etc. and how well you are dealing with it from a PR pov.
Reality is, most companies are not prepared to act and react in a crisis situation, this wasn't a fire drill. Put the state regulations in play and the fact all physical businesses have been closed shut. Maybe some businesses do well just online, but there's a long list that don't. People work for you and you must protect them. If it's just sales that have gone down I suppose I understand where you are coming from.

And to answer your question I lead a family business. I didn't mean any offence, my apologies but I think it's best to go back to shoes now.

 

[zag73]

Thank you for the reply.
However, you don't seem to be mentioning your employees at all. If they get sick or someone in their family does and depending on their level of expertise, highly skilled people can't be replaced that easily and the company will see consequences regardless of how many yelp reviews, phone calls you answer etc. and how well you are dealing with it from a PR pov.
Reality is, most companies are not prepared to act and react in a crisis situation, this wasn't a fire drill. Put the state regulations in play and the fact all physical businesses have been closed shut. Maybe some businesses do well just online, but there's a long list that don't. People work for you and you must protect them. If it's just sales that have gone down I suppose I understand where you are coming from.

And to answer your question I lead a family business. I didn't mean any offence, my apologies but I think it's best to go back to shoes now.

The Spanish islands weren’t hit by the pandemic as bad as the mainland...

 

[Wcutsmart]

The Spanish islands weren’t hit by the pandemic as bad as the mainland...

I assume you are looking at covid cases? The Balearic Islands economically depend on tourism which we are all aware it was pretty much nonexistent for the past years now. People that work in shops don't just find another job so you must do the noble thing and help them survive the crisis. Highly skilled workers potentially are in the risk group. It's very different to let down your manager by missing some sales targets than disappointing your family and friends. But hey, neither of us work in the factory or live in the Balearic Islands so it's all asumptions. I am defending Carmina as I have never had a problem with their service online or in-store. The people I met in their shop, in person, were beyond brilliant. I sympathize with the ones who did encounter issues, including yourself and I feel you are entitled to complain and that is a fact not an assumption. I just think it has given others reason to complain about nonsense, too and was just leading this group towards Karens type group, ruining it for everyone. It did for me. Anyways I think this is a discussion for a different forum and won't intervene in these matters any longer.

Good day, gentlemen!

 

[007Bond]

Thank you for the reply.
However, you don't seem to be mentioning your employees at all. If they get sick or someone in their family does and depending on their level of expertise, highly skilled people can't be replaced that easily and the company will see consequences regardless of how many yelp reviews, phone calls you answer etc. and how well you are dealing with it from a PR pov.
Reality is, most companies are not prepared to act and react in a crisis situation, this wasn't a fire drill. Put the state regulations in play and the fact all physical businesses have been closed shut. Maybe some businesses do well just online, but there's a long list that don't. People work for you and you must protect them. If it's just sales that have gone down I suppose I understand where you are coming from.

And to answer your question I lead a family business. I didn't mean any offence, my apologies but I think it's best to go back to shoes now.

Shoes yes but let me answer your question. "However, you don't seem to be mentioning your employees at all."

When covid hit for this business all employees were laid off since most everything was closed. Then maybe you know about PPP so that was applied for in hopes to retain employees. This business was approved and as soon as it was called back all employees. Only 2 yes 2 were willing to return since everyone on unemployment was making an extra $600 per week. Seems many employees were making a killing on unemployment and did not want to come back to work. So yes I can trump someone getting sick with no one trained wants to return to work at all. So lucky there is one very Jr employees, one senior employee, and me. Hours of operation are 9am to 10pm 7 days a week very hard to cover with 3 people especially when at many times more than one is needed. I had no choice but to get my 17 year old son who was still in 12th grade remote school involved as much as possible and get my wife who was working full time remote involved. This was to help me and my senior employee not kill ourselves since we were putting in 80-100 hours weeks at the start. It was almost impossible to hire more employees as no one wanted to work since they were making so much on unemployment. We had no choice but to take what we could get and many did not work out because they could not put out the standard. It was very hard to fire them for doing a crap job since we were so tired but we have standards and they were not getting it. Before you ask yes we tried working side by side to train them some of the issues were more basic like showing up to work or showing up on time as in not hours late.

During this time we kept up our standards as we had so few customers we did not want anyone unhappy. It was good that we had the PPP to keep paying the employees with sales so low. But we kept going and we started to see new faces and they were coming back. Slowly people started to come outside and drive around and more people were coming and ordering online. Remember standards high = customers happy = return customers.

So guess what happen? We don't qualify for the new 2nd stimulus loans... you know why? 2020 sales are 23% higher than 2019 and we were closed part and almost no sales part of 2020. In fact current monthly sales are exceeding all historical months since this business opened in 2006. How about that building sales during the worst economic slump in recent history.

You know the secret? Very simple, happy customers who get what they ordered made to a standard of excellence.

Oh yea back to shoes. True I am not a shoe maker but if I was the manager at Carmina... I would be in the factory checking on shoes in production, checking on shoes as they were packed, doing the same thing I am doing now making sure what is going out the door is of our standards of quality so we have happy customers.

Even in the middle of a pandemic it is possible to maintain quality standards. Unless you have managers and owners that just don't care what they are pumping out the door. Also remember we here on this forum are a small number of Carmina's customers. We here have a large amount of messed up orders can you imagine the actual total number of bad orders. Yes it's much more than we are seeing here. The fact is no one at Carmina has been paying attention to what is going out the door or what is going on in the factory.

This is a time in history where a smaller company like Carmina can actually take customers from other shoe makers by providing a superior product. Yes it's true many companies are struggling to survive some have given up already. What does that mean? It means there are orphaned customers out there looking for a new company to do business with, anyone still in business should be actively trying to snatch them up.

Unfortunately it's not nice just a business fact that the times we are in are survival of the fittest. Many will probably fail and only some survive, just nature's way.

Lastly even if I was the CEO of Allen Edmonds you can bet your life on it, I would be in the factory checking on what is coming off the production line and going in boxes, and you can take that to the shoe bank.

 

[Patrick1053]

Congratulations, you may have just set the record for the longest post with no pictures.

It almost makes me want to read what you said.

 

[zag73]

Congratulations, you may have just set the record for the longest post with no pictures.

It almost makes me want to read what you said.

It was a long post. But I don’t think anyone can argue with the points he made. Ultimately, it comes down to taking pride in your job/work.

 

[007Bond]

Congratulations, you may have just set the record for the longest post with no pictures.
It almost makes me want to read what you said.

Is there a prize? I can do better next time for sure! I am always out to win at what I do.

My mother always told me 2nd place is still a loser there is only one winner. So if you don't go for and get 1st place you are just a loser like all the rest. Hard fact but so true.

It was a long post. But I don’t think anyone can argue with the points he made. Ultimately, it comes down to taking pride in your job/work.

Thank you zag73 you were able to summarize my post in one sentence "Ultimately, it comes down to taking pride in your job/work."

 

[Crafty Cumbrian]

It was a long post. But I don’t think anyone can argue with the points he made. Ultimately, it comes down to taking pride in your job/work.

That’s it mate. I have a no bullshit policy. Tell my clients the truth and if they go elsewhere then it’s not through my fault but choice. Plenty people seem to be getting poor service here. Weirdly I’m delighted with my boots classed as seconds but the way it was dealt with thereafter wasn’t special. As someone said earlier no input from the maker never looks sharp.

 

[zag73]

Is there a prize? I can do better next time for sure! I am always out to win at what I do.

My mother always told me 2nd place is still a loser there is only one winner. So if you don't go for and get 1st place you are just a loser like all the rest. Hard fact but so true.








Thank you zag73 you were able to summarize my post in one sentence "Ultimately, it comes down to taking pride in your job/work."

You’re welcome. Nothing beats the feeling of achievement through putting your best into a given job / task and it bearing fruit.

 

[zag73]

That’s it mate. I have a no bullshit policy. Tell my clients the truth and if they go elsewhere then it’s not through my fault but choice. Plenty people seem to be getting poor service here. Weirdly I’m delighted with my boots classed as seconds but the way it was dealt with thereafter wasn’t special. As someone said earlier no input from the maker never looks sharp.

Best to be upfront with clients.? They may not like what they hear but they’ll respect you for being honest.

 

[stook1]

Shoes yes but let me answer your question. "However, you don't seem to be mentioning your employees at all."

When covid hit for this business all employees were laid off since most everything was closed. Then maybe you know about PPP so that was applied for in hopes to retain employees. This business was approved and as soon as it was called back all employees. Only 2 yes 2 were willing to return since everyone on unemployment was making an extra $600 per week. Seems many employees were making a killing on unemployment and did not want to come back to work. So yes I can trump someone getting sick with no one trained wants to return to work at all. So lucky there is one very Jr employees, one senior employee, and me. Hours of operation are 9am to 10pm 7 days a week very hard to cover with 3 people especially when at many times more than one is needed. I had no choice but to get my 17 year old son who was still in 12th grade remote school involved as much as possible and get my wife who was working full time remote involved. This was to help me and my senior employee not kill ourselves since we were putting in 80-100 hours weeks at the start. It was almost impossible to hire more employees as no one wanted to work since they were making so much on unemployment. We had no choice but to take what we could get and many did not work out because they could not put out the standard. It was very hard to fire them for doing a crap job since we were so tired but we have standards and they were not getting it. Before you ask yes we tried working side by side to train them some of the issues were more basic like showing up to work or showing up on time as in not hours late.

During this time we kept up our standards as we had so few customers we did not want anyone unhappy. It was good that we had the PPP to keep paying the employees with sales so low. But we kept going and we started to see new faces and they were coming back. Slowly people started to come outside and drive around and more people were coming and ordering online. Remember standards high = customers happy = return customers.

So guess what happen? We don't qualify for the new 2nd stimulus loans... you know why? 2020 sales are 23% higher than 2019 and we were closed part and almost no sales part of 2020. In fact current monthly sales are exceeding all historical months since this business opened in 2006. How about that building sales during the worst economic slump in recent history.

You know the secret? Very simple, happy customers who get what they ordered made to a standard of excellence.

Oh yea back to shoes. True I am not a shoe maker but if I was the manager at Carmina... I would be in the factory checking on shoes in production, checking on shoes as they were packed, doing the same thing I am doing now making sure what is going out the door is of our standards of quality so we have happy customers.

Even in the middle of a pandemic it is possible to maintain quality standards. Unless you have managers and owners that just don't care what they are pumping out the door. Also remember we here on this forum are a small number of Carmina's customers. We here have a large amount of messed up orders can you imagine the actual total number of bad orders. Yes it's much more than we are seeing here. The fact is no one at Carmina has been paying attention to what is going out the door or what is going on in the factory.

This is a time in history where a smaller company like Carmina can actually take customers from other shoe makers by providing a superior product. Yes it's true many companies are struggling to survive some have given up already. What does that mean? It means there are orphaned customers out there looking for a new company to do business with, anyone still in business should be actively trying to snatch them up.

Unfortunately it's not nice just a business fact that the times we are in are survival of the fittest. Many will probably fail and only some survive, just nature's way.

Lastly even if I was the CEO of Allen Edmonds you can bet your life on it, I would be in the factory checking on what is coming off the production line and going in boxes, and you can take that to the shoe bank.

@007Bond congrats on what sounds like a job well done in terms of growing your business during these difficult times... In the interest of further steering this thread FAR off course, I'd be curious to hear more about one detail you described. If you prefer to take it to PM that is fine as well. No judgment here but if you could comment more regarding the unemployment pay vs. work I'd be very curious to understand it better.

At the time when this was discussed in the media and from some politicians I deemed it to be "politics" and not a real world issue. Sounds like I was wrong and that this was a function of states (or employers, or both) having stingy min wage guarantees, which meant that the UE enhancement passed by congress meaningfully altered normal decision making for impacted employees. I can't recall the specifics of this program and I am not too familiar with UE in the first place so perhaps I am way off base. Really just curious about it since far out of the realm of my own experience.