Kirby Allison: Affiliate thread

[kirbya]



Hey Kirby, any word on how the Foster slippers are going? Any updates on ETA?

We have six pairs of the non-monogrammed slippers that are ready to ship. Not sure where yours fall. Monogrammed ones won't be ready until late January, and it seems that the navy cashmere fabric is out of stock, so we're having to have more woven. Send me an email or PM and I'll get you a full update.

If anyone else wants in, we can work you into the production, but delivery might just be a little late.

 

[IronStyle]

How would you differentiate the purposes if at all between the yak brush and lambswool polishing mitt? They sound like they are both perfect for a final buff/dust off before and after the day. Thoughts on how to use differently or do they achieve the same result?

 

[chogall]

What are you guys talking about? We have FREE SHIPPING on any shoe care order over $75 and FREE SHIPPING on al orders over $125. We changed this exactly because of that feedback.

We also have flat rate shipping. One item is just $7. Everything shipped via FedEx. We ditched USPS because of lost packages and high breakage. When **** breaks, customer doesn't bear that cost. We do. So we made a business decision earlier this year to abandon USPS because reships were super high.

Can someone give an example? Because I'm a little lost in this conversation.

$75 worth of Shoecare products is a lot for anyone just buying replacements or incremental products a couple times a year.

Didn't know about USPS breakage issue. Didn't experience any except for international purchases where air cargo pressure sometimes cause leakage.

$11 for a 50ml tin of wax. $7 promotional shipping, or $12 FedEx home delivery. That's a total cost of $18 ~ $23 on my end for a 50ml tin of wax.

I am very liberal in terms of product usage, and even then, I've only gone through one 100ml tin of black wax purchased in '07...

Quote:
Using fulfillment services?

Well, if for $3 you are shopping somewhere else, I would exactly say that you are "supporting ASW affiliates." The challenge for me, as someone who earns his living selling this stuff, is that the economics become very difficult when StyleForum members are offered 10% Off and Free Shipping on items that don't cost much. For just $40 of polish, I'm essentially losing money offering 10% off and Free FedEx shipping.

I really try to be reasonable with our shipping. Just recently we began globally offering free shipping on all products. But there has to be a minimum in order for it to make sense for us also. We've added flat-rate shipping for people who are just looking to buy one, two, or three items, and we are working on adding even further discounted shipping for tiny things like shoe laces, collar stays, etc. (aka. things that can easily be shipped in a padded envelope).

And in addition to all of this, we try to support the community through things like Shoe Shine Guides, Shoe Shine Sunday, prizes, traveling to New York for the trunk shoe, etc. etc.

What's the code?

IMO, shipping cost really puts your shop at a disadvantage for one-off orders like a tin of navy wax or a jar of renovatuer...

p.s., The marketing efforts such as your guides/blogs, prizes/contests, etc are for your inbound marketing and SEO, and trunk shows are outbound marketing. Not to be commingled with your costs of good sold.

 

[chogall]

How would you differentiate the purposes if at all between the yak brush and lambswool polishing mitt? They sound like they are both perfect for a final buff/dust off before and after the day. Thoughts on how to use differently or do they achieve the same result?

Lady's nylon stockings > polishing mitt > yak brush IME

 

[kirbya]



Lady's nylon stockings > polishing mitt > yak brush IME

That's a good way to put it. The Yak Hair brush is much more dense than the polishing mitt. You can really get into the shoe with the Yak Hair to buff it. All this is on the margin, but it's a nice finishing and refinishing brush. We'll post a video in next week's Shoe Shine Sunday. Maybe we'll raffle away a Yak Hair brush to those that PARTICIPATE next week!

This Sunday, @gothamred is going to post a Shoe Shine Sunday bout mirror finishing.

Using fulfillment services?

The Canada program is fulfilled directly from our warehouse in Dallas. We consolidate three times a week, ship to Canada, clear customs, and then drop the packages into the domestic Canadian Post distribution network. It takes a few days longer than normal Canada Post (transit time from Dallas to Canada), but we're able to offer killer rates, duties are included in pricing, and packages deliver straight to your door without having to fuss with paying customs to the Post Office. So far, people seem to be pretty happy with it.

What's the code?

IMO, shipping cost really puts your shop at a disadvantage for one-off orders like a tin of navy wax or a jar of renovatuer...

p.s., The marketing efforts such as your guides/blogs, prizes/contests, etc are for your inbound marketing and SEO, and trunk shows are outbound marketing.  Not to be commingled with your costs of good sold.

Yes, if we quoted everything on a one-off basis, then we could certainly arrive at better shipping rates. Wax tins, we could try to ship in padded envelopes. But then when customs receive them and the lid is a little bent or the thing on the side is broken off, they complain (rightfully), and we end up having to (1) pay for a return to get damaged product back and (2) reship. That's not even including lost shipments and customer dissatisfaction with the lack of tracking visibility and when the post office doesn't deliver as promised. All of that = bad customer service and complaints to us.

I hate shipping. I totally understand that as an Internet Retailer, it is the primary barrier to purchase. Amazon has ruined it for us little guys. If we were only selling expensive small things (like gloves, pocket squares, etc.), it would be very easy to just offer free shipping on everything. But we can't make money charging $4 to ship a $11 50 ml tin of shoe polish in a padded envelope via USPS. And we certainly couldn't do it while offering a high level of customer service.

There is no question that we lose out on the customers that just need to buy one thing of Reno or one thing of wax polish. But, for a few dollars more ($7 vs $4), we'll ship it to you in a nice box via FedEx so that it arrives quickly and without breaking or damaging. And if that does happen, we can afford to replace product no questions asked (because it doesn't happen all that often).

On a side note, breakage and lost packages is the reason that we completely stopped shipping internationally via USPS. My customer service girls were spending hours on the phone with USPS some weeks trying to track down lost international packages... And from the customer's perspective, it's always our fault (not the Post Office), when something doesn't show up.

Lady's nylon stockings > polishing mitt > yak brush IME

The 10% Discount Code is SF10. We're going to begin including it in our banners.

 

[kirbya]

Some pictures of our new Merola gloves:

We now have over 25 different styles of Merola gloves available through The Hanger Project! The unlined nappa leather golf and shooting gloves are absolutely incredible. Probably the most comfortable of them all.

And it's nice to finally add some warm cashmere-lined gloves just in time for the cold weather we are expecting here in Texas...

 

[MSchapiro]



Lady's nylon stockings > polishing mitt > yak brush IME

Can you expand on this a bit?

 

[ThinkDerm]



Lady's nylon stockings > polishing mitt > yak brush IME

so true. Yak is very incremental over anything else.

 

[dddrees]

​

Can you expand on this a bit?

You can only go so far with a brush of any kind.. Your always going to get much better results with a cloth or nylon stocking. It's not much different than waxing a car. You don't use a brush when buffing or shining your car do you?

 

[MSchapiro]

You can only go so far with a brush of any kind.. Your always going to get much better results with a cloth or nylon stocking. It's not much different than waxing a car. You don't use a brush when buffing or shining your car do you?

My car is a little past the buffing and shinning stages of its life .

 

[kirbya]

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALS

Gentlemen - this year we are running Black Friday specials on both The Hanger Project and A Suitable Wardrobe. The Black Friday deals are product-specific discounts + Free U.S. and Canadian Ground Shipping on all orders without a minimum. We will be running Cyber Monday specials beginning Sunday... stay tuned here or make sure you're subscribed to our Newsletter to receive the details! Happy deal hunting!

 

[kirbya]

P.S. We'll be hosing Shoe Shine Sunday here on Sunday... this weekend, we'll be raffling away a Yak Hair Polishing Brush to one participant!

 

[heldentenor]

First time sharing in a Shoe Shine Sunday, and it's on a rather somber note: a colleague passed away last week, and his funeral services are tomorrow. That means breaking out the rarely worn black captoes. They were in pretty fair shape, but there were a couple of light scuffs on the toe, the edges needed a bit of attention, and their general appearance was dull. While I prefer a medium gloss to a mirror shine, I wanted to restore a bit of life to these.

Step one: vigorous brushing with my daily care brush to remove dust and warm up the leather:



Step two: using my fingers, I applied a light coat of Saphir Renovateur. After letting it dry for a couple of minutes, I buffed it with the unused side of a cotton chamois cloth and then brushed it with my neutral polishing brush. I also used the Reno to dress the sole edges.



Step three: using Saphir high gloss wax, I applied an initial coat, buffed it with a chamois cloth, and brushed vigorously. As you can (hopefully) see, the result was rather matte, even for my tastes.


Step four: elbow grease. Using a clean, slightly damp portion of the chamois, I worked the shoe over several times, adding a couple of drops of water every two minutes or so. After about ten minutes, the shoes ended up in this state, which is how I prefer them. While I appreciate a good mirror on the toebox, it's a bit flashy for me. One final brush with my cleaning brush, and they are ready to wear tomorrow.

 

[GothamRed]

First time sharing in a Shoe Shine Sunday, and it's on a rather somber note: a colleague passed away last week, and his funeral services are tomorrow. That means breaking out the rarely worn black captoes. They were in pretty fair shape, but there were a couple of light scuffs on the toe, the edges needed a bit of attention, and their general appearance was dull. While I prefer a medium gloss to a mirror shine, I wanted to restore a bit of life to these.

Thanks for contributing, especially given the circumstances — condolences.

 

[GothamRed]

Welcome Back!
​

Welcome back to Shoe Shine Sunday, this time with a holiday edition focused on the "mirror shine," complete with video.

Saphir Pommadier Cream Polish in Light Brown, Neutral
Saphir Pate de Luxe Wax Polish in Medium Brown, Neutral
Saphir Chamois Cloth
Hi-Shine Water Dispenser
Ovangkol Sciuscià Brush
Leather Shoe Shine Carpet
Cotton Pads

I've posted details on the "mirror shine" in the past and many people have their own special process, so I won't go through my process here in a step-by-step post. Instead, we thought that some videos of the process might help all of you a bit more. The videos are broken into three (3) phases, each of which phase has a normal and an accelerated video: (1) preparation; (2) cream; and (3) wax. I stopped a bit short of total completion on this one, in part to get these videos to render and upload...but while there is about another half-hour of waxing to be done on this pair, there's no difference in technique or material for that last bit from what is represented here.

The most important point and the most common tip I give is that less (much, much less) is more when it comes to applying the wax. Quite literally, I simply place my chamois or cotton pad on the wax with very little pressure and turn the chamois / pad very slightly — that's it (over and over again, rinse and repeat).

As always, feel free to post any and all questions — I will answer them!

Preparation

Normal

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Cream

Normal

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Wax

Normal (this one is long, HD still processing)

4x


The Whole Enchilada

Normal (this one is long, HD still processing)​

4x​