AllenEdmondsCEO

Sorry. I don't like to comment so directly on competitors -- I have friends at both places in high spots. There are a bunch of folks you can ask about the differences. Stop by a store and compare.

There's a return to valuing quality and authentictiy these days, especially among younger people. I spoke at a business school class last night and there were a large number of people wearing our shoes.

We WILL stay on our path of American jobs creation, manufacturing, quality tied with great service (thanks for your comments about Deb in CS). Our business is growing each year. We're definitely going to make it by staying on this path. We work everyday to live up to our tagline -- AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL.

I'm a huge fan of our StyleForum friends. The reasons we discontinued the practice I outlined there in detail, but basically, we were losing money on many of the shoes due to their high level of complexity. However, we have made it up to the group by continuing to waive the fees on Group Made to Orders. We're on our fourth such shoe for the group and over 80 requests, I think. So we're continuing the practice in a more sustainable way. Thanks for asking.

Definitely! From her height, I assume her shoe size is at least a women's 7 and we can definitely fit her. A lot of women wear our shoes, especially with pants.

We didn't need to introduce AE to the Presidents. They already knew about us and I think it started earlier than RR, but we don't have any specific confirmation of that. (You can see our shoes on the LBJ character in the movie "THE BUTLER" though. Forrest Whitaker is a big customer.) The current Prime Minister of Canada is a huge fan -- he sent a letter to me that we have on our wall in the factory. We also have letters from Reagan, Bush I, Bush II and Clinton (I?) -- so we're doggedly bipartisan. Over the Bush years, we had a great relationship with the President's valet.