When one door closes, another opens.
That’s been true for longtime entrepreneur Tom Luck, the CEO of Lucky Shoes, whose latest business venture was spurred by the closing of his SAS Comfort Shoes store in the Fairlawn Town Centre early this year.
In its place, Luck opened Vionic Shoes, which will celebrate its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9:45 a.m. Saturday.
Never heard of Vionic? That may be because Luck’s will be the brand’s first storefront in the United States.
Based in California, Vionic is a comfort shoe brand created by Australian podiatrist Phillip Vasyli, who developed the world’s first orthotic that could be distributed without a doctor’s prescription, according to the Vionic website.
Luck decided to close his SAS store in Fairlawn Jan. 1 this year, just four years after it opened in 2012.
“Most of our customers were coming in and buying the SAS shoes in Lucky Shoes,” said John Luck, Tom’s son and the president and merchandising manager of Lucky Shoes. “They were telling us they didn’t really need an SAS store, that what we carried in Lucky Shoes was a good enough selection.”
Luck needed something to take the place of the SAS store, which took up some of the 20,000 square feet of property he owns in the Fairlawn shopping complex.
New Balance remains the company’s best-selling brand, but with eight stores already, Luck decided to look instead to its fastest-growing brand: Vionic.
“Of all the brands we carry, that was the largest-selling sandal for women,” Tom Luck said. “It’s a natural fit. We’re in the business of comfort.”
Family business
Tom Luck’s been in the business of opening — and closing — shoe stores since 1973.
His grandfather, Joe Luck, founded the business in 1919 as a general goods store in Firestone Park. Once Tom Luck’s dad and uncle opened Lucky Shoes in Fairlawn in 1955, the shoe business stuck in the family.
Since Tom Luck came on board, he’s grown the company to include dozens of brands and 15 stores across Ohio — four Lucky Shoes, two Stride Rites, eight New Balances and, the newest, a Vionic.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneur,” said Luck. “It was kind of in my blood to have multiple [stores].”
His ventures haven’t always been successful. He bought a chain of women’s wide-width shoe stores in 1987, but he had to close four of the five stores by the following year. A number of Rockport stores over the years also proved a challenge, as he wound up remodeling most of them into New Balance stores. And just this year, Luck consolidated the New Balance at the Mall at Tuttle Crossing and the SAS in Fairlawn, taking two more stores from the equation.
For him, though, it’s just the way business goes.
“If people don’t make mistakes, they’re not doing anything,” he said.
The Vionic store, on the other hand, which had its soft opening March 18, is already showing promise. John Luck said business has been steady so far, with 15 pairs of shoes sold the first day and 40 sold the second day.
“The store is exceeding our expectations,” John Luck said. “It’s doing very well.”
Test site of sorts
Kate Nishimura, the public relations and content strategist at Vionic Group, said the store in Fairlawn will help determine whether the brand will expand to more locations in the U.S.
“It really seemed like a good way to gauge the success of this endeavor,” Nishimura said.
She said the store in Fairlawn is the first in the world to carry the brand’s full line of 150 styles of sandals, high heels, sneakers and flats.
The Vionic group spent weeks in the new store training employees on how to fit customers in the right shoes for their feet.
It fits well with Luck’s existing model, which already includes a fleet of full-time pedorthists who specialize in fitting customers with the right shoes and modifying orthotics in-store.
Grand opening event
Saturday’s grand opening celebration coincides with April Fools’ Day.
“And that’s no joke,” Tom Luck said with a laugh.
Gift bags will be available to the first 50 people, and community officials will be there to share a few words at a ribbon-cutting ceremony
If business does well at the Vionic store, there may be opportunity for expansion, Tom Luck said. With more than 40 years at Lucky Shoes under his belt, he said he wants to start pulling back a bit from work, but tearing away from the near 100-year-old family-owned business with new ventures underway is easier said than done.
“You never know,” he said.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom .