Cultural Geography- Stiletto Heel
Kayla Orrell Punter
Stiletto Heels
During the 16th century, European royalty started wearing high-heeled shoes to make them look taller or larger than life, such as Catherine de Medici or Mary I of England. By 1580, men also wore them, and a person with authority or wealth was often referred to as "well-heeled".
Stiletto High Heels
"Hooker heels"
Jimmy Choo Heels
Jimmy Choo Corporation Process
Jimmy Choo operates a lean and flexible supply chain outsourcing production and logistics to gain flexibility and speed in bringing products to market. Those elements which protect the brand are owned and managed by Jimmy Choo, including quality, vendor liaison and product development which are managed through Studio Luxury S.r.l., which was acquired by Jimmy Choo on 5 August 2014. Jimmy Choo produces over one million units per annum in its supply chain. Materials research and sourcing, product development, engineering, production planning and control, quality assurance, as well as customer service and after sales are all controlled by Jimmy Choo.
In order to produce luxury shoes with a high quality finish, Jimmy Choo partners with suppliers with the specific skill sets to match each particular shoe style. Accordingly, Jimmy Choo’s products are produced by specialists in the Florence and Veneto regions of Italy, with the exception of espadrilles, which are made in Spain. In addition to providing specialist skills, this multi-supplier strategy provides scalability, flexibility and speed to market, as well as diversifying risk. This model enables the Group to drive gross margin improvement through early deliveries of new collections and inventory control resulting in lower markdowns.
Jimmy Choo’s online infrastructure was re-launched in November 2013, with a new flexible and powerful platform to enable the roll out of online sites in new countries while retaining a core backbone to deliver excellent customer service. The Jimmy Choo online store represents Jimmy Choo’s largest single DOS within the retail segment.
More importantly, our online presence provides a powerful route to engage with new potential clients and for clients to begin a purchase process which may be completed in one of Jimmy Choo’s boutiques. As Jimmy Choo invests in supply chain infrastructure to move towards an integrated omnichannel model, the online platform will increase the integration within the retail channel.
We expect to benefit from our systems and logistics investment, which includes: continued development of the online platform, new point of sales infrastructure, a new centralised warehouse, SAP implementation and product lifecycle management, many of which are already in place and virtually all of which have become operational with the opening of our Swiss warehouse in March 2015. These new investments will significantly enhance service and product availability, streamline inventory management and improve our operating margin.
Choo Success and Distribution
Jimmy Choo has successful and effective distribution networks with significant opportunity for expansion. In addition, Jimmy Choo benefits from having a balanced multi-channel distribution network with our retail DOS network at the core.
Jimmy Choo has a particularly strong presence in EMEA, USA and Japan, with a growing footprint in the rest of Asia. The Group has experienced strong growth in recent years across all of these markets. 2014 has been a particularly transformational year for our DOS network, as we launched our new store concept, continued the store roll-out and began a comprehensive renovation program of our existing portfolio. By the end of 2014, we had 125 DOS, of which 15 were in the new store concept. See page 17 for the progress we have made in our retail network.
As part of our DOS strategy, the Group has invested significantly in our online platform, which has experienced strong revenue growth in recent years. This investment, together with the broader investments in the supply chain, is expected to result in the Group being able to provide an omni-channel client offering in the medium term.
The Group continues to benefit from our strong multi-brand distribution offering, which provides attractive economics and acts as a lead indicator of collection success and a benchmark against competitors. The Group’s franchise channel acts as an important entry model into new markets. These serve as a potential springboard to expanding the DOS network once the new region has become established. This has already been demonstrated by successful joint venture (“JV”) and franchise buyouts in Japan, Hong Kong and China between 2011 and 2013.