is placing your product where your customers are shopping.  Hush Puppies found that a glut of low-end slipper product was preventing it from gaining prominent store position in many department stores.  No department store distribution meant limited major mall distribution -- a significant retail issue during a 10-week selling season.

The solution:  establishment of a new major mall retail channel.  Jeff and the Wolverine Slipper Group created the Slipper Gift Store concept -- opening premium, temporary in-line slipper stores in major shopping malls throughout the United States.  Open from November 1 through mid-January, stores sold as many as 3,000 pairs of premium slippers, shearling boots and proprietary College Clogs.  Jeff conceived and spearheaded the project from research to store design, construction, product development, merchandising, logistics and financial pro formas.

Retailers and consumers embraced

the Slipper Gift Store concept.  Consumer research showed consumers were unhappy with low-end department store offerings and considered the stores "a goldmine."  Major retail partners in the footwear and hoiday channels partnered with Wolverine Slipper Group to open stores from Arizona to Pennsylvania, and Chicago to Denver to Texas.