A small Irvine maker of novelty shoes is targeting a generation of fickle consumers used to customizing the look of everything from iPods to cars.
Startup Zipz System makes shoes with interchangeable tops that zip on and off so they can be changed to fit what you’re wearing or the mood you’re in.
The shoes are sold in boutiques such as Urban Feet in San Pedro, as well as in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Canada and Japan.
“They’ve been selling pretty well,” said Robert Arreaga, an assistant manager at Urban Feet, which carries the kids line of Zipz as well as other shoes, clothes and skateboards. “The girls really like it because they can match the shoes with their outfits.”
Zipz shoes are set to be in Bloomingdales in Manhattan in summer, according to founder and Chairman Jerry Stefani, who runs the business with his son, Chief Executive John Stefani.
A line of custom designs and packaging are in the works for teen girls store Justice, the elder Stefani said.
Whether Zipz can move beyond curiosity is the challenge for the young company, which projects $2 million in sales this year. So far the shoes seem to click with kids, but whether adults buy into them remains to be seen.
Starting a shoe company—let alone one with zip tops—is off Stefani’s beaten career path.
He earlier had his own flooring business. He also had a carpet making business he later sold. Instead of retiring, Stefani opted to start Zipz after talking with a friend.
The conversation went something like this: She asked Stefani, who was importing and ex-porting at the time, if he’d consi-der making something and suggested girls shoes, mentioning that “parents always buy their little girls a ton of shoes.”
He said he woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for Zipz. In 2004, he formed the company.
It’s been a long process getting to this point, Stefani said.
The first step was to see if such a product even was feasible, he said. Holding a shoe together with a zipper—which just about everyone’s had break on pants and jackets—was an early design challenge.
The company went to Japan’s YKK Corp., which has operations in Anaheim, to develop a special zipper for the shoe. It’s made of a stronger material that’s resistant to breaking and rusting, Stefani said, and was tested under the added stress of the foot.
“People think it’s just a shoe with a zipper on it,” Stefani said. “The zipper has to match exactly and have the right zipper tooth count. There’s an exact science to it.”
Zipz first started with five styles for kids, including shoes that laced up. The company ran focus groups with men, women and even nonprofit Girls Inc. of Newport Beach to get input and gauge interest.
“They loved it,” Stefani said. “That was the starting point for us. We then went forward developing the brand, getting into styles, colors and patterns.”
Shoe Styles
The shoes are basic styles, like those from Vans Inc. or Nike Inc.’s Converse. They have arch support and a protective band around the zipper to prevent “foot rubbing.”
A pair sells for $39 to $59. One box comes with one pair of soles and two pairs of tops. Soles and tops also can be bought separately.
The Cali Classic line features two styles for kids and three for teens and adults: a high-top, low-top and zip or slip-on. Kids shoes come with two types of Velcro straps.
Soles come in black, white and a two-tone, black-white combo. Tops have prints such as a bandana pattern or camouflage, or designs with skulls, flames, dragons or roses.
They’re all designed in Irvine and made in China. A typical production cycle, anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 pairs of shoes, takes about 45 days. Zipz has 15 distributors that cover 40 countries.
The company is working on a new line, dubbed Black Alley, with designs by Huntington Beach car retrofitter Rich Evans.
Black Alley designs are set to be darker, edgier and target skaters, surfers and others.
Other designs using cowhide and other animal prints are in the works. Yetiz, a sheep skin boot that will come in ankle, mid-top and high-top designs, is due out in winter.
Investment
The Stefanis have invested about $2 million in the company and raised $1 million from friends, family and others. Zipz has been approached by venture capitalists, Stefani said, but is waiting to see how first-year sales go.
“It’s hard to hand the business over like that,” he said. “They want a majority. We are taking our time to get the right people in the company.”
Zipz won $70,000 in business services last year in a contest staged by Tech Coast Angels, a group of angel investors across Southern California with its roots in Orange County.
The company has four full-time workers and 15 contractors. It contracts with Sourcing Resource Group Inc., which has relationships with factories in Asia, to handle production of the shoes.
Irvine-based Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP handles all the patents on Zipz. The company and its law firm have gone after knockoffs, according to Stefani.
Retailers in other countries have taken to the shoes, but it’s been tougher here with the retail downturn, he said.
Store buyers have been “afraid to take on a new product that hasn’t been branded,” Stefani said.
This year is looking better than 2008 and 2009, he said.
Gomez is a former Business Journal editor and freelancer based in Long Beach.
