Boots for Kicks : Buena Park Plant's Fancy Footwear Has Found a Niche

By DAN MARGOLIS

July 24, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BUENA PARK —

Tony Adams Jr. was a shoe manufacturer with a problem. His family-owned business, Cypress Footwear Inc., was getting kicked around in the highly competitive footwear market. It expanded from sandals into walking shoes a few years ago and that helped a bit, but the family still found it tough to go head-to-head against foreign competitors.

He needed a new line.

“I looked for niches, voids to fill,” said Adams, 38, president of the 75-person manufacturing company with $1 million in sales last year. “If you stop listening to your market, you stop growing.”

Adams finally found his niche thumbing through magazines with names like Skin Too, Bizarre, Marquis and Easy Riders.

“My wife started asking me ‘What are you getting into?’ ” he said. “I thought she was going to shoot me.”

But business is business. Earlier this year, Adams started designing boots, thigh-high jobs with simulated leopard skin, clear vinyl--even some with chrome and steel padlocks. The new risque line, available in size 3 to size 16 and retailing for up to $500 a pair, was marketed for people who want to accessorize their sexual fantasies.

Business is booming--revenue is up 35% compared with a year ago.

“It’s definitely the fastest-growing part of the company,” said Adams, a former JCPenney manager who started the company with his father, Tony Sr., in 1986. “Being a manufacturer, you have to move on a dime, or you’re out of business.”

Shoemakers in the United States are increasingly being squeezed by importers. By the end of last year, imports accounted for 89% of the non-rubber shoes sold in this country, according to Footwear Industries of America, a trade group based in Washington. About 62% of the shoes come from China, where the average labor rate is 50 cents per hour, compared to $7 here.

“It’s hard for American manufacturers to compete in such a labor-intensive industry,” said John Burnham, an economic analyst for Footwear Industries. “U.S. companies are known for their quality, so the only opportunities are the mid and upper segments of the market.”

Feeling the pinch, Adams decided that specialty boots were an area that hadn’t been overexposed, especially by American shoe companies.

The English, Germans and Italians were the only ones making the boots, but with the dollar’s low value, he could significantly undercut the Europeans’ share.

In addition, customers who buy from Europe have to wait up to six months to receive an order, according to Jeanette Luther, owner of Versatile Fashions, an Orange retailer and client of Cypress Footwear.

“This fetish footwear has never been available in this country,” said Luther, who expects more than $1 million in revenue this year, 25% from boot sales. “If you have to tell a customer they have to wait half a year, you often lose the sale.”

Luther, who prefers the nom de theatre Ms. Antoinette, said that 75% of the boot buyers used to be men. But in the past year, women became more comfortable buying the shoes. They now account for about half her footwear orders.

Boot fetish aficionados are by no means only go-go dancers or models, says Nan Nasbitt, director of operations for Fantasy Lingerie, the top buyer of Cypress Footwear’s new exotic line. The Fountain Valley retailer markets through its catalogue and showroom.

“CEOs of major corporations, political officials and a reverend and his Mrs. are all regular clients,” said Nasbitt, who is Cypress Footwear’s top buyer. She declined to name these patrons.

“I like his quality better than the Europeans’ and it comes without their attitude,” she said. “He also is much more responsive to our ideas for new designs.”

Cypress Footwear’s gamble indeed has paid off. Adams’ South Gate and San Fernando factories are running at full capacity.

The company’s boots are crafted by hand and are assembled with only American materials, a source of pride for Adams. The shoemaker says his primary market is California but notes that his East Coast and international clientele are increasing.

His best seller? A black leather, thigh-high lace up, with 5-inch stiletto heels that retails for $400.

He says he might start making leather whips in the future--if there is a demand.

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Cypress Footwear at a Glance

* Founded: 1986

* Headquarters: Buena Park

* Chief executive officer: Tony Adams Sr.

* President and designer: Tony Adams Jr.

* Employees: 75

* 1994 revenue: $1 million

* Products: Fantasy, oversize, sandal and walking shoes

* Manufacturing sites: San Fernando, South Gate