The shoe store in Ackerman is back. Only this time, it’s
under a different name.
Though the new store won’t open until June, signs
announcing Shoe City’s arrival have already been placed in
front of the former Copeland Sports section of the UCLA Store.
Shoe City will replace Copeland Sports, which operated in the
UCLA Store for four years, but ended its lease in order to expand
to a larger store format and be closer to its home base in San Luis
Obispo.
After approaching such stores as Big 5, The Sports Authority,
Sports L.A. and Chick’s Sporting Goods in the search to find
a replacement athletic shoe store, Associated Students UCLA
officials came to an agreement with the Southern California-based
Shoe City.
The proposal and decision came to the ASUCLA Board of Directors
in late February.
Most of the other companies ASUCLA spoke to wanted a larger
space than the 4,200 square feet the UCLA Store had to offer,
ranging from a desired 10,000 to 30,000 square feet, said Rich
Delia, chief financial officer for ASUCLA.
But Shoe City, which has a chain of 27 stores in Southern
California, is accustomed to smaller venues.
Delia said Shoe City will begin to move into the UCLA Store
after ASUCLA recarpets the area, which should take a few days. He
estimates the work will start the first week of May.
He said Shoe City will offer a wide range of athletic brands,
including Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Vans, New Balance and Puma. The
merchandise will total 95 percent in shoes and 5 percent in sports
apparel. But Shoe City will not offer any sports gear, such as
sports equipment and skateboards that Copeland provided.
ASUCLA hopes Shoe City will do better in sales than Copeland did
by focusing on shoes, rather than extra merchandise, Delia
said.
“Copeland didn’t do well selling skateboards,
sunglasses, sandals and some swim attire. Their sales weren’t
as good as they would have liked it,” Delia said.
“With Copeland, 80 percent of the sales was shoes, 20
percent was athletic gear. With Shoe City, 95 percent of sales will
be shoes, so we think they’ll do better by focusing on
that,” he said. “They have a wide variety of brands and
offer a very good price.”
But students have expressed regret about the loss of a sports
gear option.
Zander Chemers, a first-year law student, said that the few
times he shopped at Copeland he bought sports gear, such as his
football, not shoes.
“I think (Shoe City) will probably go out of business.
Athletic gear is better than shoes. You can go anywhere else to buy
shoes, so why would you come here?” he said.
Jennie Shih, a fourth-year mathematics student, said she thought
more students bought athletic gear than shoes.
“Copeland might be better, since there’s more
variety because of athletic gear,” she said.
Delia said ASUCLA hopes Shoe City will provide both a service
for the students and a financial return for the UCLA Store.
One financial change involved in the replacement regards Shoe
City’s commission contract.
Shoe City will pay ASUCLA a commission according to a climbing
rate, unlike Copeland, which paid commission at a flat rate of 12
percent of all sales.
According to the climbing rate, Shoe City will pay 10 percent of
sales up to $1 million, 11 percent of sales up to $2 million, and
12 percent of sales beyond that.
ASUCLA chose to negotiate a different commission rate with Shoe
City in an attempt to help out Shoe City’s sales in the
beginning stages, Delia said.
“We thought (the climbing) rate would work better with
(Shoe City), since they’re initially starting off. And if
they’re successful then we can better share in that
success,” he said.