Gaby was primarily in the business of making boots for other brand names

Tag : boots
To what does White attribute La Canadienne's success? "They startedwith great winter boots that were functional," says White. "Then Ithink Penny's personality and her love of fashion started gettingspread throughout the brand."
Sweeping across the factory floor in her white Emporio Armanijeans, outsized gold hoop earrings and feathery blonde hair,Shuster appears to be an unlikely leader of this enterprise. Andit's true that her background doesn't scream "shoe manufacturer.""Really," she says of her student days, "what are you going to dowith a master's in French Lit?"
The answer: You're going to start an- swering phones at GabyFootwear, the Montreal shoe factory in which your father--aLithuanian immigrant who brought the family to Montreal in 1974--isa partner. And before you know it, you're going to sign up for ashoe-design course in Milan. "I was 26. I had no troubles, no kids,no husband," says Shuster. Her long-term view at the time? "Ididn't think I was going to come back here."
Then came love, in the form of Gianni Lamanuzzi, an Italian from asmall town outside of Milan who-- kismet --had worked in a shoe factory. "When I was going to leave," saysShuster, "I said, why don't you come back with me?"
It was January, 1991, when Lamanuzzi arrived. Think snow. "I saidto him, don't worry. I have four-season tires. He said, 'What doyou mean, four-season?' To him, four-season was a pizza." By thespring of that year, they were married and had decided that if theywere going to work at Gaby, they wanted to invest. Together, theybought a one-third interest.
"It was a very different company," recalls Shuster. "They didn'thave a sales force, they didn't have an administrator, they didn'thave a comptroller...I bought the first fax machine." Gaby was primarily in the business of making boots for other brand names.Shuster saw a dead end. "It became more and more difficult to sellour product at the same price," she says, as other manufacturersmoved offshore. Think China. "It seemed that, every year, peoplewanted it cheaper. We decided that either we were going to buildour brand, or we would not survive."
A small part of the business was Gaby's own line, La Canadienne."The problem was, we were in the B stores," says Shuster gingerly."We needed to break into stores that could sell at a higher pricepoint." Shuster hired a sales force and went aggressively after theU.S. market, with the upscaled La Canadienne brand and itsmade-in-Canada identity.
There was a lot of knocking on doors. "I could name them all,"Shuster says of the companies that rejected her pitch. "'I don'tneed you for that. I'm already covered.' It was always the samething."
But Shuster was offering something distinctive. She picks up a shoelast, the foot form that is the heart of shoemaking. The lasts aremade in Italy. The hides are waterproofed and sourced there, aswell. Wee buttons--a single boot accessory can run to $4wholesale--are also Italian-made. Shuster's point: that she hastaken no shortcuts in the sourcing or the manufacture of her boots."China..." she starts to say, and then stops herself. "Don't get megoing." Later, she will add of her own operation: "It's responsibleconsumption. I'm not an activist."
Five years ago, Shuster and Lamanuzzi became sole owners of PenshuInc. (Penny + Shuster), purveyors of the La Canadienne brand. "Irun design, administration, sales, marketing...everything that yousee, basically," says Shuster. "Gianni runs the factory,production, the sourcing of raw materials. We complete each other."
The couple reshaped the collection, which today extends fromtop-of-the-line shearlings to stylish, urban, almost kitten-heeledleather boots. "I think our consumer is someone like me," saysShuster, now the mother of two sons. "She's running around. She'sgot a career. She's busy." She seeks comfort without compromisingfashion. Shuster believes the company has delivered that with itsboot line. "The struggle," she says, "was to become a 12-monthresource." In her factory showroom, Shuster displays a petite pumpwith a low heel named, fittingly, "the Urban," launched last fall."This is our introduction to a business that's 12 months a year,"she says.
The Urban is Italian-made. "The Montreal factory is good at doingwhat's on the shelves," says Shuster, referring to the vast arrayof boots and a smattering of shoes that line the showroom walls.The floor is a riot of candy-coloured, patent-leather cork-heeledsandals, all of them made in Italy expressly for Shuster, anddestined for Canadian and U.S. shops next spring.
If La Canadienne can be seen to be taking a gamble, this is it. Toshowcase its new 12-months-a-year identity, the company last fallopened an airy retail space on Laurier Avenue on the lip of thePlateau. "We get the lady from Outremont; we have the student girlswho live on the Plateau," says Shuster, showing off her retailjewel with its vast arched windows, an espresso bar imported fromItaly and piped-in music to what must be the prettiest lavatory inany Canadian shoe shop. "We have a voice now, direct to theconsumer."
The company is sourcing leather handbags and cashmere scarves--allItalian-made--to plump up the retail offering. Shuster tosses anOrylag-trimmed, gossamer-thin scarf about her shoulders, lookingtrès chic. "We're like the little turtle going up the hill,"she says of the adventure she and Lamanuzzi have embarked upon. "Wehope there's no big mudslide."
Jennifer Wells is a writer with Report on Business and can be reached at jwells@globeandmail.com