BY LEE ZION
Staff Writer
These boots were made for walking. Really.
Three local Red Wing Shoes outlets are finding a new way to get new customers to try their work boots , by bringing the shoes out to where the customers are.
The local Red Wing outlets premieres their mobile footwear service June 1. A delivery truck roughly the size of a United Parcel Service van carries more than 400 pairs of Red Wing and Worx shoes, and can travel to any work site in the county, said Charles Spiegel, manager of the program.
Once the truck arrives, the Red Wing staff sets up chairs, fitting equipment and signs. Each truck can handle three customers at a time, he said.
The three Red Wing stores , in El Cajon, Escondido and National City , respond to inquiries from employers, who select which shoes they wish to make available, and agree to allow a payroll deduction for employees to pay for the shoes. Once the contract is settled, the shoes roll out, Spiegel said.
Two other Red Wing stores in San Diego County , in Oceanside and Clairemont , do not directly participate in the program. But if an employer interested in the mobile service is located near one of those two stores, Spiegel works with them in splitting the take.
Red Wing already offers the mobile service in other areas of the country, but this is the first time it’s been utilized here. Previously, the closest such service was in Burbank, Spiegel said.
Due to that long distance and the size of the trucks , in Los Angeles, the delivery vehicles are twice as large , Red Wings would have had to sell a prohibitive number of shoes just to break even. But now that the San Diego stores have their own truck, the cost of the delivery service is now considerably less, he said.
Red Wing Shoes is based in Red Wing, Minn. The company has been selling work shoes since 1905.
