“I never anticipated [it]. I knew the market would come back quickly. I’m just amazed at how quickly.”For Cohen, the bottom hit in December. Since then, “somebody turned on a switch because our activity went from zero to Ugg Boots 60 in four seconds. It was unbelievable. The retailers started to see, from Thanksgiving on, that people were shopping again,” he said.But with the economic recovery uncertain, there is still opportunity for deal making, especially for firms that want to enter new cities for the first time.“I’ve never seen landlords more willing to find solutions that will help their tenants and themselves. [There’s] a lot more creativity in deals, and many more newcomers willing to take a chance on succeeding in New York,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing at Prudential Douglas Elliman. “I’m looking forward to a very exciting market, to see new retail concepts at all price points going forward in the next year to 18 Ugg Slippers months.”Retailers often are getting longer leases at rents 20 percent to 25 percent lower than average, she said. They also are getting help with store buildouts and receiving more rent-free time to complete construction. “There’s a lot of negotiating room, and this is the right time to make deals,” Consolo said.In a recent KPMG and National Retail Federation Foundation survey of 310 retail executives, 37 percent of participants said they are planning moderate to aggressive expansion in 2010. And a recent Uggs On Sale Colliers International Retail Trends & Opportunities report said that while commercial real estate and sales activity in 2009 was down by as much as 70 percent, in 2010 “decision makers are back, [the] leasing market will improve and investment activity will increase steadily.”Footwear designer Thierry Rabotin, for example, is planting his feet stateside for the first time with a New York location opening May 1. The two-level, 1,550-sq.-ft. store at 1138 Third Ave. will be the brand’s third shop, following sites in Paris and Antwerp, Belgium.According to Karl Schlect, president of the Italy-based company, the timing couldn’t be better to bow a store due to the reasonable rents in the city.“We didn’t want to open it for advertising alone,” said Schlect. “We wanted it to be a [financially successful] store.” A further advantage of the location was that many of Rabotin’s customers reside in the neighborhood.Other newcomers to the U.S. market are also in a position to cash in on good deals.“These are brands that Ugg Outlet have 80, 90 to 200 stores across an entire country or section of Europe. … They have a good reputation and [are known], which make them very attractive in the U.S.,” said Naveen Jaggi, senior managing director at CB Richard Ellis.Some established U.S. retailers are also on the expansion trail.Randy Ochart, owner of the newly opened, 1,800-sq.-ft. French Sole Comfort store on Lexington Avenue in New York, called himself a real estate opportunist. “I was actively looking for something,” he said. “Because the market seemed so soft and a lot of people were running scared, I did get a very good deal and [a location] I would not have gotten in the last 10 years. … It’s a great time Ugg Boots Sale to get a long-term deal from a landlord.”Ochart added that he got “the perfect spot” partly because it is near his two other stores, a flagship and an outlet. He also said he saved 30 percent from what he normally would have paid for rent and got some free time to build out the store.Another U.S.-based retailer, Bakers Footwear Group Inc., also debuted a store in Manhattan late last month. Though the shop, at 509 Fifth Ave., opened because Bakers’ lease on its prior flagship store on 34th Street ran out and “renewal rates were unaffordable,” President and CEO Peter Edison said he still secured favorable rent and concessions. There were also “plenty of options” for specific locations, he said.“We http://www.uggbootsoutletinc.com were able to negotiate a wonderful deal,” Edison said. “The rents were down from what they would have been two years ago, but higher than they might have been six months ago. We didn’t catch it at the bottom.”The firm is taking advantage of the softer real estate market in another way, too. Instead of closing mall stores due to its own ongoing liquidity constraints, “we’re negotiating better leases and in return keeping stores open for [the mall owners]. They like tenancy and lights on. So we’re staying in stores that we might otherwise have closed, and they are doing things for us relating to lower occupancy costs,” Edison said.In New York, specifically, the market has returned to near 2007 Cheap Ugg Boots levels, said Joanne Podell, EVP at Cushman & Wakefield.“The New York market stabilized several months ago,” she said. “In certain areas, rents are going up and there’s more competition for space.”
Throughout his nearly 15-year career, Ryan Ringholz has designed adult footwear for some of the biggest brands in the business, from Puma to New Balance. But when he became a father for the first time, Ringholz found himself taking a hard look at the children’s market.“I looked at the product out there for kids, and I wanted to see more. There is this pervasive strategy in the kids’ shoe business of ‘shrink it and pink it,’” he said. “I felt there was something missing from the market, and I Cheap Uggs was in a unique position as a designer to do something about it.”After two years of product development, Ringholz created Plae, a casual, athletic-inspired collection, set to launch this spring. According to the San Francisco-based designer, the brand is meant to embody childhood and family. “There are great adult brands like Patagonia and Lululemon that paint a lifestyle and are all about community and being active. But in the kids’ space, there is no active lifestyle brand that represents what it means to be a kid and to be a family — playing and moving and spending time together,” Ringholz said. “That’s what Plae is about.”The collection, available in sizes 8 to 3, focuses on simple silhouettes, including low-profile sneakers Ugg Boots Outlet and sporty Mary Jane shoes, that feature brightly colored, interchangeable straps. Priced from $50 to $65, each shoe comes with a pair of matching straps. Additional straps, offered in a range of colors, prints and materials, can be purchased for $5.“With kids’ footwear, there are two consumers: the parent and the child. The parent is looking for the best possible shoe for their child’s feet, but it’s important to empower kids and make them a part of the decision-making process. The straps allow kids to express themselves,” Ringholz said, adding that he plans to evolve the customizable aspect of the collection in the future.From a merchandising standpoint, the interchangeable straps allow space-crunched retailers to offer a lot of options while Ugg Sale keeping their inventories lean. “The straps create a totally different face on the same base SKU,” Ringholz said. “And we can keep coming out with lots of different tabs and use that as a way to keep things fresh and new.”With the launch of the shoes, Plae has debuted a website, Goplae.com. In addition to providing a platform for the brand to engage and connect with consumers, the site will serve as “a forum where like-minded people can interact with one another independent of us,” Ringholz said. “We want to create an online community for families.”