rding to Wittner CEO Catherine Williamson.  “You have to innovate and constantly evolve the brand to keep meeting customers’ needs,” Williamson told Inside Retail. “I think this is an important milestone for the brand. It really shows the power of a store and how it can help showcase our products and our brand story.” Wittner worked with The General Store to develop the new store concept, drawing on the retail agency’s design expertise as well as its own insights from market research and staff surveys conducted last year to better understand what customers want and expect when they walk into a Wittner store. One of the key takeaways from the research was that “different customers want different things.”  “There’s a cohort of customers who want to be able to relax in the space, take their time trying things on, have a comfortable seat and a high level of service,” Williamson explained. “And then, there are customers who come to the store with their phone out, know what they want and just want to try it on and have a very quick and seamless experience.” The new store concept was designed to appeal to both groups, with a spacious service desk in the middle of the store, similar to a kitchen island, where the sales teams can move freely around to engage shoppers, and decluttered shelving that makes the product the “hero” of the space. “We’ve evolved the typical fashion footwear store and with the new concept, we’ve made Wittner’s beautiful shoes the hero of the space and focused on creating a considered and memorable experience,” said Reid Nakou, The General Store’s head of retail and design. The Booragoon store features paper lights made by local artists. Image: Supplied Telling the brand story The new store concept is a key part of Wittner’s strategy to elevate the brand in consumers’ minds.  “I feel like our product has always been premium and expertly made, so now, it’s about how we make sure our store environment reflects our product,” Williamson said. She sees an opportunity to place greater emphasis on the fact that Wittner shoes are designed in Melbourne and made by artisan shoemakers in Brazil. A lot of the steps are still done by hand. “How many hands make a Wittner shoe? It’s a huge number,” she said. “We have a design team, a lot of whom design from hand sketches, before moving into computer-aided [tools]. We’ve been working with our last-maker for a significant period of time who has helped handcraft our lasts. From the last, it goes to our supply partners, and they will often sketch out the pattern and finish off the shoes by hand.” While many customers recognise that Wittner provides a quality product, they may not fully appreciate how much work goes into it, or the fact that the brand is a member of the Leather Working Group, a not-for-profit organisation that ensures businesses are using responsibly sourced leather. Small details in the new store concept, like the door handles, which are wrapped in leather offcuts from the manufacturing process, provide a jumping-off point for staff to share the brand story with customers.  “I think the more people know, the more they can appreciate and understand how much effort, energy and experience goes into every pair of shoes,” Williamson said.  Wittner is now considering how and when it will roll out the new concept, or aspects of it, to other stores in its network, with the support of its landlords.  “One of the things that I love is the localisation in the store. For Booragoon, we had pops of the colour green [to bring in] the eucalyptus trees which are surrounding the area,” Williamson said. “It’s a framework for future stores.”  With over 70 bricks-and-mortar stores in Australia, Wittner is still owned by the Wittner family, who founded the business in Melbourne in 1912. The brand celebrated its 110th anniversary in September.