Stuart Weitzman, the designer behind the brand Stuart Weitzman, visited Pepperdine on Nov. 4 to share his entrepreneurial story and the lessons he learned along the way.
Weitzman is the founder of the Stuart Weitzman brand, established in 1986. His shoes have been worn at many red carpet events by Aretha Franklin, Beyonce and Kate Middleton, Maile Hetherington, director of career opportunities, said.
Weitzman opened his speech by talking about the process of starting his own company and gave any audience members looking to start their own companies a valuable piece of advice.
“My number one piece of advice is to work somewhere else first,” Weitzman said. “The experience you get will be completely different from what you get in classrooms and in the outside world you have to know how to market yourself and make relationships with other people.”
He did not originally plan to get into shoes, Weitzman said. He attended the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania and had plans to work on Wall Street.
“One day a friend of mine said I should draw some shoes for his father because he’s a shoe maker who will buy freelance designs,” Weitzman said. “My friend knew I was artistic because I would paint the scenes for school shows and create scenery.”
He drew about 20 sketches and laid them out for his friend’s father, Weitzman said. My friend’s father mentioned that since he was in a medium-price range line, he would sometimes copy high-end designs and sell them.
He made $20 per sketch, Weitzman said. During the course of a year, he sold over 3,000 sketches.
“That same summer in New York, I happened to look in a window of a big department store and saw my shoe,” Weitzman said. “The shoe had the name of the company that I had sold my sketches to. I was excited and continued to sell my sketches until I had enough money to get a job after college and eventually found my own business.”
When he first decided to start his own company, he already knew people in the industry because of having previous work experiences, Weitzman said.
“I looked for a niche in the footwear industry, something that wasn’t being done or wasn’t being done well,” Weitzman said. “That niche was making special shoes for celebrities. I even remember Vogue referring to me as a shoemaker for the stars.”
A favorite memory from the runway shoes he’s done over the years was when he created the million-dollar sandal at New York Fashion Week, Weitzman said.
“I created a shoe called the million-dollar sandal and that was exciting because no one had ever done anything like it,” Weitzman said. “It was used with an Armani dress, but the interviewers didn’t ask the model whose dress she was wearing, they just wanted to hear about the shoe.”
One of the key reasons his company took off is because he took risks, Weitzman said.
“The best companies in the world take risks,” Weitzman said. “If you can afford the loss, but see the chance of a great gain that’s when you take the risk.”
Another piece of advice Weitzman gave the audience was to be aware of your place when you begin something.
“When I started I knew I wasn’t as good a shoe maker as Prada and Gucci,” Weitzman said. “I learned quickly that I needed help from others as I continued to grow my business.”
To be inspired, people need muses, Weitzman said.
“For example, I would think of what Jackie Kennedy or Audrey Hepburn would wear which was a sleek shoe that didn’t need a crazy high heel,” Weitzman said. “I would then design a bunch of shoes and the ones I could circle that I knew they would’ve worn is what I knew would become popular.”
There are many different and wonderful ways to be inspired, Weitzman said.
“I didn’t want to follow a tried and true way so I looked outside of the industry I was in,” Weitzman said. “I looked at the gladiator style of shoe from the Roman Era, made it and had Kate Moss model it. The shoe took off and became extremely popular.”
An important lesson he’s learned is that if someone thinks they have a great idea, they need to find a way to implement it, Weitzman said. If the first way doesn’t work, then find a new way.
“I had an issue because celebrities were wearing my shoes at awards shows, but not in the daytime,” Weitzman said. “I thought to go after Jennifer Aniston because of how popular she was but at the time she only bought her shoes at Scoop. So, I made a deal with Scoop’s owner to get my shoes in their store.”
When Aniston saw Weitzman’s espadrille shoe at Scoop, she fell in love, Weitzman said. That shoe became the shoe of the year in 2009.
He said another lesson that’s been important for him is that once you become successful to look for ways to become part of a community and give back.
“We decided to do this in our business and I asked all the celebrities that I had designed shoes for make a work of art with a blank, white Weitzman shoe,” Weitzman said. “We auctioned off all those shoes and made a lot of money.”
Many of those celebrities also called our office wanting to know how much money their shoe made because of how proud they were of their work, Weitzman said.
Weitzman ended his story with a personal anecdote.
At one point, he was dating this woman and on their way to a movie date, she asked where they were going as a couple, Weitzman said. Caught off guard, he asked for a few days to come up with an answer.
“A few days later we attended this party together and I had asked for a swatch of fabric from her dress so I could make her a pair of shoes,” Weitzman said.
Those shoes had an engraving that ready they were for Mrs. Stuart Weitzman, Weitzman said.
“She initially didn’t notice as she was unwrapping the shoes, but when she did, she teared up and jokingly asked if it meant she wasn’t getting a ring,” Weitzman said. “We’ve been married for 57 years. She got the shoes, she got the ring and you got my story.”
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Contact Alicia Dofelmier via email: alicia.dofelmier@pepperdine.edu
