Guess who’s wearing the hottest footwear?

Claudia Schiffer. Laetitia Casta. Eva Herzigova. Anna Nicole Smith. And today, 18-year-old, raven-haired, blue-eyed Megan Ewing. These are the girls who have defined the company Guess?.

Now that I’ve gotten your attention, did you ever wonder how Guess? started? I won’t let you even guess!

In the early ’80s fashion denim had little direction. People felt that denim was dated and jeans were not considered a fashion statement. The Marciano brothers (Maurice, Paul, Georges and Armand) changed that forever.

Buyers weren’t interested in denim. But the Marciano brothers’ infallible instinct and persistence prevailed. Initially, retailers greeted Guess? with skepticism. Bloomingdale’s eventually agreed to sell two dozen pairs of the sexy three-zip Marilyn jeans as a favor to the Marciano brothers. Within hours, the entire stock was sold out.

Today, Guess? is one of the most widely recognized brands in the world. It has expanded beyond men’s and women’s jeans to watches, eyewear, perfume, bags and footwear.

Slipping into the latest Guess? footwear is cool. But to meet the people behind those magic slippers is even more cool. I recently got to interview Miltos Goudamanis, international sales and marketing manager of Pacific Design Marketing Inc. (PDMI), the exclusive distributor of Guess Sport. He talked about their latest collection that is sure to sweep young people off their feet.

Tara Reid. Avril Lavigne. Nelly. Steven Tyler. Shannon Elizabeth. Queen Latifah. Ashanti. Nick Carter. Creed. These are just a few of the celebrities who wore the hottest spring/summer 2003 Guess? footwear fashion last December at the 2002 Billboard Awards held in Las Vegas.

Looks like those bombshells might have to take a step aside.

YS: Tell us more about Guess Sport.

Miltos Goudamanis: It’s a new area in the whole Guess? family. Before, it was called Guess Athletic. It was more athletic-oriented, more wide shoe. In the last two years-and-a-half, we’ve changed the direction, we’re not going to be a wide shoe company; we’re going with the trend. And we’re going to be close to what we are as a denim company, a casual lifestyle denim company. And that’s why we changed the name from Guess Athletic to Guess Sport. And by saying sport, we’re not an athletic-shoe company like Nike, Adidas, or Reebok. We are more fashion and sport-oriented. We have designers in France, designers in Italy, working full time for us in our offices. We have designers in San Diego and Los Angeles as well. We changed the line from wide shoe to the more lifestyle-casual, fashion-sporty look. And that’s what you’re going to be seeing in the Philippines from now on.

The upcoming trend is more lifestyle-oriented. Even fashion is geared towards that.

Exactly. If we actually had that question five years ago it would be a joke. Everybody would laugh. But today, it’s a reality. Fashion leans more to the casual lifestyle and is more relaxed. That’s what is happening. You go to important meetings or anywhere that dressy. Even for us at Guess?, it’s interesting that we discontinued the men’s dress collection. It has totally stopped. We don’t have anymore the men’s dress collection. We have only the casual athletic. That’s it.

What kind of shoes will Guess Sport carry? How varied will the styles be?

We have a street active category. More Fifth Avenue, I would call it. Kind of street active, more upscale. The sporty look. You definitely need to see our styles so you know exactly what we’re talking about. Whatever you see now in the shops are very limited. It was our initial decision at the start not to cramp the market with many styles. We want to actually get some ratings from the customers. I think for the two months we had it at the shops, we got some nice rating on what’s in for the Philippine market and what is not. And you’ll see some nice styles coming in in the next two months at the shops. Nice collections that are vey successful in Europe and in the USA.

What makes Guess? different from your competitors?

Guess? is voted as the number 1 popular brand. I’m not worried but we always take care who our competitors are. We’re not going after the competitor. I don’t know if that’s a mistake or not. We let our designers work as they want with our directions all the time. That’s what actually part of our success. We definitely don’t want to follow our competitors or copy them. We want to create the trends.

In 1992, Guess? expanded to the Philippines. What made Guess? look toward the Asian market, particularly the Philippines?

First of all, we’re looking for the appropriate country to do the distribution. We want to have distribution at the Guess? shops but of course we have distribution in other shops outside Guess? because it brings bigger sales and builds the brand even better. Looking at other companies, we located Planet Sports and we’re very happy to be working with them and their handling of the distribution. We know only too well that our success is not our shoes or our company, it is who are our local partners are. And that applies for Guess? Philippines. Having Planet Sports, I think we’ll be very successful.

What styles are the bestsellers?

At this point we’ve been on the floor with only a limited line, not the complete line. We saw that it’s a wedge outsole for women, the casual sporty look of a wedge outsole. It’s pretty unique. It was designed by Cyd Jouny, one of the new inspirations for the company. She’s very well known in Europe as a footwear designer. She’s the creator of the first stiletto athletic shoe back in ’98. This is what we’re trying to do, to transfer that stiletto to the wedge for the Filipino market, in fact for the whole Asian market. That style has been successful in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, everywhere. The whole Asian region. Next is a more retro old school on a denim upper, which is our second winner in the Philippines. Not just in the Philippines I would say, but all around the world. We’re the denim company. In a couple of months we’re going to have a nice collection coming in. You’re going to see a lot of retro colors, retro looks. We’ll be successful here.

So what does it take to be good shoemaker? Good advertising? Good marketing? Good shoes? Or Guess?’s very strong campaign? A very unforgettable one with bombshell women.

It’s nice what you said, bombshell women. First of all, that’s a big thing for the owners Paul and Maurice Marciano. They’re the ones who choose all the models. And they did all the shooting. So to give them the credit , congratulations to them.

Does Guess? footwear have a separate advertising campaign?

It wasn’t like this before but it’s starting to be a separate one now. Footwear was not that much promoted. It took us some years to really promote it and now we’re definitely going after the images and separate photo shooting as well. We’re going to use the same models, definitely. It’s the Guess? models and that’s what we’re going to keep doing.

In the Philippines, Guess? is more popular among the younger crowd. Can you define your target market?

Correct. Our target market, I would say, is 16-and-a-half to 28 years old.

And what kind of lifestyle would these people have?

It’s the lifestyle of people who want to go to parties, they want to listen to music, they want to go to the coffee house. On the other side, they want to be trendy as well. They don’t want to wear an actual dressy shoe and they don’t want to wear a wide shoe. They want to wear a lifestyle casual shoe. And that’s what we’re doing actually. They want to wear something that really matches with the denim clothing, which is their day-to-day wear.

In 1988, Guess? footwear was launched, and in 1995 Charles David partnered with Guess?. How did this collaboration come about?

Very interesting. Yes, Charles David is a Guess? footwear licensee. The owner of Charles David, actually, is the father-in-law of one of the owners of Guess?; the daughter of Charles David is married to Maurice Marciano. So it’s a family company and they keep the business between the family.

Are the Marciano brothers ever coming here? The Filipinos I’m sure would like to meet them.

They want to come but I don’t think their plan is to come in the next years. But actually, they’re aiming more at Europe. They’re very busy. Definitely, they’re aiming more at the European trips. The big goal of Guess? is to set up distribution and shops in China. So, that’s where they concentrate most of the time when they travel through the Asian region.

A lot of companies are concentrating on China right now. Even many local retailers want to expand there. What is it about China?

China is, how do I say it? I don’t want to say a sleeping giant, but I guess it is. Everybody is really concentrating over there. The secret is low wages, good products, low price product — it’s a win-win situation.

Currently your footwear is still manufactured by Charles David?

Actually, the dressy women’s line is manufactured in Spain and Italy. The sport line — the materials are from Italy but they’re manufactured in China.

What do you think will make Guess? the next big brand in fashion?

It’s again a critical point. Guess? on one side is a worldwide, well-known brand but the success is really to be focused with the local distributors, evaluate the needs of each country and to make something globally well known but to really service the customer locally. And that’s going to be our success. That that applies to our footwear, apparel, everything. We’re really going ahead and taking care of the local distributors, their needs, their problems and their reactions. We’re on a day-to-day focus with every distributor.

What is the shoe of the future? What will be the shoe trend 10 years from now?

If I’ll tell you what the shoe is, I won’t sell anything! Because all the other companies are going to copy!

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E-mail your questions and comments to: rissa_ms@hotmail.com.