A World of Uncertainty: An Open Ended Letter to Prada Directors

Some of you may not even be aware - there trying to keep it quiet - but Church’s the venerable British shoemaker has been bought out by Prada, thus ending the Church’s family lineage with one of the world’s finest shoemakers, (they have moved to Cheaney) I am not one of those anti-corporation types and am certainly willing to ’suck it and see’ as far as what will happen from now on in, however it is hasn’t gone unnoticed that the titanic luxury brand is already turning things in a new direction.


A cursory glance into a store the other day illustrated perfectly the new ethos. Diversification. Whilst the shop was predominantly mens shoes, more and more space was being taken up with higher margin items, wallets, umbrellas, diaries and – gasp womens shoes. This is not necessarily a Bad Thing, but can be alarming to lovers of a marque steeped in tradition and conservatism.

BRAND ALLIGNMENT

Many of our customers have been fully paid members of the Church’s club for decades and they are worried about slipping standards, a craft becoming an industry. Once upon a time a pair of Church’s showed where you stood in the world, a grown up mature gentleman of class and integrity, Prada on the other hand in their view are a global hyper brand full of marketing and fashion whimsies who probably couldn’t even spell craftmanship.

Therefore I have created an open ended letter to the Prada directors in an effort to capture the essence of our concerns and let us all know where and how things are going forward;

Dear Prada Directors,

As I am sure you are all aware the acquiring of Church’s to your bulging brand portfolio has come as a major shock to many loyal customers of Church’s. We are nervous about the direction in which you all intend to take the company and demand answers to the following;

1. How far do you intend to stretch the brand? Are you going to be creating a Church’s fragrance next? Such diversifications do not in our opinion sit favourably.

2. Are you planning to outsource the work to China or Italy?

3. Can you reassure us that the traditional craft and customer understanding will not be lost?

4. Are you going to resist vulgar new designs for the sake of a quick Euro?

We do not want to see the end of the marque and would very much like your buyout to succeed, however if it is at the expense of any of the above we will have absolutely no hesitation in taking our business elsewhere.

Yours worriedly



Chuch’s Shoe Owners

Let’s see, if we get a response.

Drew