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Kelowna, Thompson-Okanagan

8 Employees

In Business Since 2017

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Strut Footwear & Apparel Inc.

Kelowna, Thompson-Okanagan

We are the BEST women's shoe store in the Okanagan. We bring beautifully handcrafted shoes, curated from all over the world, to our storefront in the Mission Park Shopping Centre in Kelowna, as well as to our online store at www.strutfootwear.com. Our mission is to bring fashionable and comfortable footwear to the professional working woman, while providing exemplary customer service to our people. We come to work every day with one goal; to help women look and feel their very best. We know that women who shop at our store lead very full lives, and work hard for their money, so when they choose to spend their time and money at Strut, we don't take that lightly. That means, each time a customer walks through our door, we lead with gratitude. We are expert shoe fitters and fashionistas! Both components set us apart from our counterparts. We have customers all over North America, and Strut has become a shopping destination. We have customers tell us that we are their first stop after they get off the plane. We feel that we have a huge responsibility to do our very best with each and every customer. My goal is for every woman to feel her very best when she is in our store. We work very hard to lift up our customers and make them feel like they matter. Bottom line is we do not exist without our loyal customers, so you bet, they matter!

Strut Footwear & Apparel Inc. has been nominated in the following categories:

Click on the banners to find out why they deserve your vote in each category.

Business Impact Award


Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

Strut Footwear opened its doors for business nearly six years ago on March 1, 2017. I am the owner, Shandi Schwartz. I was a high school counsellor at Rutland Senior Secondary in Kelowna, and always joked that if my counselling gig didn't work out, I'd open a shoe store. I have always had a voracious appetite for fashion, and especially shoes. Well sadly, in 2014, the teachers were on strike again, and I felt I was at a crossroads. I either had to be ok with going on strike every few years, or create my own destiny and do something different. Fast forward three years later, after writing a comprehensive business plan, working with Futurepreneur and Women in Enterprise, attending several buying shows, analyzing tons of market research, and many sleepless, work-filled nights, Strut Footwear opened. I sourced my brands from all over the world as I did not want Strut to be "cookie cutter". I wanted to be different from all the other shoe stores, I didn't want people to be able to access our brands from other stores online. BUT, most importantly, I wanted to create a place of belonging for staff and customers, alike. I honestly envisioned Strut to be like Cheers, where everybody knows your name. I feel we have achieved and exceeded that feeling for our customers. We have fostered incredible relationships with our gals and wonderful friendships and partnerships have emerged. I am passionate about what I do because I love what I do. We are so much more than just a shoe store. We would not exist without our customers, and so we lead with warmth and gratitude. We have worked very hard to foster a culture of connection and belonging. I have heard it said, too many times, that middle aged women feel invisible in our society, which breaks my heart. We NEVER want anyone to feel that way, and we make it our mission to ensure every woman that we work with feels special and that they belong. We have fostered relationships with our customers that make them more like friends or family. One of our staff invited a customer to her house for Christmas dinner last year because she was going to be all alone. We may be a shoe store, but at our core, we are a place of connection and belonging. When you love people AND shoes, fabulous things truly happen!

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

I wholeheartedly feel a responsibility to support our community. At Strut, we are very community-minded, and our main cause is empowering through education. We support COBSS, the Central Okanagan Bursary & Scholarship Society. We ask our customers to round up each transaction to the nearest dollar. We have raised over $14,000, and every penny of that goes to support local high school graduates to pursue their post-secondary education. We held a terrific fundraising event for COBSS in the spring. I donated 54 pairs of my own shoes and we invited women to come and pick out a pair or two of my like-new shoes for a donation to COBSS. Within 45 minutes, the shoes found new homes and we raised $2,000. Translation: two $1000 bursaries for local students. What a feel-good event! COBSS is always grateful for the support, as are the students. We always get heartfelt thank you cards from the recipients, who feel validated by receiving their bursary. COBSS featured us in their annual newsletter to show how you can give in creative, yet easy ways. Every year, our staff raise money to sponsor a family at Christmas. I match the staff donation, dollar for dollar, so we usually have about $1,300 to love on our Christmas family. Through my connections with the school district, we are linked to a family in need and we give them the best Christmas we can. We get the children's wish lists from the parent(s) and the Strut Elves take it from there! We provide wrapped gifts, food and gift cards for groceries. One year, when we delivered the Christmas cheer to a single Dad on a blustery night in December, he was overwhelmed and brought to tears. In that moment, we knew that we had made that family's Christmas a lot brighter. We also sponsor the Mamas for Mamas charity golf tournament annually. This year we have committed to be a major sponsor because Mamas does tremendous work in our community and needs our support. A new one for us this year is the Okanagan Food Bank. This incredibly important organization has been hit hard this year and our staff took the initiative to donate as a group. When I heard this from my little staff of 7, I was blow away by their kindness and generosity. I matched their donation and wrote a cheque for $750, where we know the funds will reach and help several people. At Strut, we truly believe in helping our wonderful community, a community that we are fortunate enough to call home.

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

It is an absolute honour to be considered for The Business Impact award. Since we opened, almost 6 years ago, we have survived a pandemic and have demonstrated our resilience and resolve to continue to bring beautiful and unique footwear and accessories to the women of the Okanagan and beyond. You truly won't find another shoe store like us. We have created a culture of connection and belonging in our store, where customers come in and are treated like friends and family. We have the best customer service experience for our gals. We want our customers to feel like they belong, feel like they matter, and based on the relationships we have fostered, we have done just that. The quality of our products is unparalleled, which have been sourced from literally all over the world. We have brands you won't see anywhere else in the Okanagan, which makes us unique. We introduced our online store 2.5 years ago, which has allowed us into many new markets in Canada and the US. Our sales have grown at a phenomenal rate over the past two years, and we have hired a manager, more staff, and a marketing company to help us keep up with the demand. Our staff are knowledgeable, compassionate, hardworking and genuine. We treasure our customers, adore shoes, and absolutely LOVE what we do. Thank you for this opportunity!

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

My vision for Strut is a place of connection and belonging for both staff and customers. We have worked very hard to create a culture that sets us apart. Many people have told me that when they walk into our store, there is a feeling that they get, that they do not get at other stores. Team Strut is a key factor in our success. Our staff are a tight-knit group and exude collaboration and synergy. We hire strictly based on personality. We know we can train our employees in shoe fitting, so personality must be right. Our staff is made up of women who have already had successful careers and are well educated. Our staff are not on commission, so they absolutely work together to make the store the very best it can be. We do at 3-4 team building activities each year, which are always opportunities for bonding and fun. It is not uncommon for our staff to spend their days off going for lunch or meeting for a yoga class together. They look out for each other, care for each other, and lift each other up. One of our most recent hires is new to Kelowna and didn't know many people. Within about a month of working at Strut she said to me, "Shandi, I have found my tribe". Having a cohesive and collaborative staff is crucial to the success of our business, and customers see and feel these relationships. This is the heart of our store; we are all about connections and belonging. We know we are doing our job well when customers or suppliers pop by just to say hi, like a friend would. One of our customers, Shanna, wrote a letter of support for my application. Here is an excerpt: "Why is Strut my favorite place to shop? From the first day that I walked into Strut and saw all the fabulous, shoes I immediately knew I wouldn’t be leaving empty handed. What I didn’t know was how amazing Shandi and her staff would be. They treat their customers like family, and give back to the community. Strut is a great addition to the small businesses in Kelowna. Shandi is an inspiration and has shown that if you follow your passion anything can happen." Hayley Bains from Casitas Footwear writes: "As an importer/supplier, Strut is an extremely valuable customer. Shandi is generating significant volume of sales, but moreover, we all love working with her. She has a positive, energetic personality that is a pleasure to be around. Her passion for her business, community and team is refreshing and a pleasure to experience." These relationships and partnerships are paramount.

People's Choice


Why do you think you should win the Premier’s People’s Choice Award?

This is the Premier's People's Choice Award.......Perfect!! We are all about relationships with our people at Strut. Sure, we may sell the most fabulous shoes and accessories anywhere, but more importantly, we know how to treat people, to make them feel special. People will always remember how you make them feel. Each and every day that we turn the closed sign to open, we warmly and genuinely welcome people into Strut, listen to them, get to know them, cheer them on, and lift them up. Before you know it, we have them leaving our store looking great and feeling phenomenal! It is pretty magical. We do not take one customer for granted. The fact these women choose to make time to come in to see us during their busy day, and choose to spend their hard-earned money at our store is not lost on us and we take that very seriously. Strut has also become known for our commitment to our community. Our passion project is our bursary program through the Central Okanagan Bursary and Scholarship Society (COBSS). At Strut, we value education and believe that it truly can change the trajectory of one's life. We have donated over $14,000 to bursaries to local high school students pursuing post-secondary education. We have also donated to The Central Okanagan Food Bank, Mamas for Mamas, the Legion Poppy Fund, The Kelsey Serwa KSER Scholarship, and a different family in need each year at Christmas. At Strut, we love shoes and fashion and that makes the things we sell stunning and unique. At Strut, we also love our people and our community, and that is what sets us apart and makes us special. We are so much more than just a shoe store...............we are a community...........who just so happen to be rocking the best shoes ever!

Nominations and voting has now closed.

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