Georgie Falloon’s story begins with a dress, a dream and a very empty shoe rack. When she was in her late twenties and preparing for her wedding to husband Jamie Falloon, Georgie couldn’t find any beautiful, feminine shoes for her size-12 feet for her big day.
From shame to solution
“I went to 13 shops and the only thing I could find was one pair of granny white wedding shoes,” she recalls.
“After years of feeling embarrassment and shame, I couldn’t bear it any longer. I had this moment of, ‘Wow! There’s a problem here and I need to solve it.’”
Like many women with larger feet back then, Georgie was often sent to the men’s department of shoe stores to find something to fit.
“It was awful and only reinforced the terrible stereotypes that bigger women were inelegant, masculine and not feminine at all,” she bemoans.
Building a brand that fits
Now Georgie, 53, has celebrated two silver anniversaries – that of her marriage and the birth of Willow Shoes, which she founded in 2000 to provide stunning women’s shoe styles from size 10 up. The company has transformed the shoe-shopping experience for Georgie and thousands of other women across New Zealand, with her success being a classic Kiwi roll-up-your-sleeves-and- make-it happen story.
When she had the lightbulb moment to set up shop, Georgie was working in marketing for a consumer goods company.
“I used to travel to Australia for work and on one trip, I brought home a copy of the Yellow Pages and discovered there were lots of shoemakers in Australia,” she smiles.
“I rang them all up from my landline at home and learned as much as I could about the industry. Then I put a plan together and Willow Shoes was born!”
Mum knew best
Georgie’s biggest cheerleader from the start was her mum Prue Harper, who remains both an inspiration and mentor to her daughter, having always encouraged her to have her own “space, voice, goals and drive”, reveals Georgie.
“I grew up on a Canterbury sheep and beef farm, where my sisters and I were Dad’s workers. Mum was ahead of her time, setting up a classic cottage industry at home, importing beautiful fabrics to make shirts she would sell. “I remember feeling so proud of Mum and her best friend Di, who would turn up to primary school on athletics days and pet days looking so cool, having made all their own clothes.”
One of the biggest hurdles facing Georgie in the early days of Willow Shoes was convincing shoemakers to make designs in bigger sizes.
Fighting for fashion in bigger sizes
“Making shoes is very expensive and the cost of producing bigger sizes is even greater,” she says.
“I had to convince the shoemakers there was a market for tall, strong women like me, who didn’t want to hide in the corner and just wear black shoes or trainers. It’s a tiny slice of the market, but I knew the impact could be enormous.”
To make her point, Georgie would turn up to appointments with shoemakers wearing super-high heels and rocking some colourful fashion.
She explains, “I wanted them to understand what this customer could look like if they gave us a chance.”
Starting small with big dreams
There have been many ups and downs along the journey. In the early days, Georgie and Prue started running pop-up shops, and were disappointed when they sold just one pair of shoes on a disastrous trip to Dunedin.
“We were gutted and after packing up, drove back to Christchurch, where we were running another pop-up,” she tells.
“We couldn’t believe it when we sold $8000 worth of shoes the next day! That’s when I knew I was onto something.”
Before she opened her retail stores, Georgie ran the business from home, with not even the birth of her first child Joe, now 21, slowing her down.
“I came home from hospital with Joe and was straight back into it,” she smiles.
These days, Willow Shoes has stores in Auckland and Christchurch. It was one of the first New Zealand shoe retailers to set up an online store and still holds regular pop-up shops in
other locations.
More than just shoes
With a team of loyal staff, Georgie runs the operation remotely from the Wairarapa farm where she and Jamie live. They have two other children, Johnny, 19, and Annabel, 17. All Georgie’s staff at Willow Shoes over the years have had at least size-10 feet and have a “massive heart” for the business, she enthuses.
“We are about so much more than selling shoes,” she shares.
“Our real purpose is to provide a comfortable space where women with long feet don’t feel embarrassed to ask, ‘Have you got a size 12 in that?’ “We have tears and hugs, and people are really open about their situation. “The friendships we’ve made with our customers is one of the things I’m most proud of, along with making women feel great and improving their self-confidence. We don’t say, ‘We get you’, because we are you.”
