June 4, 2025 • 28 mins
Get a look at how one founder built a product business with staying power. This episode is a sneak peek into Retail ROAR, my free annual virtual summit for product business owners.
I’m joined by Claire Burrows, founder of Air & Grace. She shares how she built a values-led footwear brand known for comfort, quality, and loyal customers.
We talk about manufacturing setbacks, staying close to your customer, and why refusing to compromise on quality can fuel your long-term growth.
If you’d like early access to the next Retail ROAR, you can sign up here to be the first to know when it opens.
[02:18] The “wardrobe of regret” moment that sparked her mission
[06:38] How Claire overcame early manufacturing setbacks
[08:14] Why face-to-face customer feedback shaped her direction
[10:37] How one customer request turned into half the product line
[14:06] Claire's most memorable pinch-me moments in business
[14:51] How she secured early investment in the business
[17:09] The financial realities of managing your cash flow
[18:39] Why strong supplier relationships matter
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Catherine Erdly (00:00):
Welcome to episode number 253 of the Resilient Retail Game Plan.
(00:04):
Hi, it's Catherine Erdly here.
I'm a small business and retail expertas well as your host today, and today I
am delighted to have a throwback episodewhere we revisit one of my favorite
sessions from Retail ROAR Retail.
ROAR is my free online summit.
It happens each year in March.
In fact, if you look in the shownotes, you can see the details
(00:24):
of how to sign up for 2026.
And I had the pleasure of interviewingClaire Burrows about her journey with her
amazing footwear business, Air & Grace.
Welcome to the Resilient Retail GamePlan, a podcast for anyone wanting to
start, grow or scale a profitable creativeproduct business with me, Catherine Erdly.
(00:50):
The Resilient Retail Game Plan isa podcast dedicated to one thing,
breaking down the concepts and toolsthat I've gathered from 20 years in
the retail industry and showing youhow you can use them in your business.
This is the real nuts and bolts ofrunning a successful product business,
broken down in an easy, accessible way.
This is not a podcast about learninghow to make your business look good.
(01:14):
It's the tools and techniques that willmake you and your business feel good.
Confidently plan, launch, and manageyour products, and feel in control of
your sales numbers and cash flow to helpyou build a resilient retail business.
(01:34):
Claire, thank you so much forjoining us at Retail ROAR.
I'm really excited to chat with you today.
Do you want to start us off byintroducing yourself and your business?
Claire Burrows (01:44):
Hi Catherine, thank you for having me here.
Absolute pleasure.
I am Claire Burrows, and I'mthe founder of Air & Grace.
Air & Grace is a women's footwearbrand, direct consumer, online only.
And we basically combinecomfort and style.
So they are the shoes that youlove to wear as well as the
shoes that you want to wear.
And we do all of that sustainablyand responsibly with manufacturing
(02:07):
in small batches from Europe.
Catherine Erdly (02:10):
Amazing.
And I know so many people watching I'msure are very familiar already with
Air & Grace and absolutely love yourshoes and how comfortable they are.
You started it from yourkitchen table, which you know,
is a phenomenal achievement.
So can you tell us a littlebit more about your decision?
What made you decide to start?
What's the story?
Claire Burrows (02:27):
So yeah, basically I have been in the footwear
industry for coming up to 30 years.
Wow.
So yeah, it's my background.
I've always worked in kind oflike buying design and product
development for big brands.
You know, ranging from Kurt Geiger toFitFlop, and I kind of got to the point
where I had a burning desire to fulfillwhat I saw as a gap in the market.
(02:51):
Which was about comfort shoesthat you actually want to wear.
It's kind of like we're all busy,we're all running around town, you
know, and we don't wanna spend a dayin shoes that make us feel miserable.
So many times I'd be kind of seducedby a pair of gorgeous looking shoes
that, you know, I'd want to buy them.
I'd be really excited about them.
I'd put 'em on for the firstwear and by the time I got to the
(03:13):
train station, I regretted it.
And I realized I had a wardrobefull of these amazing looking
shoes that I just never wore.
And the ones that I wore and came backto over and over again were the ones that
were comfortable that didn't let me down.
That stood the pace of the day with me.
So I kind of thought, welllook, there's a gap here.
Because, you know, there are amazing, whatI call traditional comfort brands which
(03:35):
are aimed at an older market, I'd say.
And the styling for me wasn't there.
And there's lots ofamazing fashion brands.
Like I say, you know, it'shit and miss whether they're
gonna be comfortable or not.
And therefore, to me, those were theones that I was wasting my money on.
So I found this gap in the middle thatI wanted to bridge with Air & Grace
(03:56):
and that was very much about it beingcomfort, plus style, plus quality and
all done responsibly and yeah, kindof like just took the leap of faith.
And started small, as you say, frommy kitchen table on my own with
nothing but an idea and no ideaof how to run a retail business
(04:16):
myself or online or marketing and.
Going back then, it's over 10 years.
I thought we were gonnabe a wholesale business.
Then obviously it's the boom of internetwas starting to happen and stuff
like Shopify happened where you couldactually create your own website
yourself without lots of money anda developer and I kind of pivoted.
(04:39):
I started out thinking I was gonnawanna get into stores and then I
ended up saying, no, actually what I'mgonna do is to start a D2C business.
Catherine Erdly (04:48):
Amazing.
And out of curiosity,what was your first shoe?
What was the first shoe that you designed?
Claire Burrows (04:53):
So the first shoe I designed was a ballerina pump.
That was because ballerina pumps areknown to be not very good for you.
Yes, so I essentially put a trainerinsole inside a ballerina pump.
And then basically we patentedthat insole and it's called Tender
Loving Air®, and it's still whatwe include in our shoes today.
Catherine Erdly (05:16):
And did the name come to you immediately?
'Cause I think the name's fabulous.
It works so well on lots of levels.
Claire Burrows (05:21):
The brand name?
Catherine Erdly (05:23):
Yes
Claire Burrows (05:24):
Both the brand name and Tender Loving Air®, both were in
collaboration with my amazing friend.
Panna Rose is the MD of a companycalled Our Design Agency, ODA.
And her business partners tookme on as their very first client.
Wow.
So she'd done the same thing as me.
She had a you know, an amazing backgroundin branding and jumped off the corporate
(05:48):
kind of ship and started her own business.
And we collaborated togetheron the name and the branding.
And then funny story about it is thatwe were really stretched for a name.
We were coming up with lotsand lots of ideas, and we just
couldn't really think of anything.
Nothing really resonated.
So Panna put me under a deadline and said,right, by the end of today, we have to
(06:10):
have an aim because we've got to start.
We can't hold up on this any longer.
Catherine Erdly (06:15):
Yeah.
Claire Burrows (06:15):
And we were on the phone and I had bad reception
in my home and Panna said UrbanPace, and I heard Air & Grace
and immediately that was it.
It's you know, you are walkingon air, but we've got, yeah.
Catherine Erdly (06:30):
Yeah, yeah.
That's so funny, I love it.
That's such a great story.
So from a misheardconversation, that's brilliant.
Oh, fantastic.
So you made this decision.
You've gone out there,you created the ballerina.
Did you just make one shoe to start?
Did you have a team?
Claire Burrows (06:47):
This is a sad story is that it never launched.
At that point, we ended upour first production run.
This is the trials and tribulationsof running your own business
and doing manufacturing.
We had to reject the entireproduction because it wasn't made to
specification and we couldn't launch it.
So then we ended up moving manufacturers.
(07:07):
Yeah, and we created a fourpiece range to launch with.
So we had a ballerina, a loafer,a boot, two boots actually.
Okay, and that's what weeventually launched with.
So all of those incorporated theTender Loving Air®, comfort foot bed.
Catherine Erdly (07:23):
Got it, got it.
I'm sure anyone who's dealt withmanufacturing will be hardened to
hear that you overcame the, youknow, i'm sure it felt when you had
to reject the whole production run.
Does it almost just feel like,ugh, this just insurmountable?
Claire Burrows (07:35):
Absolutely devastating.
Yeah, you know, and we'dalready paid 50% of it as well.
You know, we were luckythat we could survive that.
A lot of businesses thatwould've been in the end.
But we did manage to pivot and findanother manufacturer who was much
more understanding and cooperative.
And you know, that's something thatis critical to any business is to
(07:57):
have great suppliers who really shareyour vision, and that was one of
the hardest things in the beginning.
Catherine Erdly (08:03):
Wow.
Yeah, and you mentioned also at thebeginning, we talked previously about
the kind of start of the business.
And you talked about how importantthe feedback was from customers,
especially at the start.
I mean, I know you obviously you havea very engaged community now, but can
you talk us through what happened whenyou put your shoes in front of customers
and what changes you made as a result?
Claire Burrows (08:23):
Again, I'm sort of going back like 10, 11 years.
Yeah, so online just wasn't sucha clear route to market back then.
So I started the website, butdriving traffic to the website,
I just didn't have a clue.
We were lucky if wegot like 20 hits a day.
But we were still selling,this was the thing.
(08:43):
We were like, ourconversion rate back then.
I'd love that now.
So I took the decision that whatwe needed to do was get out there.
So we did consumer eventsfor the first year or so.
And got ourselves in front of customersand essentially did a test and learn job.
You know, everyone talks abouttest and learn online digitally.
(09:05):
We did it in real life physically.
You know.
I remember selling the first pair and Iwas just absolutely elated 'cause this
lady put them on and she was just jumpingup and down saying, "oh my God, these
are so comfortable. What have you done?"
It's amazing.
Because all that, you know, like 18 monthsof hard work and taking that leap of faith
(09:26):
to actually see in reality that somebodyactually appreciated what you'd done.
That meant everything.
And we had a really great firstrun when we did that first show.
That was for a week.
So that infused me.
And from that, you know, like Isay, nothing like getting firsthand
feedback from real life customers.
And they were giving us lots ofideas of like, can you do this color?
(09:47):
Why we'd really like to see a trainer?
You know, like lots and lots ofstuff that we could actually really
tangible that we could take andactually develop into the range.
So yeah, invaluable.
And you know, to this day still.
You know, we read the reviews.
We have a great customer servicemanager who feeds back all the
amazing comments that we get.
(10:08):
Social media, we put out every season.
We'll say, "what do you wanna see fromus?" You know, we just post a blank piece
of paper and say, tell us what to fill in.
And our reviews on Trustpilot.
I am very happy to say weare 4.8 stars out of five.
That is just amazing for us.
Like we really appreciate everyone whoneeds a review and we take it all on board
(10:33):
if there's positive or negative feedback.
'Cause that's how you learn.
Catherine Erdly (10:36):
Yeah yeah, for sure.
And I love how you went out there,you met the customers and you
really listened to what they said.
Were you surprised whenpeople said trainers?
Because obviously you'd startedoff with this idea that.
That it was about the shoesthat looked good, but that
maybe weren't so comfortable.
So you were surprised.
And now of course thetrainer wasn't the roadmap.
Claire Burrows (10:57):
Yeah.
And now, yeah, it's kind oflike 50% of the business.
But our thing was always likeour proposition was we are
shoes that feel like trainers.
So their shoes weretrainer technology inside.
Yeah.
So for me it was like trainersthat feel like trainers.
No, but the trainer trend was just somassive that we couldn't ignore it.
(11:17):
So we did it in our way.
So it's not done in a sports way,it's done in a lifestyle trainer way.
So we're still using premium leathers.
They're leather lined, so youdon't have that thing of the icky
kind of like synthetic liningsthat will eventually smell.
We've got our Tender Loving Air® footbedin there, which is layers and layers of
(11:39):
amazing recovery and memory foams thatare the absolute best that you can get.
They're the best quality, bestspec, so that means that they
feel ultimately comfortable asa trainer, but they're smarter.
It's a smarter look.
It's a sort of traineryou can wear on office.
Catherine Erdly (11:57):
Yeah.
And also, I personally find that a lotof these trainers that aren't, I mean
obviously not actual like sports shoes,but a lot of them are super uncomfortable.
Claire Burrows (12:06):
Yeah, they are.
Because, I mean, it all comes back tothe technical spec of like this foot
bed that we put in, it's expensive.
And it's handmade, but it's theonly way to do it, which is why
we patented it because it islayers and layers of this foam.
But you know, it is an expensive foam.
So if brands normally will onlyuse something like that sparingly.
(12:27):
We've got the whole thing made out of it.
It's a whole wedge.
I don't do things by halves.
Catherine Erdly (12:34):
No, and I'm sure that's played a big part in the
returning customer rate and just,you know how you've got people
who buy lots and lots of pairs ofyour shoes because of that reason.
Claire Burrows (12:45):
Yeah, I mean, we get amazed.
You'll get messages from peoplesaying, you know, it's my eighth pair.
And you know, that for us it's justincredible that people have kind of come
on the journey with us of we startedout with a very small range and even
now we've not got the biggest range.
We just edit.
We do what we do and we do it well.
We don't give like everyoption of something.
(13:06):
We'll go, what is theMary Jane that we want?
You know, what is the boot that we want?
And you know, we look at howthose are, how they're worn.
You know, what's gonna be the bestsort of like value for money on those?
Because, you know, our shoes aren't cheap.
But they are very well priced forwhat they are, where they're made,
the content that goes into them.
(13:27):
But we want them to have a timelesselement to their design and their
longevity so that if you do investin a pair, and it goes right back
to my very beginning of a wardrobefull of shoes I never wore.
You know, they will be the shoesthat you wear over and over again.
And you'll be able to wear themfrom season to season 'cause
we don't do fast fashion fads.
(13:48):
We're not about being really trend driven.
This is about good shoes thatwill stand the test of time.
But always look contemporary.
They're always gonna look on trend,but they're not fast fashion fad
Catherine Erdly (14:00):
Yeah, amazing.
So you've been going for 10-11 years.
What have been some of thebiggest pinch me moments as
you've gone along the journey?
Claire Burrows (14:10):
Oh gosh.
I mean many.
It's great when you get apinch me moment 'cause it makes
all the hard work worthwhile.
Obviously seeing people wearing yourshoes, whether that's in the street.
I mean, I've been tapped on theshoulder at London Bridge Station
a few times, but people say,who's the lady from Air & Grace?
That's amazing.
When people like, you know, you seethem out in the wild and people say.
(14:32):
They love them.
Yeah.
So that means everything.
And you know, the other end of that,seeing amazing women celebrities
wearing them, like Helen Mirumwas a real pinch me moment.
Wow.
Caught Allison Hammond wearing our bootsat the moment and looking amazing in them.
So yeah, like a real wide range of women.
That's always great to see.
You know, we've be lucky enough towin some awards and competitions.
(14:54):
I won right at the very beginning,a competition with the metro
newspaper, looking for sort oflike consumer brands of tomorrow.
And that basically gaveme investment as well.
So that enabled me to be able to domy pivot and say, so going from being
able to my first plan of wholesale,we wouldn't have needed as much cash.
(15:15):
But then having to pivot to buy your ownstock with footwear is very expensive.
Catherine Erdly (15:21):
Yeah.
Claire Burrows (15:22):
Our shoes are expensive anyway to buy.
And then on top of that, you'vegot to buy minimum quantities.
You've got to do all the tooling.
There's a huge investment in footwear andthen you've got all the sizes as well.
So we needed cash to be ableto actually buy that stock.
You know, being able to dothat was a real amazing moment.
Winning that out, thousands ofpeople was yeah, pretty cool.
Catherine Erdly (15:43):
Wow, that is really amazing.
And so that was just something you saw andyou thought, right, we're gonna go for it.
Claire Burrows (15:49):
Yeah, that the newspaper.
There was something about you know, we'relooking for brands and small businesses.
And I was actually out at the time withmy now husband and I was like, "you've
seen this, do you think I should apply?"
And he was like, "do you think you'llget anywhere with it?" And I was like,
"If don't try, I won't know." Thedeadline was that evening as well.
(16:10):
I hadn't seen it, there'd beenlike a whole run up to it and
the deadlines that evening.
So yeah, we rushed home and appliedand yeah, ultimately what got
through rounds and rounds of it.
It was a bit like aDragon's Den process, right?
So there were kind of like online roundswhere you had to submit business plans
and then at the end it was a presentationto a panel of I think about six people.
(16:31):
And yeah, the 10 of us presented.
I ended up winning the top prize.
And then as well as that, MichaelActon Smith, who at the time was
the founder of mushy Monsters, butnow is founder of Calm, calm.com.
He wanted to invest aswell, so he's come on board.
Catherine Erdly (16:50):
Oh wow.
That's amazing.
I mean, and I think this is thething with investment, isn't it?
It's the money, it's the financialaspect, but it's also then the
input into the business, right?
Yeah.
Claire Burrows (16:57):
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, money isn't gonnaget you anywhere if you don't
dunno what you're doing with it.
Yeah, Michael has been amazing.
So yeah, he's there wheneverI need him for some advice.
But yeah, for me, one of thebiggest things has been learning
the financial side of things.
Just making sure that cashflow is king, basically.
(17:19):
Yes, and understanding thatside of things as well.
I see, you know, over the last 10 years,other businesses have maybe suffered.
Catherine Erdly (17:27):
Yeah, no, I completely agree.
It's like it, it is literally likea better business really, isn't it?
Cashflow.
Claire Burrows (17:33):
,Yeah yeah.
I mean, you got the best idea, thebest product, the best marketing.
But if you run outta cash, that's it.
Catherine Erdly (17:40):
Yeah, yeah.
I wanted to just touchquickly on the suppliers.
I was curious to know.
So you had to pivot, you had to go outthere and I'm sure everyone who's dealt,
as I said, who's dealt with manufacturingwill really resonate with this 'cause
it can be such a rollercoaster.
So you found the partners that you had.
Do you still work with them now orhave you also kind of grown your supply
base or changed it as over the years?
Claire Burrows (18:01):
So we only ever had one and then we've added.
But we've changed, well, not changedcountries, but added countries as well.
So we're all still Europe,but we were mostly Portugal.
Now we're making also in Spain and Italy.
Catherine Erdly (18:15):
Oh, fantastic.
I suppose as you went along and youhad to go through that same process
of finding those people that youreally could put your trust in, right?
Claire Burrows (18:22):
Yeah.
I mean, I'm lucky I've got a goodnetwork, so I've been able to
call on my network and also thingschange within that network too.
So it's you know, somebodymight move from one factory to
another, or one agency to another.
And you know, then thatopens up an opportunity.
So yeah, it's not always the easiestgetting started with a new manufacturer.
(18:43):
But like for me, I've found thatit's really important to set
out the understandings upfront.
It's almost like a pitch, isn't it?
That they need to understand whatyour business is and what to expect
from that development process.
Because we're not the same as otherfootwear brands I've worked for.
(19:04):
G enerally, I've worked forbrands that have been a bit
more into sort of fast fashion.
When I fell out of love with that, Irealized that wasn't something I could
do any longer, and I wanted to put alot more into the quality of the shoes
and the development of the shoes.
And that takes time.
We will sample more than other brandsdo, and we wear trial and we will iron
(19:28):
out as many problems as possible throughthat process to ensure that when the shoe
launches, we've taken the pain for you.
Basically.
Literally, you know, just a simple thinglike moving a seam on the inside of a
shoe can make the hugest difference towhether that she's gonna rub or not.
So we were trial them to findthose pain points beforehand.
(19:54):
And that means that, youknow, it takes a lot longer.
So we have to ask oursuppliers to be patient.
So do you know what, and honestly, someof them will be, some of them won't.
You're not always theperfect fit for everybody.
Yeah.
But the ones that have stuck thecourse with us, have seen the benefit
because once we get a shoe right.
(20:14):
And you know, it's in a case oflike repeat orders for years.
Yeah, our crew trainers havebeen in the range for I think
now, seven or eight years.
So that's the business that they like.
That's the part of it thatwe can give them in reward.
But yes.
It's not the easiestprocess to start, but yeah.
You know, we don't makethem in big batches either.
(20:34):
So again, shoe factoriesthey like to make at scale.
But we'll be like, look, we'regonna make small batches.
But often that means that we knowthat we can control the stock.
We know that we're not over producing.
And it means that for them,they've actually got to like it.
Because it means they can kindof like keep the factory busy.
(20:55):
So they have their big orders,but then they produce the
smaller orders in between.
Catherine Erdly (20:59):
Right, got it.
It's like any relationship, isn't it?
You get to know each other.
Claire Burrows (21:02):
It really is a partnership.
Catherine Erdly (21:03):
Yeah, yeah.
We've talked about someof the challenges already.
We talked about obviously bigthings like the having to reject the
production run or issues like cash flow.
But what other challenges ofbeing a are there of being an
independent footwear brand?
Claire Burrows (21:17):
Lots.
It's any business, isn't it?
There's always challenges.
It's how you deal with them.
I mean, I'm just, you know, preparingfor the unexpected all the time.
You can control what you can controlin your world, but you can't control
what's going on outside of that.
Yeah, so that's about you justdunno what's gonna hit you.
I mean, we've been through all sortshaven't we in the last 10 years.
(21:41):
It's been great fun, just it keeps coming.
So I think what I've learnedis basically just expect it.
There's always gonna be thosechallenges and you've just gotta
learn to navigate them and be nimble.
Yeah.
And I'd say one of the biggestthings is having a decent
cash buffer in the business.
So that you can navigate things if theunexpected happens that you're not kind of
(22:04):
like on that knife edge whereby, you know,one thing trips you up and that's it.
Back to cash flow.
But yeah, I mean, it's justfinding a way to navigate
being nimble with the business.
Just considering all the outcomes.
And again, back to partnerships as well.
You know, when we've had some issues.
(22:24):
Sometimes , we had a factory go bustrecently and you know, that was then
we had to kind of like call on ourpartners to see what we could do to move
our products that were in that factoryinto another manufacturing partner.
And you know, people were really great.
So they could see an opportunityfor them as well as us.
And yeah, it's just about havingthose strong relationships to
(22:47):
get through all the challenges.
Catherine Erdly (22:49):
Yes, I can imagine that it really helps if you've
built up that goodwill over theyears that you've got a bit more
flexibility built in more than one way.
So then just to wrap us up.
Absolutely fascinating hearing more ofthe story behind our own grace, but as we
look forward into 2025, what advice wouldyou give to other small business owners
who are looking for growth this year?
Claire Burrows (23:11):
I mean, I always say work hard, be nice to people and don't run
out of money, cash flow, making sure thatyou've got a grip on the finances is the
biggest learning curve that I've had.
You know, I could quite easily have beenthe person who just thinks that there's
money in the bank so you can spend it.
Luckily my husband hasa financial background.
(23:32):
Put together a cashflow andfinancial reports for us to
make sure that I didn't do that.
And I'd also say test and learn.
You know, that's been acommon theme throughout for
us from the beginning to now.
It looks very differentto how we test and learn.
Although, you know, we still dosome kind of like in real life
stuff, but mostly it's digital.
(23:53):
But just trying things out to seeif they work for you, and that could
be in terms of marketing activity.
It could be in terms of retail activity,it could be in terms of product.
But I guess always doing itin a way that you are testing
with a small amount of budget.
That means that you can optimize thatand get dive into it if it does work.
(24:16):
But if it doesn't, then you've onlyassigned a small amount of budget to
it and it's not gonna be critical.
You don't get anywhere by doingthe same things over and over, do
you?
Catherine Erdly (24:24):
No, and I think this is a really great point you make.
Because I do think sometimes it's alittle bit of a different mentality with
small businesses and big businesses.
And I'm sure from your backgroundin bigger footwear brands as well,
you've probably seen the same thing.
It's always about moving forwardand you've got a bestseller.
The question is, what'sthe next bestseller?
Can you create somethingthat's gonna outsell it?
And I think sometimes I see smallbusiness owners, not all of them,
(24:47):
you know, lots of them do get that.
And they're constantly moving forward.
But they almost feel like, okay, I'vegot this formula now I'm gonna work.
That's what I've got.
I'm gonna sit on it 'cause it's working.
But it's like this idea that you'vealways got to be moving forward, right?
You've got to constantly what's next?
How do you develop it?
How do you tweak it?
Move it on.
Claire Burrows (25:05):
Yeah, and it's sometimes like, I mean,
God reinventing a bestseller.
If we have the formulafor that, we'd be all in.
We pocket that, but that'sthe hardest thing always.
So I mean, what we've found is thatI'd say this is true of any sort of
footwear business that I've workedin, is that it's not necessarily
(25:26):
a move on of the same thing.
It's something that is like completelydifferent but hits the same spot somehow.
And that's why it's reallydifficult, because you can't
take something like, you know.
But think of some of our best sellers.
Like you can't just say, well, let'sjust tweak it and it'll be an update.
Yes, you've got new colors and newmaterials, but it's not gonna be
(25:46):
that if you just like tweak thatthing, it'll be the next big thing.
You tend to find that the customer wantssomething completely different from you.
For us, that's kind of how we'vegrown, is by adding categories and
taking customers on that journey.
They were started with aballerina, then it was trainers.
Now we're really big on sandals.
(26:07):
Then it's into boots.
You know, for us, we wanna be havingour customers on that journey with
us and being the go-to for eachpart of their footwear lifestyle.
Catherine Erdly (26:17):
Yes, yes.
And then in two, I see youhave your wedding edit and
your heel sandals and yeah.
It's having those loyal customers,but then offering maybe gradually over
time, offering them something different.
So it's almost complete their lifestyle.
Claire Burrows (26:32):
I mean, I always wanted to do heels right from the beginning,
you know, I was like, I want heelsthat I can dance the night away in.
So that's where the heelproducts come from now.
And that's then led into okay, well peoplehave been sort of saying, oh, I'm buying a
pair for my wedding or for my bridesmaids.
Or it's the day when you definitelydon't wanna have miserable feet.
But that's come fromcustomer feedback too.
'Cause they've been saying to us, ohlook, you know, can you do it in silver?
(26:54):
Can you do it in various colors?
And can you do a lower heel?
A higher heel?
Yeah, we are constantly evolving.
Catherine Erdly (27:01):
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
And do you want to wrap up by justtelling everyone where they can find
out more about your amazing shoes?
Claire Burrows (27:09):
Of course.
So online at airandgracelondon.com.
So it's airandgracelondon.comAnd follow us on socials as well.
Catherine Erdly (27:19):
Thanks so much for joining me today for today's episode.
Don't forget, you can now sign upfor early access to Retail ROAR 2026.
There's lots of perks for doing so.
So head to the show notesand make sure you sign up.
If you have a moment to rateand review the podcast, you can
do so within Apple Podcasts.
You can also rate thepodcast in the Spotify app.
And of course, if you like, follow orsubscribe, depending on where you're
(27:40):
following or listening, then you'll bethe first to know about each new episode
coming out every Thursday morning.
See you next week.
Welcome to episode number 253 of the Resilient Retail Game Plan.
(00:04):
Hi, it's Catherine Erdly here.
I'm a small business and retail expertas well as your host today, and today I
am delighted to have a throwback episodewhere we revisit one of my favorite
sessions from Retail ROAR Retail.
ROAR is my free online summit.
It happens each year in March.
In fact, if you look in the shownotes, you can see the details
(00:24):
of how to sign up for 2026.
And I had the pleasure of interviewingClaire Burrows about her journey with her
amazing footwear business, Air & Grace.
Welcome to the Resilient Retail GamePlan, a podcast for anyone wanting to
start, grow or scale a profitable creativeproduct business with me, Catherine Erdly.
(00:50):
The Resilient Retail Game Plan isa podcast dedicated to one thing,
breaking down the concepts and toolsthat I've gathered from 20 years in
the retail industry and showing youhow you can use them in your business.
This is the real nuts and bolts ofrunning a successful product business,
broken down in an easy, accessible way.
This is not a podcast about learninghow to make your business look good.
(01:14):
It's the tools and techniques that willmake you and your business feel good.
Confidently plan, launch, and manageyour products, and feel in control of
your sales numbers and cash flow to helpyou build a resilient retail business.
(01:34):
Claire, thank you so much forjoining us at Retail ROAR.
I'm really excited to chat with you today.
Do you want to start us off byintroducing yourself and your business?
Claire Burrows (01:44):
Hi Catherine, thank you for having me here.
Absolute pleasure.
I am Claire Burrows, and I'mthe founder of Air & Grace.
Air & Grace is a women's footwearbrand, direct consumer, online only.
And we basically combinecomfort and style.
So they are the shoes that youlove to wear as well as the
shoes that you want to wear.
And we do all of that sustainablyand responsibly with manufacturing
(02:07):
in small batches from Europe.
Catherine Erdly (02:10):
Amazing.
And I know so many people watching I'msure are very familiar already with
Air & Grace and absolutely love yourshoes and how comfortable they are.
You started it from yourkitchen table, which you know,
is a phenomenal achievement.
So can you tell us a littlebit more about your decision?
What made you decide to start?
What's the story?
Claire Burrows (02:27):
So yeah, basically I have been in the footwear
industry for coming up to 30 years.
Wow.
So yeah, it's my background.
I've always worked in kind oflike buying design and product
development for big brands.
You know, ranging from Kurt Geiger toFitFlop, and I kind of got to the point
where I had a burning desire to fulfillwhat I saw as a gap in the market.
(02:51):
Which was about comfort shoesthat you actually want to wear.
It's kind of like we're all busy,we're all running around town, you
know, and we don't wanna spend a dayin shoes that make us feel miserable.
So many times I'd be kind of seducedby a pair of gorgeous looking shoes
that, you know, I'd want to buy them.
I'd be really excited about them.
I'd put 'em on for the firstwear and by the time I got to the
(03:13):
train station, I regretted it.
And I realized I had a wardrobefull of these amazing looking
shoes that I just never wore.
And the ones that I wore and came backto over and over again were the ones that
were comfortable that didn't let me down.
That stood the pace of the day with me.
So I kind of thought, welllook, there's a gap here.
Because, you know, there are amazing, whatI call traditional comfort brands which
(03:35):
are aimed at an older market, I'd say.
And the styling for me wasn't there.
And there's lots ofamazing fashion brands.
Like I say, you know, it'shit and miss whether they're
gonna be comfortable or not.
And therefore, to me, those were theones that I was wasting my money on.
So I found this gap in the middle thatI wanted to bridge with Air & Grace
(03:56):
and that was very much about it beingcomfort, plus style, plus quality and
all done responsibly and yeah, kindof like just took the leap of faith.
And started small, as you say, frommy kitchen table on my own with
nothing but an idea and no ideaof how to run a retail business
(04:16):
myself or online or marketing and.
Going back then, it's over 10 years.
I thought we were gonnabe a wholesale business.
Then obviously it's the boom of internetwas starting to happen and stuff
like Shopify happened where you couldactually create your own website
yourself without lots of money anda developer and I kind of pivoted.
(04:39):
I started out thinking I was gonnawanna get into stores and then I
ended up saying, no, actually what I'mgonna do is to start a D2C business.
Catherine Erdly (04:48):
Amazing.
And out of curiosity,what was your first shoe?
What was the first shoe that you designed?
Claire Burrows (04:53):
So the first shoe I designed was a ballerina pump.
That was because ballerina pumps areknown to be not very good for you.
Yes, so I essentially put a trainerinsole inside a ballerina pump.
And then basically we patentedthat insole and it's called Tender
Loving Air®, and it's still whatwe include in our shoes today.
Catherine Erdly (05:16):
And did the name come to you immediately?
'Cause I think the name's fabulous.
It works so well on lots of levels.
Claire Burrows (05:21):
The brand name?
Catherine Erdly (05:23):
Yes
Claire Burrows (05:24):
Both the brand name and Tender Loving Air®, both were in
collaboration with my amazing friend.
Panna Rose is the MD of a companycalled Our Design Agency, ODA.
And her business partners tookme on as their very first client.
Wow.
So she'd done the same thing as me.
She had a you know, an amazing backgroundin branding and jumped off the corporate
(05:48):
kind of ship and started her own business.
And we collaborated togetheron the name and the branding.
And then funny story about it is thatwe were really stretched for a name.
We were coming up with lotsand lots of ideas, and we just
couldn't really think of anything.
Nothing really resonated.
So Panna put me under a deadline and said,right, by the end of today, we have to
(06:10):
have an aim because we've got to start.
We can't hold up on this any longer.
Catherine Erdly (06:15):
Yeah.
Claire Burrows (06:15):
And we were on the phone and I had bad reception
in my home and Panna said UrbanPace, and I heard Air & Grace
and immediately that was it.
It's you know, you are walkingon air, but we've got, yeah.
Catherine Erdly (06:30):
Yeah, yeah.
That's so funny, I love it.
That's such a great story.
So from a misheardconversation, that's brilliant.
Oh, fantastic.
So you made this decision.
You've gone out there,you created the ballerina.
Did you just make one shoe to start?
Did you have a team?
Claire Burrows (06:47):
This is a sad story is that it never launched.
At that point, we ended upour first production run.
This is the trials and tribulationsof running your own business
and doing manufacturing.
We had to reject the entireproduction because it wasn't made to
specification and we couldn't launch it.
So then we ended up moving manufacturers.
(07:07):
Yeah, and we created a fourpiece range to launch with.
So we had a ballerina, a loafer,a boot, two boots actually.
Okay, and that's what weeventually launched with.
So all of those incorporated theTender Loving Air®, comfort foot bed.
Catherine Erdly (07:23):
Got it, got it.
I'm sure anyone who's dealt withmanufacturing will be hardened to
hear that you overcame the, youknow, i'm sure it felt when you had
to reject the whole production run.
Does it almost just feel like,ugh, this just insurmountable?
Claire Burrows (07:35):
Absolutely devastating.
Yeah, you know, and we'dalready paid 50% of it as well.
You know, we were luckythat we could survive that.
A lot of businesses thatwould've been in the end.
But we did manage to pivot and findanother manufacturer who was much
more understanding and cooperative.
And you know, that's something thatis critical to any business is to
(07:57):
have great suppliers who really shareyour vision, and that was one of
the hardest things in the beginning.
Catherine Erdly (08:03):
Wow.
Yeah, and you mentioned also at thebeginning, we talked previously about
the kind of start of the business.
And you talked about how importantthe feedback was from customers,
especially at the start.
I mean, I know you obviously you havea very engaged community now, but can
you talk us through what happened whenyou put your shoes in front of customers
and what changes you made as a result?
Claire Burrows (08:23):
Again, I'm sort of going back like 10, 11 years.
Yeah, so online just wasn't sucha clear route to market back then.
So I started the website, butdriving traffic to the website,
I just didn't have a clue.
We were lucky if wegot like 20 hits a day.
But we were still selling,this was the thing.
(08:43):
We were like, ourconversion rate back then.
I'd love that now.
So I took the decision that whatwe needed to do was get out there.
So we did consumer eventsfor the first year or so.
And got ourselves in front of customersand essentially did a test and learn job.
You know, everyone talks abouttest and learn online digitally.
(09:05):
We did it in real life physically.
You know.
I remember selling the first pair and Iwas just absolutely elated 'cause this
lady put them on and she was just jumpingup and down saying, "oh my God, these
are so comfortable. What have you done?"
It's amazing.
Because all that, you know, like 18 monthsof hard work and taking that leap of faith
(09:26):
to actually see in reality that somebodyactually appreciated what you'd done.
That meant everything.
And we had a really great firstrun when we did that first show.
That was for a week.
So that infused me.
And from that, you know, like Isay, nothing like getting firsthand
feedback from real life customers.
And they were giving us lots ofideas of like, can you do this color?
(09:47):
Why we'd really like to see a trainer?
You know, like lots and lots ofstuff that we could actually really
tangible that we could take andactually develop into the range.
So yeah, invaluable.
And you know, to this day still.
You know, we read the reviews.
We have a great customer servicemanager who feeds back all the
amazing comments that we get.
(10:08):
Social media, we put out every season.
We'll say, "what do you wanna see fromus?" You know, we just post a blank piece
of paper and say, tell us what to fill in.
And our reviews on Trustpilot.
I am very happy to say weare 4.8 stars out of five.
That is just amazing for us.
Like we really appreciate everyone whoneeds a review and we take it all on board
(10:33):
if there's positive or negative feedback.
'Cause that's how you learn.
Catherine Erdly (10:36):
Yeah yeah, for sure.
And I love how you went out there,you met the customers and you
really listened to what they said.
Were you surprised whenpeople said trainers?
Because obviously you'd startedoff with this idea that.
That it was about the shoesthat looked good, but that
maybe weren't so comfortable.
So you were surprised.
And now of course thetrainer wasn't the roadmap.
Claire Burrows (10:57):
Yeah.
And now, yeah, it's kind oflike 50% of the business.
But our thing was always likeour proposition was we are
shoes that feel like trainers.
So their shoes weretrainer technology inside.
Yeah.
So for me it was like trainersthat feel like trainers.
No, but the trainer trend was just somassive that we couldn't ignore it.
(11:17):
So we did it in our way.
So it's not done in a sports way,it's done in a lifestyle trainer way.
So we're still using premium leathers.
They're leather lined, so youdon't have that thing of the icky
kind of like synthetic liningsthat will eventually smell.
We've got our Tender Loving Air® footbedin there, which is layers and layers of
(11:39):
amazing recovery and memory foams thatare the absolute best that you can get.
They're the best quality, bestspec, so that means that they
feel ultimately comfortable asa trainer, but they're smarter.
It's a smarter look.
It's a sort of traineryou can wear on office.
Catherine Erdly (11:57):
Yeah.
And also, I personally find that a lotof these trainers that aren't, I mean
obviously not actual like sports shoes,but a lot of them are super uncomfortable.
Claire Burrows (12:06):
Yeah, they are.
Because, I mean, it all comes back tothe technical spec of like this foot
bed that we put in, it's expensive.
And it's handmade, but it's theonly way to do it, which is why
we patented it because it islayers and layers of this foam.
But you know, it is an expensive foam.
So if brands normally will onlyuse something like that sparingly.
(12:27):
We've got the whole thing made out of it.
It's a whole wedge.
I don't do things by halves.
Catherine Erdly (12:34):
No, and I'm sure that's played a big part in the
returning customer rate and just,you know how you've got people
who buy lots and lots of pairs ofyour shoes because of that reason.
Claire Burrows (12:45):
Yeah, I mean, we get amazed.
You'll get messages from peoplesaying, you know, it's my eighth pair.
And you know, that for us it's justincredible that people have kind of come
on the journey with us of we startedout with a very small range and even
now we've not got the biggest range.
We just edit.
We do what we do and we do it well.
We don't give like everyoption of something.
(13:06):
We'll go, what is theMary Jane that we want?
You know, what is the boot that we want?
And you know, we look at howthose are, how they're worn.
You know, what's gonna be the bestsort of like value for money on those?
Because, you know, our shoes aren't cheap.
But they are very well priced forwhat they are, where they're made,
the content that goes into them.
(13:27):
But we want them to have a timelesselement to their design and their
longevity so that if you do investin a pair, and it goes right back
to my very beginning of a wardrobefull of shoes I never wore.
You know, they will be the shoesthat you wear over and over again.
And you'll be able to wear themfrom season to season 'cause
we don't do fast fashion fads.
(13:48):
We're not about being really trend driven.
This is about good shoes thatwill stand the test of time.
But always look contemporary.
They're always gonna look on trend,but they're not fast fashion fad
Catherine Erdly (14:00):
Yeah, amazing.
So you've been going for 10-11 years.
What have been some of thebiggest pinch me moments as
you've gone along the journey?
Claire Burrows (14:10):
Oh gosh.
I mean many.
It's great when you get apinch me moment 'cause it makes
all the hard work worthwhile.
Obviously seeing people wearing yourshoes, whether that's in the street.
I mean, I've been tapped on theshoulder at London Bridge Station
a few times, but people say,who's the lady from Air & Grace?
That's amazing.
When people like, you know, you seethem out in the wild and people say.
(14:32):
They love them.
Yeah.
So that means everything.
And you know, the other end of that,seeing amazing women celebrities
wearing them, like Helen Mirumwas a real pinch me moment.
Wow.
Caught Allison Hammond wearing our bootsat the moment and looking amazing in them.
So yeah, like a real wide range of women.
That's always great to see.
You know, we've be lucky enough towin some awards and competitions.
(14:54):
I won right at the very beginning,a competition with the metro
newspaper, looking for sort oflike consumer brands of tomorrow.
And that basically gaveme investment as well.
So that enabled me to be able to domy pivot and say, so going from being
able to my first plan of wholesale,we wouldn't have needed as much cash.
(15:15):
But then having to pivot to buy your ownstock with footwear is very expensive.
Catherine Erdly (15:21):
Yeah.
Claire Burrows (15:22):
Our shoes are expensive anyway to buy.
And then on top of that, you'vegot to buy minimum quantities.
You've got to do all the tooling.
There's a huge investment in footwear andthen you've got all the sizes as well.
So we needed cash to be ableto actually buy that stock.
You know, being able to dothat was a real amazing moment.
Winning that out, thousands ofpeople was yeah, pretty cool.
Catherine Erdly (15:43):
Wow, that is really amazing.
And so that was just something you saw andyou thought, right, we're gonna go for it.
Claire Burrows (15:49):
Yeah, that the newspaper.
There was something about you know, we'relooking for brands and small businesses.
And I was actually out at the time withmy now husband and I was like, "you've
seen this, do you think I should apply?"
And he was like, "do you think you'llget anywhere with it?" And I was like,
"If don't try, I won't know." Thedeadline was that evening as well.
(16:10):
I hadn't seen it, there'd beenlike a whole run up to it and
the deadlines that evening.
So yeah, we rushed home and appliedand yeah, ultimately what got
through rounds and rounds of it.
It was a bit like aDragon's Den process, right?
So there were kind of like online roundswhere you had to submit business plans
and then at the end it was a presentationto a panel of I think about six people.
(16:31):
And yeah, the 10 of us presented.
I ended up winning the top prize.
And then as well as that, MichaelActon Smith, who at the time was
the founder of mushy Monsters, butnow is founder of Calm, calm.com.
He wanted to invest aswell, so he's come on board.
Catherine Erdly (16:50):
Oh wow.
That's amazing.
I mean, and I think this is thething with investment, isn't it?
It's the money, it's the financialaspect, but it's also then the
input into the business, right?
Yeah.
Claire Burrows (16:57):
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, money isn't gonnaget you anywhere if you don't
dunno what you're doing with it.
Yeah, Michael has been amazing.
So yeah, he's there wheneverI need him for some advice.
But yeah, for me, one of thebiggest things has been learning
the financial side of things.
Just making sure that cashflow is king, basically.
(17:19):
Yes, and understanding thatside of things as well.
I see, you know, over the last 10 years,other businesses have maybe suffered.
Catherine Erdly (17:27):
Yeah, no, I completely agree.
It's like it, it is literally likea better business really, isn't it?
Cashflow.
Claire Burrows (17:33):
,Yeah yeah.
I mean, you got the best idea, thebest product, the best marketing.
But if you run outta cash, that's it.
Catherine Erdly (17:40):
Yeah, yeah.
I wanted to just touchquickly on the suppliers.
I was curious to know.
So you had to pivot, you had to go outthere and I'm sure everyone who's dealt,
as I said, who's dealt with manufacturingwill really resonate with this 'cause
it can be such a rollercoaster.
So you found the partners that you had.
Do you still work with them now orhave you also kind of grown your supply
base or changed it as over the years?
Claire Burrows (18:01):
So we only ever had one and then we've added.
But we've changed, well, not changedcountries, but added countries as well.
So we're all still Europe,but we were mostly Portugal.
Now we're making also in Spain and Italy.
Catherine Erdly (18:15):
Oh, fantastic.
I suppose as you went along and youhad to go through that same process
of finding those people that youreally could put your trust in, right?
Claire Burrows (18:22):
Yeah.
I mean, I'm lucky I've got a goodnetwork, so I've been able to
call on my network and also thingschange within that network too.
So it's you know, somebodymight move from one factory to
another, or one agency to another.
And you know, then thatopens up an opportunity.
So yeah, it's not always the easiestgetting started with a new manufacturer.
(18:43):
But like for me, I've found thatit's really important to set
out the understandings upfront.
It's almost like a pitch, isn't it?
That they need to understand whatyour business is and what to expect
from that development process.
Because we're not the same as otherfootwear brands I've worked for.
(19:04):
G enerally, I've worked forbrands that have been a bit
more into sort of fast fashion.
When I fell out of love with that, Irealized that wasn't something I could
do any longer, and I wanted to put alot more into the quality of the shoes
and the development of the shoes.
And that takes time.
We will sample more than other brandsdo, and we wear trial and we will iron
(19:28):
out as many problems as possible throughthat process to ensure that when the shoe
launches, we've taken the pain for you.
Basically.
Literally, you know, just a simple thinglike moving a seam on the inside of a
shoe can make the hugest difference towhether that she's gonna rub or not.
So we were trial them to findthose pain points beforehand.
(19:54):
And that means that, youknow, it takes a lot longer.
So we have to ask oursuppliers to be patient.
So do you know what, and honestly, someof them will be, some of them won't.
You're not always theperfect fit for everybody.
Yeah.
But the ones that have stuck thecourse with us, have seen the benefit
because once we get a shoe right.
(20:14):
And you know, it's in a case oflike repeat orders for years.
Yeah, our crew trainers havebeen in the range for I think
now, seven or eight years.
So that's the business that they like.
That's the part of it thatwe can give them in reward.
But yes.
It's not the easiestprocess to start, but yeah.
You know, we don't makethem in big batches either.
(20:34):
So again, shoe factoriesthey like to make at scale.
But we'll be like, look, we'regonna make small batches.
But often that means that we knowthat we can control the stock.
We know that we're not over producing.
And it means that for them,they've actually got to like it.
Because it means they can kindof like keep the factory busy.
(20:55):
So they have their big orders,but then they produce the
smaller orders in between.
Catherine Erdly (20:59):
Right, got it.
It's like any relationship, isn't it?
You get to know each other.
Claire Burrows (21:02):
It really is a partnership.
Catherine Erdly (21:03):
Yeah, yeah.
We've talked about someof the challenges already.
We talked about obviously bigthings like the having to reject the
production run or issues like cash flow.
But what other challenges ofbeing a are there of being an
independent footwear brand?
Claire Burrows (21:17):
Lots.
It's any business, isn't it?
There's always challenges.
It's how you deal with them.
I mean, I'm just, you know, preparingfor the unexpected all the time.
You can control what you can controlin your world, but you can't control
what's going on outside of that.
Yeah, so that's about you justdunno what's gonna hit you.
I mean, we've been through all sortshaven't we in the last 10 years.
(21:41):
It's been great fun, just it keeps coming.
So I think what I've learnedis basically just expect it.
There's always gonna be thosechallenges and you've just gotta
learn to navigate them and be nimble.
Yeah.
And I'd say one of the biggestthings is having a decent
cash buffer in the business.
So that you can navigate things if theunexpected happens that you're not kind of
(22:04):
like on that knife edge whereby, you know,one thing trips you up and that's it.
Back to cash flow.
But yeah, I mean, it's justfinding a way to navigate
being nimble with the business.
Just considering all the outcomes.
And again, back to partnerships as well.
You know, when we've had some issues.
(22:24):
Sometimes , we had a factory go bustrecently and you know, that was then
we had to kind of like call on ourpartners to see what we could do to move
our products that were in that factoryinto another manufacturing partner.
And you know, people were really great.
So they could see an opportunityfor them as well as us.
And yeah, it's just about havingthose strong relationships to
(22:47):
get through all the challenges.
Catherine Erdly (22:49):
Yes, I can imagine that it really helps if you've
built up that goodwill over theyears that you've got a bit more
flexibility built in more than one way.
So then just to wrap us up.
Absolutely fascinating hearing more ofthe story behind our own grace, but as we
look forward into 2025, what advice wouldyou give to other small business owners
who are looking for growth this year?
Claire Burrows (23:11):
I mean, I always say work hard, be nice to people and don't run
out of money, cash flow, making sure thatyou've got a grip on the finances is the
biggest learning curve that I've had.
You know, I could quite easily have beenthe person who just thinks that there's
money in the bank so you can spend it.
Luckily my husband hasa financial background.
(23:32):
Put together a cashflow andfinancial reports for us to
make sure that I didn't do that.
And I'd also say test and learn.
You know, that's been acommon theme throughout for
us from the beginning to now.
It looks very differentto how we test and learn.
Although, you know, we still dosome kind of like in real life
stuff, but mostly it's digital.
(23:53):
But just trying things out to seeif they work for you, and that could
be in terms of marketing activity.
It could be in terms of retail activity,it could be in terms of product.
But I guess always doing itin a way that you are testing
with a small amount of budget.
That means that you can optimize thatand get dive into it if it does work.
(24:16):
But if it doesn't, then you've onlyassigned a small amount of budget to
it and it's not gonna be critical.
You don't get anywhere by doingthe same things over and over, do
you?
Catherine Erdly (24:24):
No, and I think this is a really great point you make.
Because I do think sometimes it's alittle bit of a different mentality with
small businesses and big businesses.
And I'm sure from your backgroundin bigger footwear brands as well,
you've probably seen the same thing.
It's always about moving forwardand you've got a bestseller.
The question is, what'sthe next bestseller?
Can you create somethingthat's gonna outsell it?
And I think sometimes I see smallbusiness owners, not all of them,
(24:47):
you know, lots of them do get that.
And they're constantly moving forward.
But they almost feel like, okay, I'vegot this formula now I'm gonna work.
That's what I've got.
I'm gonna sit on it 'cause it's working.
But it's like this idea that you'vealways got to be moving forward, right?
You've got to constantly what's next?
How do you develop it?
How do you tweak it?
Move it on.
Claire Burrows (25:05):
Yeah, and it's sometimes like, I mean,
God reinventing a bestseller.
If we have the formulafor that, we'd be all in.
We pocket that, but that'sthe hardest thing always.
So I mean, what we've found is thatI'd say this is true of any sort of
footwear business that I've workedin, is that it's not necessarily
(25:26):
a move on of the same thing.
It's something that is like completelydifferent but hits the same spot somehow.
And that's why it's reallydifficult, because you can't
take something like, you know.
But think of some of our best sellers.
Like you can't just say, well, let'sjust tweak it and it'll be an update.
Yes, you've got new colors and newmaterials, but it's not gonna be
(25:46):
that if you just like tweak thatthing, it'll be the next big thing.
You tend to find that the customer wantssomething completely different from you.
For us, that's kind of how we'vegrown, is by adding categories and
taking customers on that journey.
They were started with aballerina, then it was trainers.
Now we're really big on sandals.
(26:07):
Then it's into boots.
You know, for us, we wanna be havingour customers on that journey with
us and being the go-to for eachpart of their footwear lifestyle.
Catherine Erdly (26:17):
Yes, yes.
And then in two, I see youhave your wedding edit and
your heel sandals and yeah.
It's having those loyal customers,but then offering maybe gradually over
time, offering them something different.
So it's almost complete their lifestyle.
Claire Burrows (26:32):
I mean, I always wanted to do heels right from the beginning,
you know, I was like, I want heelsthat I can dance the night away in.
So that's where the heelproducts come from now.
And that's then led into okay, well peoplehave been sort of saying, oh, I'm buying a
pair for my wedding or for my bridesmaids.
Or it's the day when you definitelydon't wanna have miserable feet.
But that's come fromcustomer feedback too.
'Cause they've been saying to us, ohlook, you know, can you do it in silver?
(26:54):
Can you do it in various colors?
And can you do a lower heel?
A higher heel?
Yeah, we are constantly evolving.
Catherine Erdly (27:01):
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
And do you want to wrap up by justtelling everyone where they can find
out more about your amazing shoes?
Claire Burrows (27:09):
Of course.
So online at airandgracelondon.com.
So it's airandgracelondon.comAnd follow us on socials as well.
Catherine Erdly (27:19):
Thanks so much for joining me today for today's episode.
Don't forget, you can now sign upfor early access to Retail ROAR 2026.
There's lots of perks for doing so.
So head to the show notesand make sure you sign up.
If you have a moment to rateand review the podcast, you can
do so within Apple Podcasts.
You can also rate thepodcast in the Spotify app.
And of course, if you like, follow orsubscribe, depending on where you're
(27:40):
following or listening, then you'll bethe first to know about each new episode
coming out every Thursday morning.
See you next week.
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