After more than a decade of serving clients from its downtown shop, Shoefly is opening a new location in the Mendenhall Valley.
The new store, known as Shoefly Studio, opens at noon Friday in a shopping complex located next to the Best Western Hotel by the Juneau International Airport. With just over 24 hours left before the grand opening, CEO and President Sydney Mitchell and Store Manager Laurel Messerschmidt were at their new location Thursday morning making preparations.
Mitchell, who helped found the company in 2005, had paint on her fingers and a beaming smile on her face as she dashed around the unfinished room and talked about why she decided to expand to the Valley.
“We had lots of customers, lots of women who live Out the Road and in the Valley and have a hard time making it downtown,” Mitchell said. “They find parking daunting. So we’ve been thinking, in order to really serve the women of Juneau and the girls of Juneau like we want to, this makes sense.”
The store will host grand opening events all weekend, starting at noon Friday. From noon to 6:30 p.m., there will be seasonal treats and customers can spin a wheel to try and win gift certificates to Shoefly. The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and the first 30 clients will get a complimentary gift bag. Donut holes and coffee will be available, as it is “Donuts &Divas” day.
Sunday is “Boots &Brunch” day, as the shop is open from noon to 5 p.m. and will offer smoothies, mimosas and brunch snacks while showing off a stylish selection of winter boots. At both the downtown location and the new location, customers can enter to win a $500 holiday gift certificate.
With Shoefly Studio, Mitchell hopes to give customers a personalized experience in an age where so many people are shopping online and not getting that one-on-one care.
“We envision that this location offers more personal, more of a this-is-my-closet kind of a vibe,” Mitchell said. “So it really is creating a collection for our client and then having her come out here and try it on.”
The shop will be open every day until Christmas, Mitchell said, as the shopping season heats up. Though there are only a few parking spots in front of the building — one that also houses shops such as Freya Romance Boutique, the Northern Tea House and Adara Skin &Boutique — there are parking spots on the side and the back of the building, Mitchell and Messerschmidt pointed out.
As drills whined on the outside of the building as workers prepared to put the new sign on the building, Mitchell said there’s one more reason she wanted to call the new shop a studio.
“We also want to make a few custom things out here too,” Mitchell said. “That’s the other reason behind the ‘studio’ part of it. We’re reserving room in the back room because we do want to create some custom products of our own, so we will be pursuing that.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
