This week’s interview is with Michael of HeartMyShoes.com, a community of shoe lovers that submit and share their personal photos of their shoes.
I just took a look at HeartMyShoes.com and your site seems like a lot of fun, would you mind telling my readers what its all about?
Of course, HeartMyShoes.com is a site completely and utterly devoted to women and their love of everything shoe related. Users that come to my site are encouraged to post/upload personal photos of their favorite shoes and store them in their own Shoe Closet that we give them for FREE. This way girls can check their inventory online with us and not have to rummage through their closets each time they go out. We ask our users to tell us a few things about their shoes so the other girls know exactly what they’re looking at; information like Brand name, Price, Where they Purchased them, How comfortable they are, etc.
Our readers can also come onto the site and browse around through all of the shoes girls have submitted. They can rate the shoes, comment on them, or just search for their favorite designers. Its a lot of fun.
How and when did you become interested in fashion?
I’ve never been a fashionista per se, but I’ve always noticed that shoes were the one common obsession between almost every woman I’d ever met. Girlfriends, friends, relatives, co-workers, all the women in my life either have a slight obsession with shoes, or a complete unwavering, almost compulsive attraction to shoes.
I find it incredible how you can take a group of 10 women who have never met before, and all you need is for one of them to start talking about shoes and all of a sudden everyone is best friends. Its the coolest thing.
So being a straight male, what inspired you to start a website devoted to women and their love of shoes?
I’ve always been told by my grandmother that the key to happiness in life is to keep the women around you happy. She’s even got sayings like, “happy wife, Happy life”. Before I started HeartMyShoes.com I was looking for a great idea to start my first website, and somehow this site just popped into my head, and two months later, here I am trying to make women happy. Its a fun gig.
Are there a lot of girls posting pictures of their shoes?
We launched HeartMyShoes.com in the middle of December and we already have over 40 members, 100-200 viewers per day, and at least 2 submission everyday so far, but we’ve had as many as 10 one day. Our readers are increasing every day and I haven’t met a shoe-a-holic yet that doesn’t love it. I hope your readers will submit some of their shoes as well. Its a lot of fun.
What are you future plans for the site?
Well right now I am concentrating on allowing women to post pictures of their favorite shoes and share their fav. shoes from our site with the rest of their friends. But in the future I am hoping to bulid more of a community where girls can come to get new ideas for their own purchases and make some friends on the site that share the same fashion style as they do.
You said you’ve met plenty of girls that are obsessed with shoes, does anyone specific stand out?
haha, absolutely. A girl I used to date lived on her own in a 3 bedroom house. She had one bedroom that was 100% devoted to her shoes. I’m talking shelves, closet organizers, drawers, the works. And then she also had at least a hundred pairs stored in her garage. It was intense.
Favorite shoe designer? Why?
Just from the past couple months in discussing shoes with all the women I know, the best shoes I’ve seen are always from Christian Louboutin. I find all of his products to be superior to any other designer I’ve seen on the site so far. I recently saw a pair of leather Louboutin boots on a girl I met on New Year’s Eve and they were incredibly sexy.
Favorite shoe store(s)?
There’s a store in Canada called StyleSense that opened up a few months ago that is a discount shoe store for any brand name or designer you can think of. There are only 3 locations at the moment but they’re popping up all over the place. You can walk into the store at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon and it looks like Christmas Eve.
Thank you, Michael! I’d say you’re doing a great job of keeping the women around you (and on your site) very happy!
