The company began by our grandfather who made work boots during the Great Depression in St. Louis before my grandmother and mother passed away twenty years ago, the company was passed down to our Father George C. Kirk. He began to make slippers, and unlined house shoes and sold them at local markets around Alberta. In 2012, my Father passed away and now it is owned by myself and siblings.
Tell us about yourself?
I come from a family of builders, designers, and makers. I remember seeing a photo of my grandmother walking down the street in Edmonton Alberta wearing a wool jacket and a tote bag that she made herself and that what inspired me to follow in my grandparent and parents footsteps.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
My grandparents and parents advice to me was “You have to enjoy what you are doing and be your own person.”
What problem does your business solve?
We are a Made to Order Service and at this time, we will need to relocate our company to a bigger space where to move to is something that is in discussion right now.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
We come from a family of makers, builders and designers that is our inspiration and strongly encourage a Made local movement here in Canada. Our main problem is trying to do custom orders online but one way we are trying to get around that is through emails, and now our future plans is to create a YouTube Channel and Video Calling where customers can contact us via video chat. We are not quite set up for that sometime this fall.
What is your magic sauce?
You have to enjoy what you are doing no online course or app will teach you that. It comes from you. We are a Made to Order Service all our products are designed, created and made by us nothing is outsourced.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Our plan for the next 5 years is to open our own boutique and create a video channel where we will show the behind the scenes into the making of our products. There are also some additional plans we have with our online stores we are not ready to announce them at this time.
What is the biggest challenge you've faced so far?
We are currently taking new photos and plan on updating our website to include color choices, sizes. Our biggest challenge was trying to do custom orders online so we hope to make things simple by adding these features.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
For more information about our products contact us at crkirk21@georgeckirksfootwear.com.
