The Washington times., 1903-08-31
AMERICAN SHOES ARE
PLEASING THE GERMANS
Great Increase of Sales in
the Last Two Years.
DISTANCING ALL OTHERS
Native Manufacturers Attempting to
Copy the Imported
Styles.
DISTANCING ALL OTHERS


Department of Commerce and Labor.
American made shoes have practically
usurped the finer trade of Germany
Within two years the trade has grown SO
extensive that three firms are selling
more than $4,000 pairs of shoes every
half year. And while these shoes are
the same that sell in the United States
for SO and $3.50, the Germans pay more
than 81 for them. The grade for which
s. is paid in the United States sells for
more than 81.
The demand for American made goods
is developing so rapidly that new shops
are to be opened in nearly all of the big
cities of the empire.
One Firms Success.
The figures issued by the Department
of Commerce and Labor are from a re-
lport from Frank H. Mason, United States
consul general at Berlin. He refers to
stores opened in Berlin by an American
| firm of Newark, n. J., which sells the
product of two factories, one of which
makes mems shoes exclusively, and the
! other women's. The shoes were coarse,
fine. brown. black. and enameled. The
price obtained pair was s4.2s. Con-
tinuing, the report says:
From the date of opening until the
close of the year-a little less than nine
months-this one store sold 26,600 pairs
Of shoes, success so immediate and de-
cisive that the same firm decided to open
two more similar establishments. namely,
in Frankfort and Hamburg. where ex-
pensive but spacious and attractive
premises were leased in new buildings
in the most prominent shopping districts
of both cities.
THE Frankfort store was opened
March !, 1902, and the one at Hamburg
on October OF the same year. The
sales of the three establishments during
the year. in which the Berlin house was
open twelve months, the one at Frank
fort ten months, and the store at Ham
burg three months, aggregated SO 500
pairs.
Steady Increase in Sales.
From January l to July is. 1904
fortnight more than six months-they
have sold 81. 400 pairs of shoes, and the
business shows a steady. normal in
crease. the sales of any given month ex-
ceeding those OF the corresponding
month of the preceding year by 20 to 80
per cent.
This Is the record of the one really
intelligent. well planned and executed
effort on the part of the American shoe
industry to work the German market.
On the LIST of September this year an
other large shoe store Will be opened on
Friedrich Strasse in Berlin by an Amer
lean firm, which is engaged here in an
other line of retail business, but which
has been led by observation of existing
conditions TO embark in the new enter
prise.
Trade Tricks.
Besides these, there are perhaps a
dozen leading retailers who keep in
their show windows. and to some extent
on their shelves. more or less meager
but well-chosen stock of American
made shoes. but as a rule such dealers
are specially interested in the sale of
German or Austrian made footwear and
keep in sight just sufficient American
made goods to hold their customers who
ask for them, and who might otherwise
wander, as many have indeed done, to
the exclusively American-shoe stores.
Copying Americans.
Meanwhile. the German manufactur- |
ers. many OF whom use the most i'm |
proved American shoe machinery and !
have copied. as far as possible under |
existing labor and other conditions, the |
factory methods which prevail in our |
country. have continued TO improve |
their standard of production both in |
respect TO finish and durability. They 1
have adopted to some extent the broad, |
low-heeled, comfortable forms which
are now made and worn in the United |
States"
The consul concludes his report with |
a number of statistics which show that
as yet the Americans are furnishing only
a small percentage of the shoes con-
suned in Germany. but he calls atten-
ton to the fact that four years ago no
American shoes were sold in the coun-
try. He also says that while the i'm
ports from all other countries are de-
creasing, those from America are in
creasing rapidly.