Fernand^® Footwear

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Who We Are

Yes, as you may have heard, the shoe shop is now under new ownership. As of January 2006, Steve sold the business to Tim McKay. Tim has been working with Steve for some time and will continue to provide the same quality and service that you've come to expect from Fernand Footwear.

In the Beginning....

    In the late seventies, Steven Fernand bought a one-way ticket to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and got off the plane with only two hundred dollars in his pocket.  He found a job with Zora the sandalmaker, starting out at $3 an hour, repairing various leathergoods.  Soon, he was making custom sandals, and after a few years he put together enough money to return to the States and start his own business.

    Fernand designed a line of shoes and sandals, and started his business in 1983 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, wholesaling Comfoot™ Shoes & Sandals into college towns, and selling them personally to customers at art & craft fairs, and at his shop in the Ozarks.  In 1985, Steven moved back to Massachusetts, his native state, and worked the art & craft fair circuit on the East Coast. Then, in 1986, he moved his business and young family to the beautiful northwest lower peninsula of Michigan, where the real estate was then a bargain, bought a house, set up shop, and incorporated.  Through the years, we have sold wholesale to retail stores in various cities, and sold retail to individual customers through direct mail, at art & craft fairs, and at our workshop outlet.

    In the early nineties, Fernand cut a deal with people from Ithaca, New York, who had been selling Fernand® Comfoot™ Shoes & Sandals at their retail store.  We licensed them the trademark, and showed them how to make our shoes.  The deal soon soured, so Fernand terminated the trademark license and we sold our interests in the company.  The Aurora Shoe Company still makes similar footwear. Copies of Fernand's designs have also come out of China, Portugal, and Mexico.

    In 1997, the growing demands of our retail and wholesale businesses, caused both markets to be inadequately supplied, so we abandoned our wholesale business to concentrate on what we do best, make footwear for individual feet. Downsizing into our core business made sense for the quality of our product and our service. Quality and service is what we built our business on. We can now do what we are able to do best, what most other shoe manufacturers are neither willing nor able to do, that is, deal one on one with each of your feet.

    Fernand Corporation makes shoes and sandals in an old barn, to which a new addition was added in 1994, in the historic hilltop village of Benzonia, Michigan.

Steve Fernand "Passing the Hammer" to Tim McKay

Steven Fernand with big one and a little one.

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(800) 419-8621

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