E-COMMERCE

Blue Ox

After Kizik launched with its line of step-in shoes in 2017, it focused on demonstrating that its assortment, mostly lace-up sneakers and casual shoes, was as easy to slide into as flip-flops.

Now HandsFree Labs, the footwear-tech company behind Kizik, is launching a new step-in work boot line, Blue Ox. And while Blue Ox again is promoting how easy the work boots are to put on, it’s also going to great lengths to show that the boots stay on—especially in situations where losing a boot could be dangerous.

In a video posted to Instagram, Jensen Pratt, special projects manager at HandsFree Labs, steps into a pair of Blue Ox boots affixed to a board and is hoisted upside down and hangs possum-like.

In another video, Jason Lee, COO of HandsFree Labs, steps into Blue Ox boots attached to a wakeboard and does some impressively gnarly tricks, including flips, while pulled by a speedboat.

“You get the convenience of a hands-free step-in, but once you’re in, you’ve got the fit,” Lee told Retail Brew.

For HandsFree Labs, the launch of Blue Ox, like Kizik before it, is as much about showcasing the technology inside the footwear as the footwear itself. That’s because HandsFree Labs’s business model is to simultaneously highlight its own brands while licensing the technology to other brands, and today it counts Nike (an investor in the company) and New Balance among its licensing partners.

Keep reading here.—AAN

      

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STORES

Sculpies/Getty Images

You’d think the online deals piling up in consumers’ inboxes and the convenience of ordering from their La-Z-Boys would be the biggest reasons some shoppers will avoid stores this holiday season, but you’d be wrong.

It’s the crowds.

Among shoppers who said they were unsure about or not expecting to shop in stores this holiday season, the most common reason was crowds, cited by 52% of respondents, followed by long checkout lines (33%). Then came e-commerce’s siren calls, with 26% citing better deals online and 21% citing—ah, there’s the doorbell now—the convenience of online shipping and delivery.

The findings come from a new survey by Sogolytics, a customer and employee feedback software company, of 951 US adults who’d shopped in a physical store within the preceding three months.

Keep reading here.—AAN

      

COMMUNITY

Juliet Choi

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Juliet Choi is VP of product at supplement brand Grüns.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I create new product ideas and lead the teams that turn them into something real—a gummy in a sachet that’s delicious, effective, and ready for a consumer to pick up off a shelf. I lead cross-functional teams across product development, research and development, commercialization, and science and regulatory to make sure every idea actually becomes a successful product. I’m also the connective tissue for what other functions need from a product; if sales needs a unique flavor or size for a retailer, or operations needs a new co-manufacturer trained and validated, that runs through me and my team.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? A huge part of my job is building the infrastructure for repeatable success, not just one-off wins. Any team can figure out how to launch a product once on a fast six-month timeline, but it takes a process and systems to do that 12 times a year without something breaking. I’ve built out the innovation gate process we use to track every formulation in our pipeline through go/no-go decisions, which is what lets us scale from one great launch to a portfolio of them. The other thing people don’t see is how much the role demands beyond product development itself. To make the right call on a product, I need a working understanding of retail, marketing, customer service, operations, and legal—the role is inherently cross-functional, and I cannot operate in silos.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Our most recent launch, Müves! It’s a first-to-market 10-gram fiber gummy.

Keep reading here.—EC

      

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swapping skus

Today’s top retail reads.

Out of stock: Albertsons pulled its full-year guidance amid lackluster sales, saying it won’t offer an outlook for fiscal 2026 until it completes a full business review in Q4. (Bloomberg)

All hands on tech: As the grocer leans into technology, Kroger will lay off 3,000 corporate employees over the next three years. (Associated Press)

Food insecure: Ahold Delhaize faced a cybersecurity incident that led the international grocer, which operates Netherlands chain Albert Heijn and US banners like Stop & Shop, to take its websites and apps offline. (WCVB)

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