Jane Scheinmann and her slippers

 – interviewed and written by Florrie Juan Huang

If you have started up a shoe business or are going to do so, you might find the following story of Jane Scheinmann, a past student of Prescott & Mackay, helpful and inspiring:

P&M's past student: Jane Scheinmann

Jane describes herself as a “complete shoe-aholic”. After studying hotel management in Switzerland she worked in the hotel industry and then as an event organiser. But after a couple of years her independent nature and market sense pushed her to do something more creative. Having a business concept already to mind, she found the Prescott & Mackay shoemaking course via the internet in 2001 and took the Beginners Shoemaking course over a weekend.

Her idea was clear and simple: handmade, fashionable and comfortable slippers. She wanted her customers, who were into shoes just like she was, not to have to get back home after a hard day’s work and face a pair of brown and boring slippers. “At that time, no matter how funky the shoes were in the world, slippers were always very granny-like: nothing fashionable; nothing colourful; nothing new or different” says Jane, “it was either old-fashioned or bright red marabou-style – I wanted to do something in the middle.” 

When the weekend had finished, she found herself “totally, totally inspired by the class”. With tutor Melissa’s help, she sourced the slipper material – sheepskin – on the south coast of England, designed the slippers, and used Melissa’s contacts to find people to cut out the soles and uppers, and sew and bind them for her. She managed to complete more than 30 pairs of handmade slippers and attended that year’s show – House & Gardens’s ‘Spirit of Christmas’ – at Olympia, marking the formal launch of her slipper business – all these things happened in the three months after her first class at P&M, a truly Herculean effort!

Jane Scheinmann's first Ruby slipper collection for 2001's Christmas fair

She named her company “Ruby Slippers”, inspired by Dorothy’s slippers in The Wizard of Oz. You can’t help stroking these slippers when you hold them – they are all handmade, all leather, so soft and very, very cute.  They received a good response at Olympia from trade professionals despite their high cost, and she received two orders, one of them from Fenwick’s.

a closer look to Ruby slippers the first collection

However, this was when Jane encountered her first big obstacle – her orders were too small for the manufacturers to want to get involved. Although she finally fulfilled them, the business couldn’t go on without the problem being solved.

The following year, she was attending a footwear show and happened to get talking to someone who – unbelievably – turned out to be one of the biggest producers of slippers for supermarkets in the UK, including Next, Asda, and Marks & Spencers. His company was called ‘Ever Direct’ and they joined forces to launch their first collaboration branded ‘Ruby+Ed’. With several production lines already set up in the Far East and financial support from her new business partner, Jane was able to sit down to work on her designs and the first collection of Ruby+Ed’s was a huge success: Brown’s ordered the most expensive style (pictured below) with a retail price of £150, and a large amount of other styles were ordered by House of Fraser.

Ruby+Ed first collection: style Cobi

As John Lennon once wrote: “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”  Jane was finding that her vision of using only the highest-quality leather for her hand-made slippers was coming under pressure from competitors who had started making similar-looking alternatives with synthetic materials at a fraction of the cost. Right at the moment when she was confronted with this all-too-common situation, Jane discovered that she was pregnant, and in 2004 she decided to sell the brand to her business partner. She is now the proud mother of three lovely little girls.

some styles from the first collection of Ruby+Ed

When looking back Jane seems to have most enjoyed the conceptual aspect of the business, “the initial set-up was my ‘thing’. I am more interested in creating a product and seeing it go to the market. Ruby+Ed is still going and now you can find much more funky slippers in the marketplace than before – we kind of started a trend… We started up a business and the reaction was what I hoped it would be, that was enough. I have no feelings of regret.” 

Now her youngest daughter is two years old and Jane wants to start something new – working as a fashion image consultant. “What I’m interested in is working with individual people who are a bit lost with the image they are presenting, especially women who have children, their self-image changes after they become a mother – the image they portray doesn’t feel right for them. I want to help them to find themselves and make them feel comfortable and happy. It has nothing to do with celebrities or people with a bunch of money- I would like to shop with them from Evans to Yves Saint Laurent. ” Jane has already had four clients and got very positive feedback; she also plans to help ladies with breast cancer boost their confidence after treatment.

I then ask Jane what she considers to be the highlight of her career. “Definitely launching the slippers!” she says with a smile, “that’s a huge achievement but without Melissa’s help it wouldn’t have happened. The course really inspired me. It was very detailed, quite physical, and I really really enjoyed it. It’s a challenge and I definitely would like to do it again just because it was such a creative process and so intense – you have a weekend to produce a pair of shoes, and all the time you’re busy thinking about what you are doing – it’s a nice feeling especially when you have children; you can temporarily get your mind away from them!”

What advice would she like to give to our students? ” Definitely take a course, because it’s a real insight. If I had done Melissa’s course in my early twenties… ” we both laugh, and she continues, “but for starting up a shoe business, you’ll have to really, really want it. Shoemaking is particularly hard to actually ‘crack the nut’. It needs a lot of time. If you can find something not available in the market, then you’ll enter a place where competition isn’t so heavy. And think carefully about the aim of your business: are you in it to satisfy your own creativity, or to make money, to survive, or break-even?”

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Is Jane’s story inspring for you? Please leave your comments below.
The course Jane took is the Two-Day Beginners Shoemaking Course
For image consultation, wardrobe clearance or shopping guidance, please contact Jane Scheinmann via 07770755098 and jane.s@me.com