For women who love shoes beyond reason
Courtesy ShuzyQ
It’s Valentine’s Day, and the women who own ShuzyQ in downtown Anchorage want you to know it’s OK if you haven’t found “the one.” This Feb. 14, you can come down to the store and find a soul mate for your feet.
ShuzyQ is hosting a KamaSHOEtra party with aphrodisiac food from Orzo, voodoo dolls, a chance to take a whack at a heart-shaped piñata and a shoe fashion photo booth. There will even be discounts.
ShuzyQ’s mantra is: For women who love shoes beyond reason. And for the owners Sydney Mitchell and Dawn Walsh, it’s all for the love of shoes.
Every time they make a business decision, they ask, “Where’s the fun?” If it’s happening at ShuzyQ in Anchorage or at its sister store, Shoefly+Hudsons in Juneau, it’s probably fun. They love planning events, participating in First Friday festivities and donating a gift certificate to either of their stores for charity fundraisers.
ShuzyQ recently contributed shoes to Anchorage’s Object Runway event at the Bear Tooth. It also participates in the Clare to Clare fashion show fundraiser each summer. Shoefly+Hudsons often contributes gift certificates to auctions that raise money for people who need to fly out of Juneau for medical care.
ShuzyQ celebrates its two-year anniversary in Anchorage this spring, but Shoefly+Hudsons in Juneau has roots deep in Alaska history.
If the shoe fits
It started with Hudsons, which might be the oldest footwear establishment in Alaska. Hudsons opened in the late 1930s to sell shoes to miners.
Hudsons had changed hands several times through the years, and Sydney and Dawn separately were interested buying it in the mid-2000s when the owners at the time were looking to retire. In a coffee shop next door to the store, Sydney and Dawn discovered their common love for shoes and their balance of strengths and weaknesses were the seeds for a perfect partnership. There, the idea for Shoefly was born.
Sydney and Dawn opened their own shoe store in 2005 in downtown Juneau, as Hudsons’ owners weren’t quite ready to let go. They focused on selling only brands and price points that were not available at Hudsons.
“All of their shoes were at a $70-and-under price point,” Sydney said. “So we decided to focus on only shoes that were $70 and up.”
They showed Hudsons’ owners their business plan and asked for their blessing. In the three years that followed Shoefly’s opening, Hudsons saw its best sales years ever. More shoppers headed to downtown Juneau to buy shoes than ever before.
In 2008, the owners of Hudsons finally decided to sell to Dawn and Sydney. After running the two stores separately, the women eventually combined both into one location, one concept and one name — Shoefly+Hudson.
Stepping up
Visitors to Juneau from other parts of Alaska began suggesting the women should open a store in Anchorage.
“You have Nordstroms, you have the big boys,” Sydney said was their first reaction to the idea. “Why are you asking us to come?”
The women spent three days in Anchorage to survey the market and see if there was room for their niche.
“We visited Nordstroms, Payless, every shoe store you can think of,” Sydney said.
At the end of the three days, they concluded there might be room for their sense of shoe style. They were committed to finding a location in downtown, feeling part of their image is contributing to the vibrancy of downtown culture.
Sitting at Orzo over wine, they lamented the difficulty finding the ideal spot. But as fate would have it, they were sitting next to their future landlord. The owner of the building that houses Glacier Brewhouse said, “I have a space for you! Come over, bring your wine.”
He gave them a tour of the location of the former Imaginarium, a children’s hands-on museum facility that recently had moved into the Anchorage Museum’s main building.
In spring 2010, ShuzyQ opened. Dawn and Sydney held a naming contest for the store and were surprised to learn the name they chose from more than 500 anonymous entries was thought up by Dawn’s daughter.
When they first wrote the business plan for ShuzyQ, Sydney and Dawn sought the counseling of a small business adviser. Sydney described the woman as among the 5 percent of women who don’t love shoes.
“So she basically told us she didn’t think our business was going to fly,” Sydney said. “’You think women are going to buy 2-3 pairs of shoes a year?’”
That same skeptic has since become a regular shopper.
“Within a year, she had bought five (pairs of) shoes from us and was a complete convert,” Sydney said.
For the love of shoes 
Sydney and Dawn don’t believe in having a demographic. They believe the love of shoes defies age and laugh out loud at shoe vendors who tell them they only target 22-year-olds.
Sydney relayed a story about a particular shoe brand whose representative told her only women in their early 20s liked that kind of shoe. She later sold that same pair to an Alaskan woman in her 70s.
Dawn and Sydney carefully consider the types of shoes they carry.
“The shoes have to be cute first,” Sydney said. “The kind of shoes that cause women to claw at the glass or make some kind of sound when they enter the store.”
Then they look for other factors such as comfort, durability and sizing. Size availability is key, Sydney said. Alaskan women wear more size 11 shoes than in much of the nation. They also try to carry shoes available in wide widths.
“I would say we have an eclectic collection for special events, career and everyday shoes,” Sydney said. “Our everyday shoes tend to be a little more quirky. We are looking to bring something in that is either to the left or the right to basic.”
ShuzyQ:
LOCATION: 737 W. 5th Ave., Suite C, Anchorage
PHONE: 907-743-2953
ONLINE: ShuzyQ.com
Shoefly+Hudsons:
LOCATION: 109 Seward St., Juneau
PHONE: 907-586-1055
ONLINE: ShoeflyAlaska.com
The KamaSHOEtra Party
WHEN: 5-9 p.m., Feb. 14
WHERE: ShuzyQ, 737 W. 5th Ave., Suite C, Anchorage
Photos by Annette Potter / Photo of Dawn and Sydney courtesy ShuzyQ
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