Watch out UK, our famous shoe storage cabinets from the Gulf of Finland are on their way back into stock. After discontinuing these tidy shoe store solutions last year we’ve had so many requests that through the sheer power of happy customers they’re coming back to a STORE near you.
As I write this blog our stylish shoe cabinets are literally sailing their way across the Gulf of Finland to arrive at STORE HQ in around a week’s time.
As ever, our brief to Leon (our friend the shoe cabinet designer) was to ignore the cheap tacky flat pack shoe storage cabinets that flood the UK market and instead concentrate on a range of items that were both stylish, well made but still affordable.
Leon has done us proud with some new shoe cabinets and storage benches that we really think you’ll like. They’re both slimline, look great and are fairly priced. Better still they’ll stand the test of time unlike some UK shoe storage cabinets we’ve tested!
the traditional shoe storage box is on it's uppers
The Daily Mail recently reported that footwear manufacturer Puma are to replace the traditional cardboard storage box their trainers come in with a neat new shoe storage bag called ‘The Clever Little Bag’ which uses 65% less paper. Puma postulates that this is “the smartest shoe storage box ever” and I have to agree, it’s such a simple yet neat reusable storage solution that is set to save thousands of tonnes of cardboard and energy used in their production.
Tamara Cohen’s Daily Mail Article says:
For decades they have stored not only our footwear, but letters, photographs and keepsakes. But the humble shoe box may be on the way out, after being labelled a drain on the environment. Puma, the world’s largest sports goods firm, has axed the traditional boxes for its trainers in favour of a reusable bag which uses 65 per cent less paper.
The new packaging – called the Clever Little Bag – took 21 months to develop and will be rolled out in the second half of next year. It hopes to seize the green initiative with a reusable shoe bag made fitted inside a cardboard frame. The bag is made of sustainable cotton from Africa mixed with recycled polyester.
The German company claims it will massively reduce its carbon ‘paw print’ , saving 8,500 tonnes of paper, the weight of 1,400 elephants every year. It will also eliminate 20 million megajoules of electricity, a million litres of fuel and a million litres of water as the lighter packaging would incur fewer transport costs and also need less plastic packaging – saving 275 tonnes of plastic.
In a promotional video about the new packaging, Puma heralds the death knell of the shoe box. ‘Boxes are everywhere’, it says. ‘Boxes have been around longer than the wheel. Our lives are filled with them, we work in boxes. For a long time boxes made our lives easier. But at some point boxes become a problem.’
Cost savings: The new packaging, developed by San Francisco designer Yves Behar, was launched at the Design Museum in London yesterday
Puma’s chief executive Jochen Zeita said the switch to sustainable packaging would be cost neutral within a few years, although there would be higher costs in the short term. He said: ‘To begin with, we don’t expect to save costs with this. It may even have a negative impact in the short term. But over the long run, there should be cost savings. Sustainability is not only absolutely necessary considering the situation our planet is in, we as companies are also overdue to take responsibility. We can’t wait for governments. Companies have to lead the way and we want to be among the leaders.’
Developed by San Francisco based designer Yves Behar, the company chose his prototype from more than 2,000 ideas. Mr Behar said: ‘In changing the packing and distribution life cycle, we hope our design…encourages other retail companies to follow suit
I can’t believe how many times we get asked for shoe storage boxes and shoe racks each day in STORE and walking around our stock room I can’t believe how many different shoe storage ideas we stock. Not content with stocking one type of shoe rack and a simple clear plastic shoe storage box, our buyer Lindsey has to have more and more (and more shoe storage ideas in store). I’m still not convinced that the trip to L.A. to find the best clear sliding and stacking shoe drawers was entirely work related but hey, our clear plastic shoe boxes are fab. and all the way from L.A.
Lindsey’s latest shoe storage foray has been to the Gulf of Finland where she’d found the most amazing shoe storage cabinets. We tried and tested a few shoe storage cabinets from the UK over the last couple of years but they’ve just all been, well, rather underwhelming! We then went and looked at some seriously expensive shoe storage cabinets in Italy and finally this week she’s plumped for a great range of shoe benches and shoes storage cabinets in oak, walnut and MDF. Check ‘em out online and in STORE (soon) as I think they’re a really nice storage product at a really good price and much better than any shoe storage cabinets we’ve seen in UK before. Better still, Lindsey gets yet another gold star for her umpteenth new shoe storage addition to the store range!
November’s House Beautiful magazine suggested that STORE’s storage website APlaceForEverything.co.uk was THE place to visit for ‘small space storage’ in an article titled ‘Style on a Shoestring’…thanks guys!….but I was also interested to see IKEA’s new Hemnes slimline shoe cabinets which look like a really neat new shoe storage idea. The Hemnes shoe cabinet only has legs at the front so that the shoe cabinet can stand closer to the skirting board. My only criticism is that it only store 8 pairs of shoes, which for such a big unit is a real shame.
If you’re in the market for a shoe storage cabinet and looking for something a bit different do check-out our new range of shoe cabinets in oak and walnut all the way from the Gulf of Finland.
It took us over two years to find a decent quality range of shoe cabinets but we think we’ve got shoe storage sorted with these!
Out now, July’s LivingEtc. magazine featured our shoe storage solutions saying that “STORE does fab. stackable clear storage drawers”.
We have to agree, our range of clear shoe boxes are really popular with the ladies here in Cheshire and also online.
Watch this space though because we’re in the process of importing some fantastic new shoe storage boxes and shoe storage cabinets this coming Autumn. The shoe boxes (and boot storage boxes too!) are joining our range all the way from USA and the solid wood shoe storage cabinets from chilly Finland. We’ve also a range of larger shoe boxes for men too.
Watch out UK, our famous shoe storage cabinets from the Gulf of Finland are on their way back into stock. After discontinuing these tidy shoe store solutions last year we’ve had so many requests that through the sheer power of happy customers they’re coming back to a STORE near you.
