Brand Shoes

Shoes from a Shoe Pavilion ad.

Hard times hit the Shoe Pavillion with bankruptcy. This is the tip of the ice berg for the shoe industry. Shoe Pavillion Inc. was a major shoe chain on the west coast of the United States. After five straight quarters of losses it announced in October of 2008 that it would close all of it’s remaining stores. It is apparent that a major blow was when it lost a lawsuit brought on by DSW for copyright infringement. It had already announced that it would enter bankruptcy before it lost the lawsuit.

Shoe Pavillion was the largest discount shoe store on the west coast and had 117 stores and was in business for 29 years, before declaring bankruptcy. The store had offered shoes at 30 to 70 percent off retail, now it seems apparent that the prices were to low. Even in the wake of it failure another business has opened in it’s former Bakerfield, CA location. It is reported that the store DB Shoes at 4310 California Ave. is owned by the former chairman of Shoe Pavilion, Dmitry Beinus. According to the chief operating office Bob Hall, the store will employee 6 people. The company now has 7 stores all being in California except one in Reno, NV.

It is odd that the new company DB shoes has taken on the name of a well respect name in the shoes business, from the UK. After having problems with copyright infringement against Shoe Pavillion, one would think that  Dmitry Beinus would be extra careful to stay away from any legal problems with a new company. DB Shoes of the United Kingdom is well know for their extra wide shoe and has been in business since 1920 and was started by identical twins, Jack and Bill Denton. More recently they have been an industry leader in shoe manufacturing technology.

So, for now the legacy of Shoe Pavillion is being shaped by a new compnay that Dmitry Beinus has started, DB Shoes. The next question is will this new company follow the prior one and have to include a legal defense as part of its business model?

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