We're Number 1 In the Nation!

For Bruce Wesley, owner of Chicago’s Wesley’s Shoes, striving for success in the shoe business began at a young age.

Bruce was just 10 years old when he began working alongside his dad at the family’s store.

Bruce’s father Alvin Wesley was an entrepreneur who worked a year or two for Sam Devine & Sons, who had stores on Chicago southside, before purchasing his first store from Lebin Shoes in 1970.

“Most kids were watching cartoons on Saturday morning. Dad told me to get out the bed and come on down to the store. I could shift the boxes and learn a few things,” says Bruce Wesley. “Soon I began enjoying every working day at the shoe store. Dad took me to trade shows. At the age of 15 years old, I was doing all the buying and merchandising, trimming the windows, and enjoying the business.”

Bruce says he used the outdated inventory inherited from the purchase of Lebin Shoes to liquidate at flea markets around the city and help pay his tuition during college. During his college days, Bruce also worked with Harry and Joe Devine at their Shoe Corral store.

As Harry and Joe Devine were ready to retire, Bruce recalls, they were set to sell their store in the Hyde Park area of Chicago to the Wesleys. But, Bruce says, “Once the other merchants in the shopping center found out that a black family from Roseland area was taking over one of their key locations an emergency meeting was called among all the retailers. The purpose of the meeting was to block us from taking over the lease. The Merchants at the time decided to include a clause in our lease that Devine Brothers had to cosign for us. Keep in mind we had already been successfully in business over 12 years.”

Bruce continues, “We paid them off in record time — 1 year.” And he adds, “Ironically, all the stores that were at the emergency meeting are now closed and we have been on 55th Street for 50 years now,” Wesley says.

Today, Wesley’s proudly proclaims itself the oldest independent, Black-owned shoe store in the country.

The secret to the store’s longevity and success? Wesley says his customer service philosophy is simple: Be fair with people. And Wesley says, his store doesn’t really compete on price. “You could never be cheap enough,” he explains. “This is why we shop for exclusivity and unique brands that you can’t find everywhere. There are enough brands out there to be very unique with nice margins.”

The best advice he offers to his staff: “The lost art of schmoozing,” he says. “The best salespeople know how to hold conversations that have nothing to do with business when opening the sale. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling real estate, automobiles, shoes. It’s the same formula. You talk to people and actually listen — that’s key to good customer service.” —Cara Griffin