North Andover, Mass.

North Andover, Mass.-based Converse Inc., a subsidiary of NIKE Inc., announced the opening of its first West Coast specialty retail store in Santa Monica, Calif. The Santa Monica store is located at the Third Street Promenade and opened on Feb. 11. The 7,000-sq.-ft. location allows customers to design one-of-a-kind footwear, apparel and accessories. The Converse Customization station is located in the front of the store and is set against a 25-ft. window backdrop that showcases the process to pedestrians. The space also features three large skylights, wall installations designed by local artists and repurposed high-school bleachers that display footwear.

North Andover, Mass.-based Converse Inc. recently announced the opening of its first specialty retail store in Manhattan on Nov. 26., just weeks after the company’s launch of their first-ever specialty retail store in the Newbury Street neighborhood of Boston on Oct. 15. Located at 560 Broadway and Prince streets, the new SoHo Converse store offers one-of-a-kind footwear, a brand new collection of women’s and men’s apparel and accessories, as well as unique product customization capabilities. Additionally, the store features the largest offering of Converse footwear in the world. The SoHo store’s design features speak directly to Converse’s distinct sport

It’s no secret that there are far fewer list management and brokerage firms vying for our business. Many of the smaller, more entrepreneurial list firms have been absorbed by a few large corporations. As a result, some catalogers believe there are fewer opportunities to negotiate pricing and fewer choices in general. The same concerns exist about firms that rent out cooperative prospect lists. But in reality, the contrary is true.

For many years, square-inch analysis was delegated to the newest member in a catalog marketing department and was almost considered a rite of initiation. Assigning this relatively tedious task to the newbie provided the added benefit of making sure every member of the department understood and appreciated square-inch analysis. Square-inch — aka “squinch” — analysis is a method for determining the relationship between the space allocated to the sale of a product or set of products and the sales and/or profits stemming from their appearance in that space. Quite simply, you compare the sales and profits to the cost of the space the