How’d You Get This Job?
TSG reader 4DRUMZ speaks again.
What’s up with people working in athletic shoe stores who don’t know jack about kicks??? Seriously, 80% of the cats that work at my local mall shops don’t know jack unless corporate makes them read it out of some monthly newsletter.
Read Blog: Really? Really? How’d You Get This Job?
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good question, its been a dream of mine to work at a sneak store, but they wouldn’t hire me, then to top it off when i went back to that same store the following week and saw someone in uniform who i knew didnt know sh*t about sneakers checking from the type of shoes he had on…but its cool though
LOL, because your fly it don’t make you a good worker.
I find it funny because I work at foot locker & some of the other people who work with me have no idea about the shoes that are out or coming out. So when people come in or call asking about certain stuff we have to give them a basic run down about the product so they dont sound to dumb when they talk about a shoe.
What Up G, great post we ask ourselves that question every other day. How do these people get these jobs with no product knowledge I think its easier to keep somebody at a low pay rate and it makes it easier to fire someone when u can literally say they don’t know what they’re selling, it’s messed up tho but it starts with the management, they damn sure don’t want anybody on a sales floor that may kno more about kicks than they do, let’s get @ these store managers and district managers cause I’m not about nobody losing their job or being unemployed but its crazy when u might miss a shoe ’cause the person working the floor don’t even know what ur asking for then they tell u nah they don’t got it but it sitting on the shelf right infront of ‘em.(True Story)
yo, definitely true . . . i work in a shoe store. myself, i know a decent bit about the fashion/retro sneakers but my running shoe knowledge needs improvement.
here’s are my personal reasons why i think some workers are out of the know:
1. first and foremost, these workers have no PASSION on athletic footwear. i kinda don’t understand why someone would want to work and make minimum wage in a footwear store if they didn’t at least enjoy (with the exception of it’s the only available job/recession)
2. AGE is another important factor. this one kind of answers my minimum-wage question. most of these workers are teens in high school. most of these retros originally came out when they were babies and toddlers. i don’t remember every shoe’s initial release and i’m a eighties baby. the teens aren’t that familiar with these shoes for that reason in my opinion.
3. LOCATION is another biggie. one cannot go into a shoe store in a rural town or city and expect to grab a quickstrike or urban-account sneaker . . . generally speaking (few exceptions). a lot of people fail to realize that culture(not race) plays a big influence on what buyers purchase for a given store in a particular area. i live in a small city in north georgia one hour from the A and we never have anything but the reason is because most of the residents don’t value sneakers like that. they may want a shox, under armor, or some other type of running shoe though. for example, i once went in a macy’s looking for a north face jacket in gwinnett place mall and the worker told me that only the mall of georgia carried north face. i told him it must be a cultural thing and he laughed, but i was serious.
i could be wrong, but these are my culprits on lack of sneaker knowledge by associates.
thanks for reading all of this if you did and for an reward here’s an exception to #3:
if anyone is looking for the Eggplant Foamposites, Footlocker in Gainesville, Georgia has them. they got like ten pairs available. nobody up here will drop $214 on them after taxes; trust me i’m from there. don’t even know why they are up here. probably a mistake or maybe because i ordered the coppers.
I hate that shit my niggas…..this article is nuthin but true. When you hit the mall and ask these niggas if a certain shoe is goin to drop at there store, they respond like “i dont know”, “we should”, or “call us back 2morrow”. LOL. Another thing i hate is that all of them that work there put like 3 pairs for themselves aside and flip them, its smart but they arent true sneaker heads. They just follow the hype or jump on bandwagons.
Omg tell me about it! The chick (despite how attractive she was) that sold me my Copper Foams at the S&D Underground looked at me like I spoke in a foreign language when I asked for em. She didn’t even know they were Nike!
DAM I THOUGHT I WAS DA ONLY PERSON DAT NOTICE DAT. WE NEED TRUE SNEAKERHEADS WORKING AT FOOTLOCKER, FOOTACTION ETC.
I can say from experience from working with the INC that it was terrible. i would intentionally say i dont know or play dumb to some of the people that do to much. 80% of the people know whens a release day and what not and im not gonna tell you how many pairs we got. I remember working on the first DMP release and i had to unplug the phone from the amount of calls we got. its more of being annoyed at getting asked the same question 100 times in a 10 min time frame. working the “mandatory” 15 hour days and listening to the same music over and over just wears on you. wearing stripes was like the stripes in the old days; it was like jail working there
Do you want it to be a sneaker head holding your kicks before they go on sale…
or just a random guy who doesn’t know anything WHICH doesn’t even matter when your buying the damn shoe yourself
Good stuff 4drumz……
Everyone always complains about people holding stuff for their friends at Foot Locker, but if Foot Locker never hired a sneakerhead, no one would hold anything because they wouldn’t realize how limited or hot it is. So if you want to complain about this, don’t complain about employees holding stuff for themselves or their friends. Secondly, why would Foot Locker hire someone who knows everything about what’s coming out and it’s actual value. They teach you what you need to know to sell to the COMMON customer. For every true sneakerhead, their is tons of people buying fusions, prestiges, all white forces, etc. Hiring a personable person who doesn’t know whats really good with kicks almost ensures that they won’t be stealing or anything. With millions of dollars in merchandise in the backroom, why would you put someone who knows the resell value or limited-ness of a shoe in charge of it. You’re asking for theft if you do that. So for everybody that thinks Foot Locker is so stupid for hiring these people, they are probably way ahead of your thinking. At the end of the day, it’s a business, and they please the majority of their customers, which sadly is not sneakerheads.
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, THIS IS THE GREATEST POST EVER. TORONTO IS THE WORST WHEN IT COMES TO THIS. THEY ALWAYS HAVE CUTE WOMEN WORKING BESIDE THE PHONES TOO. U CALL IN AND ASK A SIMPLE QUESTION AND THEY ALWAYS NEED TO ASK SOMEONE. AND THE WORST IS AROUND THE YEEZY RELEASE I WENT TO EVERY FOOTLOCKER ASKING IF THEY WERE GETTING THEM. AND EVERYONE KEPT SAYING, WHATS A EEZY? OR NEEZY, JEEZY, BREEZY. AND THEN WHEN THE HYPE CAME TO THE SNEAKER I WANTED TO GO BACK TO THOSE STORES AND SLAP EVERYONE INDIVIDUALLY.
why you guys hating on the eye candy in the store… I love that especially when their rocking some hot kicks. …. Yeezy’s at footlocker? where they do that at? I have to agree with JH he had some vaild points.
People in Canada at least 5 years behind in Sneakers game lol…Yeezy’s at footlocker? Lol
That’s why you need to find a spot and stick to it, if at all possible. There may be a few shoes that your spot doesn’t get, but for all other shoes stick to your spot. That’s why I stick to my spot- Atheletes Foot- Cumberland. There my main men Damany and Brandon always keep me ahead of the game. If your in the Atl peep D and B, they’ll keep ya informed. Word up D and B.
The reason they work there is becuase of the pay and the availability of a job. “Sneakerheads,” especially the really cool ones, wouldn’t be caught dead wearing those zebra stripes 15-20 hours a week. So stop the complaining. It happens, you go to Macy’s, does the salesman really know when the new pair of Calvin Klein jeans are coming out??? NO! I agree with Thamp_23, the problem is customers coming in like know it alls. Not, the employees.
STORY BEHIND YEEZY AT FOOTLOCKER
Rumor was that One footlocker would get sizes in yeezys. so i went around trying to find out wich one. finnaly they gave it to this footlocker downtown that has been suffering ever since a shoot out on boxing day (canadian black friday)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day_shooting
story was too tragic, but random girl got shot because of some idiot who missed.
and damn who has a shootout in the middle of downtown toronto. ON BOXING DAY. in broad daylight
EVERYONEEEE IS OUTSIDE.
but yea they gave that footlocker the yeezys to increase traffic. all it did was piss ppl off cause the grey yeezys they released. no one knew about them AT ALL
so when they came into the store. a sneaker head called up all his boys. one dude preordered 2 pairs
only in canada will u get a preorder of yeezys
probobly the worst experience of all time. the other two pairs were raffled off, but that first mistake was a huge one
and for the record. if you go into footlocker to look at eye candy. ur a loser. i love women just as much as the next person, but who goes into footlocker to chat up the cashier.
when im at footlocker. i get my kicks and im out the door. im already too pissed off when i have to pay 245 for a pair of spacejams to even care if it was a girl who cashed me out
btw thats RETAIL AFTER TAX
lmao i ask this question all the time cuz my boy at my footlocker is on point and same at finish line but i remember asking other spots questions about all kinds of shoes and they looked at me like i was stupid and then i looked right back at em the same way askin this question!
Man You Aint Never Lied……..When I Was 18 I The Manager At Footlocker To Me He Would Help Me With a Job There Cause Of My Shoe Game….And Then He Gave The Spot To A Dude With Hush Puppies On….Well Now That You Think About It He Needed It More.
I never have this problem in DC. Sports Zone in Gtown, Shoe Gallery in Gtown, HOH in PG Plaza, Palace 5, Commonwealth, Major DC – We have waaay too many sneakerheads. So not only do u get the questions answered, u get the websites and pricings from everyone too. Annoying but Informative!
LIKE the cat 2day in Footlocker on 14th ST tried to tell me he flipped his Copper Foams for $500 – SMH at the lies when they still have a few sizes left. Evry footlocker in DC had a GR run so u can still get a 10-13 – BUT homie got 5?? Refs get no love unless they at the HOH. PERIOD
I remember last year, whn the eggplants were 1st coming out. I went to finishline (because until the griffeys came out, the footlockers was the worst place to get shoes) but I asked the guy and he said what’s a foamposite. The worst part is, that HE HAD ON A PAIR OF PENNY’s!!!
In order to get my job at footlocker. I had to play dumb. No boss wants a regular employee to know more than them making there job feel threatened. now since I’m in I be showing off all the information I know and people never walk out mad if the ask me a release date question.
@ icantjumpman67, dawg it’s dudes like you that make me wanna wrap the telephone cord around your Adam’s Apple.
.
“wearing stripes was like the stripes in the old days; it was like jail working there” – Have you actually been to jail? If not, STFU!
Aint that the truth
ElChupaNegro put this Comment on the blog in the TSG Community… I thought it was honestly one of the best so far on the topic of my rant! Sure, you could say GameStop is more like a local mom & pop shop… but it’s still a national chain!
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Comment by El Chupa Negro on March 7, 2010 at 1:40am
Interesting enough Gamestop actually makes sure they employ gamers . They make sure you know what 3 consoles are the best right now, what are the latest games, all the specifics about the industry and gameplay types. Footlocker and Finishline should follow this type of hiring process and they will weed out the useless employees from the competent ones. They would see a boost in customer satisfaction and sales. Everybody will be happy except the former employees of those stores they are gonna have to work in mickey ds or cinnabon in the food court.
Man i go to stores cuz i know what i want or because im looking for a deal this was the truth i dont even talk to most of the employees some already know me others just trynna make it seem like they trynna help when all they wanna do is go to the cash register and teel them they helped me out….. When im looking for a performance shoe with good employees i hit up City Sports out in DC chinatown they a lot better than others on that aspect
I feel you man. I remember when I was a lil younger like 2 years ago i applied to footlocker but they aint higher me. I go there from time to time and i ask about certain sneakers and they look at me like what?
Last time I went to ask if they received the shipment to the fresh water griffey’s, dude was like they come out last year man
i looked him like he was retarded, luckily the girl from another shop told me to go to footaction they got all sizes.
Out of the whole mall she is the person with the most sneaker knowledge cuz she always talks kix with me.
just proving that 80% of ppl dunno shit
yo this is my dream job!! i would own one if i worked there after 2 years
i work at job champs:)
this shouldn’t really affect sneakerheads too much seeing as we keep up on our sh*t. its about the employee’s having product knowledge to help the general consumer get the right product they’re looking for. i used to work at foot locker and had a co-worker trying to see a tall ass teenage kid a pair of low top shoes. the dude just LOOKED clumsy. i hope he didn’t break his ankle in those snaggin a rebound.
@trulyfresh23, u go to the one in hickory hollow?? they kinda pissed me off with the eggplants tho. i asked the lady if she would hold a pair and she said no she couldnt then i get there and ask for my size and she like i gotta call this dude to see if he wants em. im like wtf? i dont mind u holdin somethin for friends or whatever but damn dont lie about it to everybody else. guess she didnt realize i was the one who call. its cool ill just go elsewhere from here on if she workin
this is not true at all…maybe at some footlockers. im at FTL in NJ everyone that works here are sneakerheads.you need a size held u let us know we got you anytime! we care about our customers! …sucks taht other footlocker employees dont know their sneakers
@FTL… THANK YOU!!! Clearly (according to about 98% of the comments) you are the exception but at your spot… I’m glad this is the rule! Seriously, THANK YOU!
You call us about shoes that u wanna know thats coming out…if one employee doesnt knows atleast 2 others here will know! we’ll tell you whose getting them where u shuld be at…
D.C. shoe stores….the ppl that work here…are always on point..lol where ya’ll stay?
In my city sale representatives @ Footaction,Footlocker,etc only know about the BIG releases such as Air Jordan Retros and Pennies any other shoe you call them about they never heard of about it.
The Footlocker by me, they pretty much know what’s dropping and the names of the shoe. I can’t say the same for other stores in the mall…or other shops I go to. I have to be real descriptive cause some people don’t know what the Dunkmans are. Don’t know whose the athlete behind it or the colorways etc. Like some people said before me…it depends on age too. I didn’t start really knowing kicks til a few years ago. Teenagers don’t know the retros
Good blog
i know right lol…i ask for a shoe release and they be like what kind or how it look like lol…
dumbazz!!!
i should get the job instead!!
the way to tell if the guys that work at the stores know jack about kicks is to look at their feet, if they wearing something isnt exclusive ect, they prolly dont know for say a guy is wearing a pair of black on black adidas he is prolly just a regular guy who needed a job, say a guy is wearing some rare joints or a newly released xii, is the guy you need to talk to if you want to know a release date or something or want info about the shoe, he will more likely know the price an model without looking at the shoe
Well first you have to remember its corporate that makes the shoes choices so big stores don’t even see the reps anymore and plus knowing about release dates never was nor will it ever be a concern for the salesman to know. The things that they should know is how the shoe is made or what shoe is good for my feet. That is what stores are lacking, plus customers don’t to try on shoes anymore like we did when we were kids. When they salesman pulled up next to you and said to put your foot up on that rolling stool he was sitting on. We don’t get that service anymore. Its all about how many multiples did you sale when the customer came in when it comes to footlocker. Footlocker needs to go back to those small stores with the turn about displays that had one of each shoes on it and they had whole lines there. They would get back to making money.
i work at finishline half the people dont know about shoes unless theyre general release
New tsg page layout=Lame:(