Canadian Lawyer

Cross EXaMinEd Where the leather hits the road Quebec City lawyer takes it upon himself to continue the tradition of fine dack's shoes. by MarK carDWell R emember those TV ads in the early 1980s that featured Victor Kiam, the American entrepreneur who was so impressed with the electric shaver his wife bought him, he bought the company? One day Quebec City business lawyer Marc Labrosse might run a similar campaign. A year ago, he opened an online store for Dack's, a Canadian brand of luxury leather shoes that went out of production after 175 years in a 2009 bankruptcy. A Dack's aficionado who owned a dozen pairs of the iconic shoes at the time 24 M ay 2013 www.CANADIAN (he now has 80), Labrosse acquired exclusive rights to the brand and resurrected it. Turns out he wasn't the only well-heeled Canadian who was hooked on the fine footwear. Though he won't divulge how many pairs he's sold since his e-retailing venture began in February 2012, Labrosse says he's filled orders for his one-price $450 shoes from judges, lawyers, bankers, and other professionals from every province in Canada. And demand is growing. "We're not at the point where I wanted to be," he says. "But I'm satisfied with sales [and] I'm confident we'll do better once the news spreads that good-quality Dack's are back." L a w ye r m a g . c o m The legalist's love affair with the brand started when he was a kid growing up in Ottawa, where his grandfather worked in the shoe department of an upscale department store. "He always told me that Dack's were the best shoes and I guess that stuck," recalls Labrosse, who studied civil law at the University of Ottawa. "Yes they are expensive. But they look great and they are indestructible if you take care of them." He bought his first pair of Dack's to celebrate his call to the Quebec bar in 1986. He wore the same pair four years later at his marriage to law school mark cardwell Marc Labrosse liked the shoes so much, he bought the company, well the rights.

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