Canadian Lawyer

classmate Lyne Giroux, now a lawyer with the Desjardins credit movement. By then, the couple were living in Montreal, where Labrosse worked in the legal departments of some large companies before joining a small downtown firm that is today called Gascon et associés. Labrosse and some partners also owned and operated a computer company that made and sold high-tech embedded systems to blue-chip clients like Bell and the U.S. Navy. After selling the company in 2000, Labrosse and his wife moved to Quebec City — Giroux's hometown — to raise their three kids. He later joined Bernier Beaudry Inc., a 15-lawyer firm, a five-minute drive from his family's home in the city's commercial-centric west end. According to Labrosse, he learned the Dack's brand was in trouble during a trip to Montreal in 2009. Founded in Toronto by an Irish immigrant named Matthew Dack in 1834, the shoe-making company and single retail outlet remained in the Dack family until the 1940s. New owners opened several new stores before selling the company to Church's Footwear in the early 1960s. The renowned British luxury shoemaker expanded the chain to 11 stores and also bought Hartt, which notably made boots for the Canadian Army and the RCMP. It consolidated both companies in Hartt's manufacturing facility in New Brunswick, but later moved them to its facility in England's Northhampton region, famous for shoemaking. Church's, in turn, was acquired by Prada in the late 1990s. According to Labrosse, the giant Italian shoemaker tried several experiments to revive the Dack's brand. Those efforts included the introduction of inexpensive models made in Mexico, Dack's shoes for women, and the sale in Dack's stores of lower-end brands like Clark's and Ecco. "Those experiments didn't work [and] didn't help the reputation of the Dack's brand," says Labrosse. Prada subsequently ended production of both the Dack's and Hartt lines and sold the four remaining Dack's stores to Toronto liquidator Danbury. After running the operation a few years, Danbury closed "They are extremely comfortable and you can wear them with suits, jeans, cords — almost anything. it's just too bad they aren't tax deductible like lawyers' robes." the stores and put the Dack's brand into bankruptcy in 2009. By happenstance, Labrosse was in Montreal and dropped by his favourite Dack's outlet in Place VilleMarie — only to find it shuttered. Back home he did an Internet search, found the trustee, and made contact. "My goal was to buy the trademark and revive the brand," says Labrosse. He adds that from the get go he wanted to start an online company. "I thought that was a better business model in this day and age than having retail outlets and employees and all the rest," said Labrosse. After acquiring the rights for the Dack's trademark for Canada, Labrosse hired a consultant to modernize the logo and build a web site (www.matthewdack.com), then registered the trademark in the U.S. and Europe. He then went to the U.K. and hired high-end British shoemaker Cheaney, which had briefly made Dack's for Church's, to begin producing the distinctive quality the brand is famous for. Labrosse says his resurrected Dack's are almost identical to the hand-crafted originals, requiring some 200 manual operations be performed in the manufacture of each shoe. He also revived 27 original Dack's styles, most of which are named after Toronto streets and Ontario counties like Dufferin (the most popular style), Stormont, Sherrit, Caine, Kingston, Cornwall, Turner, and Harrison. Once he had everything in place, Labrosse ran an ad on the bottom of the first page of the Saturday business section in the Globe & Mail. The ad simply read 'Dack's are back' and displayed the new online store's web site address. "I was really nervous," recalls Labrosse. "I was afraid that people of my generation, who I figured would be my customers, wouldn't be buying stuff online like I do. And because of the quality issues [and] the fact we didn't then offer free shipping in the event the shoes didn't fit or whatever was a risk for the customer." Much to his relief however, orders started coming in almost immediately for the solidly-built shoes, which are made using  the Goodyear welted construction technique. "I was sitting at the breakfast table with my wife and was looking at the ad when I got the first one," recalled the silver-haired Labrosse, who receives e-mails on his cell phone from the shoe store's web site whenever a new order is received. He says he got about a dozen more orders that first week — and the demand hasn't stopped. According to Labrosse, who keeps and ships inventory from a small warehouse with help from his youngest son, 15-yearold Émile, one of his first orders came from the office of finance minister Jim Flaherty. "They wanted to get a pair for him to wear when he delivered last year's budget," syas Labrosse. "But they called back a couple of weeks later and cancelled because they said it wouldn't be appropriate for the minister to deliver an austerity budget in $450 shoes." Instead, Labrosse says Flaherty's staff brought the minister to an Aldo shoe store where he purchased a cheaper pair of Chinese-made shoes. "What message does that send?" Labrosse asks rhetorically. "Why buy a cheap pair of shoes that will last a few weeks when you can get one that will last a lifetime?" Though he considers his online shoe store to be more of a hobby than a serious full-time business, Labrosse says he is enjoying the opportunity to supply fashionable high-end footwear to conservative quality-conscious consumers like himself. "I like the look of Dack's," says Labrosse. "They are extremely comfortable and you can wear them with suits, jeans, cords — almost anything. It's just too bad they aren't tax deductible like lawyers' robes." www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m M ay 2013 25

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