What do the fashion runways of Paris, Milan, London and New York have in common with your neighborhood playground? If two Swedish designers have anything to say about it, quite a lot. Inspired by the birth of his nephew Vincent in 1998, Thomas Elbaum and partner Patrick Osterman searched in vain for what they deemed the perfect baby gift: shoes. Finding none that suited their tastes, they designed their own.
As one would expect from Scandinavian designers, the Vincent brand takes a more contemporary, simple and clean approach to children’s shoes, lacking the heavy embellishment and multitude of colors found in many children’s shoes. 
Patrick and Thomas believe “most higher-end kids’ shoes on the market today are over-designed, with too many competing colors, details and applications.”
The designers share their design inspirations online. “Each Vincent collection is a direct result of the impressions we receive during our travels, experiencing and absorbing different locales and meeting Vincent customers face-to-face,” says Patrick. The Doris, a playful open toed sandal embellished with flowers across the straps and on the Velcro closure, for instance, was inspired by the tulip fields at Keukenhof Gardens.
The first Vincent storefront opened in Stockholm in 1999 and now you can easily buy these “fun, fashionable, functional” shoes for your own children, thanks to Christer Berg, president of Vincent Shoes, the exclusive distributor of the Vincent shoe brand for North America based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Introduced to the Vincent brand by former business partners while on a trip in Stockholm, Swedish-born Christer liked the brand and brought a few pairs back to his wife Brenda, with whom he had started Scandinavian Child, the North American distributor for Swedish children’s line Svan and Cariboo of New Zealand in 2005.
Deciding that there was indeed a market for the Vincent brand in North America, Vincent Shoes was born and launched in the fall of 2006.
Christer has been pleasantly surprised by “how universal fun, fashionable design is. Everyone looks for something new, something fresh, something exciting; still, (the shoes have) to be practical and affordable.” Building the business and the buzz around the brand also takes time, says Christer. “It takes a while to penetrate peoples’ minds. Now we’re really seeing the snowball effect,” says Christer, who has been adding retailers on a daily basis – taking Vincent Shoes from zero to 60
all over the U.S. in six months and adding several online boutiques including Baby Style, who carries an exclusive Vincent style, the Chrissy, among others.
Bestsellers include the Mini Frog for prewalkers which features a sweet smiley face on the toe of the shoe, the Steve a full-support shoe with vents so early walkers can enjoy feeling the air between their toes, the Stan featuring a stylish velcro flap at the top of the shoe for toddlers, and the Anton (named after Christer’s 2 year old son), an adorable canvas shoe with a classic, but stylish t-closure and white striping running up the middle and along the side of the shoe.
What’s next for Vincent Shoes? Continuing to build up their network of quality retailers. And from the sounds of it and the daily calls from satisfied customers asking for retail stores in their neighborhoods, Vincent Shoes is here to stay. Buy Vincent Shoes at www.vincentshoestore.us
By Kris on 05/21/07 in 2007 Business Spotlights, Editor Picks, Featured, Parentrepreneur, Style, Stylish Children
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May 26th, 2007 at 10:33 am
I was recently reading one of the questions from a mom about her 3 year old not wanting to share. I have thought about this alot and I have come from a big family 5 girls and 1 boy of whom I am the youngest, we were in fact taught to share and we see so many moms telling their children the same thing, what struck me as an adult is we “as parents” are bad examples of sharing we do not really share anything. No one can just come over and pick up my SUV and take it for a ride or go through my closet and pick and choose as well as if someone took our black berry or any device like that we would go crazy as well. So I decided to try to share in front of my son and tell him when I was doing it… But I do believe that there is a limit if something is new and special and the child does not want to share it then I think they should be respected also in that case I always tell him if you don’t want to share we will have to put it away.
Hope this helped a little