One of the biggest issues we face at Russell is an overwhelming demand that causes an incredibly high return rate for sizing among first-time buyers. Aside from the obvious impact of production efficiency and cost, there is the very real consequence that the newest members of the Russell family will wait many months for their boots to arrive, only to discover that they don’t fit. Compounding that disappointment is the reality that those customers often wait several more months for their exchange pair to be built and shipped.

We have determined that more than 40% of our first time buyers do not order the correct size. There are many reasons for this, but the greatest cause seems to be the inconsistency in sizing among footwear and athletic shoes that these clients have historically purchased. Most athletic shoes are sized much larger than they actually are. If you wear a size 11 running shoe, your actual Brannock size is possibly a 9.5, meaning you should order a 9. If you simply based your order on your experience, you would likely order a 10.5, which is one and a half sizes larger than is appropriate. Barring being able to send every prospective buyer a Brannock device, we have created a system that should make the gateway to Russell ownership relatively easy.

Moving forward it is our goal to build and maintain stock inventory of our most popular builds. The moccasins we have chosen for our stock comprise about 80% of what our current customer base orders as Premier builds already. Beginning July 15th, if you have not purchased Russells since the acquisition and are buying your first pair under the new ownership, you will initially be able to order only stock boots. Here is the logic… it’s likely that you will be able to get exactly, or very close to what you would have ordered anyway, BUT you will get them quickly. THEN, if they don’t fit, you can return them and order a different size. You might arguably order the wrong size and still be wearing appropriately sized boots in two to three weeks. This will take a tremendous strain off of production, as we will be able to achieve much greater efficiency as opposed to building every pair to order, often twice, and this will increase customer satisfaction and success.

Once you have purchased and worn Russell moccasins that fit well, you will be able to order any of what we make available as Premier builds, now known as The Heritage Club. The only way to get into the Heritage Club on your first purchase is to be sized by us at one of our locations or at an event. Should you do so, you will be deemed Heritage-eligible. Naturally, we will give everyone as much notice of our plans to appear at these events.

It’s our goal to then focus on making sure that the Heritage buyer has the greatest level of choice, as well as a regular introduction of “special” builds based on historic Russell designs. The beauty of this system is that everyone ordering a made-to-order pair will already know what their Russell size is, so the level of returns, and the production costs and the impact on build times should be minimal. If you are a returning customer who knows your size, congrats and welcome to the Heritage Club.