What makes a merchant banker take a left turn and go into the clear plastic shoe box business?

Joshua Kerbel, a successful merchant banker and factor in Toronto, would get impatient watching his wife ransack piles of mismatched boxes trying to find a particular pair of shoes for an evening out. Suggestions about labeling the boxes, polaroiding the contents or just keeping the shoes out on a shelf met with much wifely resistance (“No, that’s ugly”; “No, that’s a pain”; “No, my shoes will get dusty”; “Leave me alone”). Josh knew that he and his wife could not be the only people wrestling with this problem.

A consummate business problem solver by training, Josh realized that there had to be a better way. Research into the “clear” shoe storage box world revealed an array of clunky, expensive, ugly, inefficient lidded tubs masquerading as shoe boxes - and, on top of all the other drawbacks, they were translucent at best, frosted into impenetrability at worst. It became patently obvious to Josh that there was a crying need for a well designed, well priced, easy to stack, easy to store, easy to access, CLEAR shoe box. Through his connections as an apparel industry factor, Josh was able to design the box he wanted, and, more importantly, work with a US-based fabricator to create the shoe storage box of his wife’s dreams. And thus, Shoe Stör was born.

Shoe Stör boxes come packed flat for easy storage - a boon to space-challenged urban dwellers everywhere. They are actually clear - so the contents are visible at all times, from any angle. The boxes are designed so that they can be stacked and they open from the front, so the contents can be removed without shifting stacks of boxes. The boxes come in sizes to hold women’s shoes and half boots, as well as men’s shoes; they are also great for storing handbags or for organizing other accessories like belts or scarves and keeping them visible and dust-free.

In just 12 short months, Shoe Stör has gone from concept to market; the company is already a big success as sales take off across the nation.

Josh loves the idea of helping to change the way people do things - even with something as simple as how to store shoes. He wants Shoe Stör to be a platform from which he builds a business dedicated to developing elegantly simple solutions to the problems of everyday life. As he says, “I want Shoe Stör to be thought of as the company to which people refer when they say ‘Wow, that is such a great idea – why didn’t I think of that!’

shop.clear-shoe-boxes.com