Restaurant Daily News: Tell our readers a little about your company. What’s your main line of business?
Matt Smith: SHOES FOR CREWS has been selling the world’s top-rated slip-resistant footwear for more than twenty years. Our shoes are worn in more than 100,000 workplaces in the United States, Canada, Europe, and throughout the world. Some of our best customers include brands such as Darden Restaurants, McDonald’s, the Cheesecake Factory and Wendy’s.

RDN: What makes your company unique?
MS: We have the most slip-resistant footwear in the industry and we were the first to develop a payroll deduction program for our customers. This program allows the employee to pay for their footwear through automatic payroll deduction over several weeks. We also stand behind our product and back our footwear with a $5,000 Slip & Fall Accident Warranty. Should an employee slip and fall while wearing our shoes, we’ll reimburse the company up to $5,000 towards the workers’ comp claim.

RDN: Are you introducing any new products?
MS: We’re always updating our product line to keep up with current fashion trends, while maintaining those styles that are popular amongst our customers. We’ve just recently introduced a new lightweight, athletic style, the Eastside. And we’ve introduced a new clog, the Chloe. This summer we’re going to release another new athletic style.

RDN: What is your current product emphasis?
MS: Our focus has always been improving our slip-resistant footwear so that it meets the needs of our customers in diverse work environments. Our footwear is worn in all manner of workplaces from restaurants and hotels to factories and hospitals.

RDN: What distinguishes your products from the competition?
MS: Slip-resistance! Our shoes have been tested as the best in the industry time and time again. And our competitively priced footwear line features more than sixty styles to meet our customers’ varying needs. Additionally, we also offer world-class customer service.

RDN: Compare the position of your products and their technology against the current market.
MS: SHOES FOR CREWS features our patented SFC III™ Slip-Resistant Outsole. The combination of a unique rubber compound and micro-channel tread pattern pushes liquids away and grips the microscopic roughness of the floor surface. Other companies offer similar products but their footwear just doesn’t match the slip-resistance of SHOES FOR CREWS. They’re not even close.

RDN: What is the nature of your distribution?
MS: We mail catalogs, posters and other printed materials to our customers and they can purchase our footwear any of time of the day over the phone or through our website. And for our customers in Florida and Nevada, we offer a truck service that delivers footwear to locations with more than thirty employees.

RDN: To what do you attribute your company’s success?
MS: We offer companies an inexpensive safety program that’s easy to operate and proven to reduce slip and fall accidents. And for our customers we provide great customer service, and slip-resistant footwear that’s second-to-none.