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Photo

Angela Su, a second-year psychology student, passes the vacant area in the UCLA Store where Shoe

Photo

Angela Su, a second-year psychology student, passes the vacant area in the UCLA Store where Shoe

The shoe store in Ackerman is back. Only this time, it’s under a different name.

Though the new store won’t open until June, signs announcing Shoe City’s arrival have already been placed in front of the former Copeland Sports section of the UCLA Store.

Shoe City will replace Copeland Sports, which operated in the UCLA Store for four years, but ended its lease in order to expand to a larger store format and be closer to its home base in San Luis Obispo.

After approaching such stores as Big 5, The Sports Authority, Sports L.A. and Chick’s Sporting Goods in the search to find a replacement athletic shoe store, Associated Students UCLA officials came to an agreement with the Southern California-based Shoe City.

The proposal and decision came to the ASUCLA Board of Directors in late February.

Most of the other companies ASUCLA spoke to wanted a larger space than the 4,200 square feet the UCLA Store had to offer, ranging from a desired 10,000 to 30,000 square feet, said Rich Delia, chief financial officer for ASUCLA.

But Shoe City, which has a chain of 27 stores in Southern California, is accustomed to smaller venues.

Delia said Shoe City will begin to move into the UCLA Store after ASUCLA recarpets the area, which should take a few days. He estimates the work will start the first week of May.

He said Shoe City will offer a wide range of athletic brands, including Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Vans, New Balance and Puma. The merchandise will total 95 percent in shoes and 5 percent in sports apparel. But Shoe City will not offer any sports gear, such as sports equipment and skateboards that Copeland provided.

ASUCLA hopes Shoe City will do better in sales than Copeland did by focusing on shoes, rather than extra merchandise, Delia said.

“Copeland didn’t do well selling skateboards, sunglasses, sandals and some swim attire. Their sales weren’t as good as they would have liked it,” Delia said.

“With Copeland, 80 percent of the sales was shoes, 20 percent was athletic gear. With Shoe City, 95 percent of sales will be shoes, so we think they’ll do better by focusing on that,” he said. “They have a wide variety of brands and offer a very good price.”

But students have expressed regret about the loss of a sports gear option.

Zander Chemers, a first-year law student, said that the few times he shopped at Copeland he bought sports gear, such as his football, not shoes.

“I think (Shoe City) will probably go out of business. Athletic gear is better than shoes. You can go anywhere else to buy shoes, so why would you come here?” he said.

Jennie Shih, a fourth-year mathematics student, said she thought more students bought athletic gear than shoes.

“Copeland might be better, since there’s more variety because of athletic gear,” she said.

Delia said ASUCLA hopes Shoe City will provide both a service for the students and a financial return for the UCLA Store.

One financial change involved in the replacement regards Shoe City’s commission contract.

Shoe City will pay ASUCLA a commission according to a climbing rate, unlike Copeland, which paid commission at a flat rate of 12 percent of all sales.

According to the climbing rate, Shoe City will pay 10 percent of sales up to $1 million, 11 percent of sales up to $2 million, and 12 percent of sales beyond that.

ASUCLA chose to negotiate a different commission rate with Shoe City in an attempt to help out Shoe City’s sales in the beginning stages, Delia said.

“We thought (the climbing) rate would work better with (Shoe City), since they’re initially starting off. And if they’re successful then we can better share in that success,” he said.