The Gentlemen’s Expo – from our Intern’s perspective!
The Gentlemen’s Expo
(From the perspective of one of our wonderful interns, Zoe Reynolds)
DAY 1 (November 14th, 2014):
It’s late Friday evening. The streets outside the Toronto Metro Convention Centre are empty, as most have fled the financial district to celebrate the weekend. However, walking across the Skywalk into the convention centre, a distinct crowd emerges—groups of well-dressed men, many accompanied by either women or a dark peacoat all head towards the same destination: The Gentleman’s Expo.
As Day 1 of the Expo, it does not disappoint. As you walk into the Expo on a red carpet, you’re greeted at the door in a soft manner just before you are confronted by the sounds of chattering, announcements, and live music. With at least a dozen exhibits in your line of view, you take a turn to the right towards the live music, walk past the open bar, and arrive at the start-up section hosted by KPMG, appropriately named “Start Me Up!”. Here you’ll find some of the local entrepreneurs selling and/or pitching their products and services for the expo delegates.
And at the centre of all the action you would find the OLISS team front and centre, ready to go.
Our booth was simple and polished—with sample shoes with the OLISS Insert, a mechanical walk simulator to show you the Insert works, 3-D printed sample inserts, and a fabulous team ready to show you how to #ceasethecrease. We met dozens of you who were most definitely dressed to impress (check out our Instragram, @olissinc to catch your lovely pics) and were just as excited to learn about our product!
Hearing you guys say “Can I get one now?” is exactly what we came here to do. We’re ecstatic you guys love our product as much as we do and are getting things rolling to bring this solution to market for you guys.
The Expo is kickin’ until midnight, where things wrap up and the team gets prepped for Day 2. But unlike Cinderella, we ain’t leaving our OLISS Insert shoes behind (yet).
DAY 2 (November 15th, 2014):
Exactly 12 hours later, we’re back at our booth, hungry for action and food. We poke around the exhibits, meeting the other amazing exhibitors (Lord of Ties, The Brew Box, teaBOT…) and meeting more of you even outside the resident food truck. No wonder dates always revolve around food. It’s such a great bonding experience. The marketing team liveblogs and snaps more photos of you trendsetters (while not-so secretly admiring your shoes). From the classic gentleman to hipster-chic, by early afternoon we’ve got gentlemen from all walks of fashion but all walking in similar, gorgeous leather shoes.
Some of you admitted that your shoes were quite the investment and the pain of maintenance from shining your shoes to stretching them out with wood, amongst other tedious solutions. We tell you about our Insert and bam—you’ve got magic going on. There was more than one accusation of witchcraft the second day, much to our enjoyment. If that’s what you want to call it then honey, we’ve got the full works for you.
Though we’re still working around some numbers, with the OLISS Insert having a target price around $10 to $12, buying a few for each expensive pair of shoes you own seems like a given. But even for your favourite pair of brogues or sneakers could use the support.
All in all, it was great meeting so many of you from the Greater Toronto Area and we got some amazing feedback (and your surveys were entered in our raffle!). Make sure you keep an eye out for us in early spring of 2015 for our Kickstarter campaign—we’ll need your support again!
Have a fantastic day and as always, #ceasethecrease!