Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Remi Alder. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Remi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To be successful you have to first picture yourself already successful. You have to walk, talk, think, and dress the part of what your reaching out for. To be successful you have to go way beyond the limits of your limitations, if you want it bad enough. Many people will doubt your success before you even made any real progress with your new venture but, thats ok as long as you keep your vision right in front of you, nothing will derail your destiny. You sometimes have doubt but whats most important is that you keep going, dont let that stop you, because if you do thats the moment your no long successful. And remember, just by starting your business your already successful, now the goal is to make it financially successful.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Let me introduce myself, i’m Remi Alder and my company name is REIMS Footwear based out of Pittsburgh PA, selling fully e-commerce. I started my company during covid January of 2022 which was a difficult time to start a company, but if you don’t start when your idea is fresh, chances are you probably wont. I was Raised in Queens New York, but relocated to Pennsylvania back in 2013. For the last 5 years I wanted to start a company but just couldn’t think of what kind. Finally in 2022 it came to me clear as day! start a sneaker company, and thats what I did with the help of a family member.

Our vision for REIMS Footwear was quality and affordability, no short cuts and no compromises. Having a nice pair of shoes on your feet shouldn’t have to cost you a arm and a leg. Neither should paying less for a pair of shoes have to mean poor quality. This was or driving force behind our pricing, keep it affordable but not too cheap because your product can be perceive as poor quality. We made our first model a unisex cross trainer called the REIMS R87. This model is actually doing very well, its a comfortable daily shoe, according to feedback. Our customers usage ranges from running, exercising and sports. Less that 2 years later we’re happy to announce our 2nd model called the REIMS RX44 a basketball shoe, that will arrive right in time for the summer.

Sneakers can be a very expensive thing but that doesn’t meant we have to make it very expensive to be successful. As long as we keep our vision which is never sacrifice quality and keep our prices affordable then we will always have a place in the footwear industry. Im very proud of the progress my company is making because funding a start up company without any partners or investors can be a difficult thing. But if your in my shoes just remember do what you can with what you have and eventually the rest will follow. Im amazed how much iv’e learned within the last 2 years about footwear. From meeting with dozens of footwear manufactures, meeting new entrepreneurs and seeing the journey come to life is amazing. Finally no company is complete without a slogan and ours is “Take The Reins” which is what I did. To take the reins means to grab it and take control, like a rider does a horse.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

So your probably wondering after you got your company registered and received your products, whats the next step? or whats the best way to sell. If your like me and self funded your company then most likely a store front isn’t in the picture right now. *One day my goal is to have a store front in time square New York…to be continued. So this is why I decided to sell strictly e-commerce plus you don’t have to pay a lease for a store front. It pretty inexpensive to create a url/website especially with all the wealth of information you can find on youtube showing you how to do it if your new to the internet. Im pretty good with computers so I decided to create my own website and sell on my terms. The benefit of this is you don’t have to split your profits with a third party company like Amazon, ebay, etsy, ect. When your a small business you need all the revenue you can get, so cutting into your profits isn’t the best option in the beginning.

However a con of selling on your own website is traffic. You have to market digitally which can get expensive to bring customers to your site. After-all, no one’s heard of your website or products or even know you exists. This is where it will make more sense to joint a bigger platform like Amazon, Ebay, Esty, ect to take advantage of millions of customers already searching their site everyday. Im a hands on kind of guy so i’m up for the challenge. If you want someone else to do most of the work for you then joining a platform might be your best bet, just remember it will eventually cut into your profits.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Another hard question when deciding to start a company is how will you fund it? where will I get the money from?. Well remember I said I wanted to start a company about 5 years ago? well bingo! I started to save my income because I knew one day I will start a company. Now this wasn’t a easy task at all. Honestly I saved most of my funds during covid, which meant working 6 days a week, 10 and sometimes 12 hours a day. When everyone was staying home I was going to work because I knew I had a goal in mind. Starting a footwear company isn’t cheat by any means and sometimes you might have to take a small business loan. I however didn’t want to do this because again, being so new revenue isn’t guaranteed. The last thing I wanted over my head was a loan payment to the bank. Also you will have to sacrifice a lot of time woking instead of being out with friends and family, you have to choose which is more important your dreams or leisure.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://reimsfootwear.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reims_footwear
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084331700168&ref=pages_you_manage
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/remi-alder-231289288/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reimsfootwear