Standard Shoes, the pimp-a-riffic footwear and accessory shop on the corner of Austin and Pease, is imminently shuttering. A Standard Shoes spokesman (translation: the guy who answered the phone when we called the shop) told Hair Balls that the closing comes on orders from the head office – the Florsheim company in Milwaukee.
Standard had been operating in that space since the 1930s, though truth be told, it seems like it has been almost that long since the store had a lively trade.
We did once buy a pair of shoes there, and we have two memories about the experience. One, it was the only time Hair Balls ever bought a pair of square-toed loafers; two, courtesy of the fact that the Box was the instore music of choice, it was the first time we ever heard Scarface’s “Guess Who’s Back.” We even remember that the DJ singled out the great production on the track by some dude named Kanye West.
Florsheim still has Houston outlets in the Galleria and Katy Mills.
– John Nova Lomax