Where'd the Living Room Go? | BILLY Footwear

Darin arrived at my condo garage at 8:30am just as I was loading up into the van to go pick up Maral. His timing was perfect. Darin climbed into the van with me and we headed to the Westin to snag Maral. Arriving on time, Maral was already waiting for us. She climbed into the Vanagon shotgun seat with her small roller bag and we drove back to the condo and got right to it. We had about four hours before Maral and Jason needed to get to the airport and we still had some important items to sort.  Our main task was to finalize what shoes we were going with and to make any notes necessary for shoe modifications required. 

We started with the Rebel. From yesterday we were particularly drawn to the Rebel, which we were calling the black Billy Club. The problem was that we were calling it the rebel of the group, i.e. of the the forest, sand box, and ocean colored shoes. As a stand alone we felt the message would be misconstrued. So we put the Rebel back on the shelf and moved forward with the Forest, with the plan of calling it the Billy Club Ranger. 

Moving on to the mother/daughter, we had the oil slick already selected but were still working out the name. In addition, we were torn on having the women's adult glitter too. After some back and forth we decided to put the Glitter back on the shelf and move forward with the men's denim loafer. 

Next up was the the black men's Laceless Oxford. Maral handed me the shoe. I said, "I do not know what to say about this shoe," meaning it was perfect as is. But Maral the perfectionist made some notes to make it all the better for final production. 

Next up was the men's OG Boat Shoe. Everything was good, but we did have discussion regarding the leather lace length and how it should be tied. We tried a few tying combinations and then settled on the original - a bow with barrel knots at the ends of the leather lace. 

Lastly was the women's denim blue Chevron High Top. No need for changes; it is a solid shoe. 

We left the condo about 12:45 to go back to the Westin to pick up Jason and Maral's bags. By 1:15 we were rolling again, all four of us, to the airport. Maral was up front with me with the boys in the back. Maral took pictures of them saying they looked like brothers. Cracked me up. Jason is really cool and is a huge, indirect resource for us. He manages manufacturing for Native and frequently visits China and the manufacturers we are working with. Good stuff. 

After dropping Maral and Jason off at the United ticket level, we exchanged hugs and Merry Christmas wishes and then drove off get some lunch. 

Back at the condo, Darin went and did some banking for us, exchanging funds to get to Maral. I stayed back and tried to organize the shoe chaos. There were shoes everywhere! I was just trying to reclaim some living space.