Everyone has different ideas about what to do to find the perfect husband. Luckily-or perhaps not so luckily-Nine West has a shoe for that.
The popular shoe line's new campaign has been getting a lot of ridicule from feminists online. On the brand's website a new "Shoe Occasion" section was added to narrow down a search. There are currently two shoe occasions on the website so far: "Starter Husband Hunting" and "First Day of Kindergarten."
You're right, @NineWest, husband hunting and taking the kids to school ARE the only time women need shoes: https://t.co/fY2X2hGv9U
— Sara Lang (@SaraLang) August 4, 2014
Let me guess: the marketing department at @NineWest that came up with this is all men. https://t.co/PnYdSBfkFb — Nisha Chittal (@NishaChittal) August 4, 2014
Erika Szychowski, senior vice president of marketing for Nine West, acknowledged that the company was taking a risk with this campaign.
"We have to change the way we talk about occasions because women are modern now and shop for a different reason," Ms. Szychowski told the New York Times. "Styles in 'Starter Husband Hunting,' for example, might once have been called 'night-on-the-town shoes.'"
The "Starter Husband Hunting" shoes are promoted with a picture of a woman's leg sporting a cheetah pump and an arrow in her hand.
The names of the shoes listed suggest activities in the shoes a woman can do to get a man. Some shoes include the Love Fury Platform Heel, the Bachelor Pointed Toe Pumps, and the Shindig Smoking Slippers.
Sorry, Nine West, but I don't choose my clothes based on finding a husband: https://t.co/78dnkIrvu8 #fem2 #NotBuyingIt
— Renee Davidson (@reneetheorizes) August 1, 2014
Many women feel that this campaign is backtracking time and alluding to the days when fewer women were independent workers and more were housewives that depended on men.
The "First Day of Kindergarten" shoe is not for a child, rather it's for the mother who is seeing her child off to school for the first time.
"The bus arrives and so do the waterworks. Then it hits you: mommy now has the weeks off. Wipe those sad-happy tears... We got a shoe for that," reads the advertisement on their website.
These shoes' names also suggest things that a mother does while she waits for her child to get home from school. Some shoes include the Instafun Peep Toe Sandals, Disheveled Platform Booties, and the Foodie Monk Strap Loafers.
"I'm comfortable that it will make noise and it will get attention, and my gut tells me that it's not offensive," Szychowski spoke of the campaign to New York Times. "And it's not just my gut but the incredibly active, large community of people that we work with both internally and externally - it's actually resonating for them."
