Victoria residents’ per-capita, online shoe budgets are more than double that of residents from any other Canadian city, according to a report produced by Vancouver-based online shoe-seller Shoes.com.
The average Victoria resident spent $3.62 on shoes, according to the report. That is substantially more than the $1.31 that residents of the No. 2 city, Vancouver, spent in 2015 up until December 15.
Calgary ranked No. 3 with $0.91 spent per capita while Kelowna ranked No. 4 with a $0.85 per-capita spend. Ontario’s Oakville followed closely behind at No. 5, with a $0.84 per-capita spend.
One explanation for the disproportionate weighting for B.C. cities could be that Shoes.com is based in Vancouver and does business in Canada under the ShoeMe.ca brand , which Vancouver's Sean Clark founded in his parents' basement in the Dunbar neighbourhood.
The report was based solely on sales from the ShoeMe.ca website and therefore would not include shoes from independent retailers.
ShoeMe.ca has little online competition in Canada given that large U.S. shoe-seller Zappos.com stopped online sales to Canadians in 2011.
“We love looking at what's trending when it comes to what Canadians are wearing on their feet,” said Shoes.com CEO Roger Hardy.
“In many ways these trends speak to what we already know to be true about West Coast and East Coast fashions – West Coasters are drawn to local, laid back sneaker brands like People Footwear and Native, while East Coasters are buying fashionable cold-weather boot brands, like Blundstone and Santana, in preparation for their blustery winters.”
Hardy added that some classic footwear styles – Birkenstock Gizeh Birko-Flors and Converse Chuck Taylor’s – were the top two shoe styles countrywide.
When it came to footwear categories overall, Canadians bought more pairs of boots (43,649) online than any other type of shoe. That compares with 33,889 pairs of sandals and 29,802 pairs of running shoes, the online shoe-selling report found.
Vancouver did top the survey in one category: having the smallest average male shoe size, at 9.98. In contrast, Saskatoon men have the largest average foot size in the country, with 10.5.
