Candies Are Back

In a recent "Cathy" comic strip, Cathy is buying
a pair of sandals. The saleswoman says to her,
"Buy the new open-toed stiletto sandals,
and doom yourself to a summer of cramped
calf muscles, potential ankle fractures,
weekly pedicures..." Well Cathy along with
millions of women this spring will be sliding
their feet into a retro trend from the late
seventies early eighties. GIRLS.....
(she says painfully).slides are back..CANDIES
the licensee of these clunky wooden shoes
made popular in 1978, when Olivia Newton-John
wore a similar style in the movie "Grease",
have returned. A $3 million ad
campaign with MTV personality Jenny McCarthy
has helped and chief executive Neil Cole says
he has orders from retailers
for 2 million pairs, with orders coming
in at about 200,000 a day. In December
the stock was trading around $2 to a high of
$6 3/8 in February. Given the distribution
and if next quarters numbers are good Candies
may see some research coverage.

However, a trip to my local mall showed me
that Candies has lots of competition from
various shoe designers, from the
high-end Donna Karan shoes to the ones sold
at Payless. The Candies slides are retailing
at around $32 and are carried by
major department stores. Right now there
are no big stock research firms covering the
stock. However, most shoe companies trade
around 15 times estimates for current year
earnings per share. Last year Candies generated
a revenue of about $40 million from its entire
shoe line. Cole would like these shoes not to
be a fad, but rather a long-term trend, but only
time will tell if the company can keep its
customers happy. Candies closed at $5 21/32
at the end of the trading day.

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