The idea came as Bernie Fatla perused the newspaper.
“I read an article in the Sunday New York Times back in April ‘06,” he says. “The headline was something like, ‘If the Shoe Fits, You’re Lucky’.” The story described the woes of drag queens who can’t find shoes in their sizes.
“I told my wife, ‘There’s a business here,’” says Fatla, a Verona resident who for “26 years and a week” worked as a buyer and manager at Famous Footwear.
Last year Fatla’s idea came to fruition with the first shipment of shoes for Le Dame Footwear, which have feminine designs but are sized for men. Made in Quanzhou, China, the shoes are sold online, at transgender support groups and conferences, and at far-flung retail stores like Secrets of Romance in Sunrise, Fla. Fatla runs the business from his home; locally, Le Dame shoes are available at Wigs Too, 6317 Odana Road.
“This community has never been directly targeted,” says Fatla. At mainstream shoe outlets, his customers are out of luck. “Look in women’s shoes. The products stop at women’s 10. That’s a men’s 8 1/2. The average men’s size is 10 1/2.”
In the Le Dame line are choices for both office and nightclub. The designs bear women’s first names. “We have the Sharon, a four-inch heel pump,” says Fatla. “It’s in black, silver metallic, bronze metallic. We reinforce the heel. You get a girl who is six feet or 6′2″ and weighs 220, you want stability. We engineered it right.” The Sharon costs $69.99.
Also available are, among others, the Sophie ($79.99), an open-toe pump; the Kandi ($99.99), a thigh-high boot in silver or black; and the Barbara ($79.99), a pump with a one and three-quarter inch heel. “It’s a nice piece of leather with a stretch vamp,” says Fatla of the Barbara. “It’s a nice-looking shoe.”
It is now commonplace for companies to market their wares to lesbians and gay men, but firms catering to transgendered people are comparatively rare. That makes Le Dame a pioneering endeavor, but changing the world was not necessarily Fatla’s goal. “It is a business,” he says. “I didn’t set out and say, ‘It’s time for people to recognize the transgender community.’ I wasn’t that altruistic.”
But Fatla’s customers are grateful for their comfortable shoes, and they tell him so. Their happiness motivates him.
“If I can make someone’s life better because they’re in shoes that fit,” he says, “then wonderful.”
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