WILLIAMSBURG — Sole Provisions, a shoe store coming to 105 N Boundary Street in Merchants Square, has preliminary plans for a grand opening weekend on March 19, 2022.
The footwear store will feature brands such as Birkenstock, Brooks, On-Running, New Balance, and Vionic; amongst many other brands to be offered in the store.
The Williamsburg location is one of the two Sole Provisions stores that is arriving in Virginia within the upcoming year. The two locations will be taking the place of the two Shoesters, Inc. in the Hampton Roads area; one in Virginia Beach, and the other is in the Merchants Square location. The Williamsburg store will be undergoing renovations to prepare for the Sole Provisions opening.
The Merchants Square Shoesters, Inc. location closed on Oct. 31, 2021 after being in business for twenty-five years. A note posted on the location’s door stated that the ownership was transitioning to retirement.
Dave Casamassa is the director of operations at The Sole Provisions family of stores. He said that providing customers with a personal shopping experience is what they truly strive for in their business.
“Sole Provisions is a footwear retailer. We started off as one store in Long Island, New York in 1997. We really pride ourselves on the service that we offer,” said Casamassa in an interview with WYDaily. “It really started at that store. We were a classic sit-and-fit type of shoe store. We’d sit down, work with our customers, and listen to their needs. We do all the small little things that create a good footwear experience where our customers are walking out with great shoes that fit properly and shoes that are going to help support their lifestyle. Since then we’ve grown to multiple locations, but we’ve always sort of kept that foundation. That’s really what we’re trying to bring to the two stores that we’re opening up in Virginia.”
Casamassa said that one of the hurdles in which Sole Provisions had to deal with when planning to open up two stores in Virginia was challenges with supply chains. He said that one of the major features of Sole Provisions is the wide variety of brands that they offer. This type of business hurdle has prevented the store from having a grand opening earlier in 2022.
“We’re probably thinking at some point in March. We’re shooting for March 1st. It’s really all predicated by the inventory and that we can actually get shoes into our stores because we want to make sure that, when we do open up, we can showcase a really good selection from the start,” said Casamassa. “We don’t want to just open up dealing with inventory issues right away. The construction of the store should really be done at some point at the end of January or beginning of February.”
Once Sole Provisions has a grasp on its inventory, the shoe store is going to then open up its doors. Casamassa said that their plans are to have a soft opening for the first few weeks and then a grand opening in the middle of March.
“Then at some point in mid-march to later on in the month of March, we’ll have a grand opening event,” said Casamassa. “We have preliminary plans to have a grand opening weekend on March 19th.”
The business hopes they can bring a community-based business to the area and help play an integral part in the overall community.
Future shoppers seeking more information and updates on the upcoming Virginia locations can follow Sole Provisions on their Facebook and Instagram pages.
