Conveys

Conveys is a shoe company that revolutionized the athletic shoe market with their rubber sole / canvas top designs. Before Conveys most shoes were made of leather, but now colorful canvas and rubber shoes are all the rage in cities like South Keplar, Hardpot, and Tri-City.
Conveys is known for casual athletic shoes in a large variety of colors and has recently started offering backpacks, hats, and wallets to match.
The popular Luck Mailers subscription service allows customers to get a random color of shoe delivered to their door every week. The chance to get something rare and valuable has enticed many individuals to sign up.

History

The Federation of Like Minded States pushed through Prohibition laws as an escalation in the Keplar / Federation Trade War. Tri City became a central location for smuggling booze into the Federation. The Bronze Age mafia became the number one supplier for people in the Federation desperate to get their hands on quality liquor.

One of the many different strategies used to transport the booze was to hide the bottles inside of shoes that they would then ship to the clients. Most of these clients were wealthy and influential businessmen and politicians across the Federation.

Though the mafia could charge top dollar for the illegal liquor, the cost of leather materials to make the shoes cut into the possible profits. During a trip to Caldera in 290, Seraph stumbled upon the idea of replacing the leather soles on the shoes with the rubber than was being produced cheaply in Caldera. Combined with a cheap canvas top, made from whatever cheap linen or wool canvas that could be acquired from surplus stores or scraps, this new shoe design could be produced at a fraction of the previous cost.

It turns out that rubber was a superior material for making shoes for sports or any activity that required good traction. Sports teams across the land started requesting custom orders of Conveys shoes. A cultural phenomenon was about to be born.

Luck Mailers

As the demand for smuggled booze increased, the mafia set up a system called Luck Mailers to supply their clients. This shoe of the month subscription service would send the clients a new shoe every month. Always the same size and style of shoe, but in a new randomly chosen color of fabric. (because the mafia was just using any random canvas they could get cheap and didn't want to worry about color consistency)

There were soon more legitimate shoe orders coming through than the people trying to smuggle booze. People loved the chance to 'gamble' to get a rare collectible color or pattern that might not be available in stores. (the mafia never expected this to be a selling point)

The influential businessmen and politicians ordering booze would order tons of shoes to 'give to their children' when really all they wanted was the booze shipment. However, a fad began to form as these children from rich and important families started wearing a new color of Conveys to school every day of the week. Having conveys in a variety of colors and patterns became a status symbol. Soon 'rare' colors and patterns became a hot item on collectors markets and were auctioned off at high prices.

Conveys shoes were now the most popular shoes among professional athletes and the children of the rich. By 297 profits off of legitimate shoe purchases made the mafia more money than any of their illegal activities. Conveys moved to a new store location with a new shoe factory that could meet the demands. The new factory also started producing backpacks, hats, and wallets using the same canvas as the shoes.

Founding Date

297 - New Convey's Factory
290 - Original Convey's Factory

Parent Location

Bricktown

Owner

Seraph

Owning Organization

Bronze Age

Style Guide

Corpo Score:
-1

Novelty Score:
+1

Style Tags:
Relaxletics Razorpunk Kittenpunk
Screen Printing:
Moderate amount

Types of Fabric:
Any canvas available for cheap
Colors Available:
Any colors available for cheap
Rare Colors:

Available Items:
Shoes
Backpacks
Wallets
Belts
T-shirts

Dempgraphic:
Working Class
Youth
Anti-Corpos

Fonts:
Rockwell
Runking
Milkstore 01

Notable Customers: