In 1961 with the opening of The Shoe Box, the Cohen’s and Mulford’s embarked on what would be an ever changing approach to the footwear industry in Albany, GA. Norman “Buddy” and Terese Cohen, following in Buddies father’s footsteps, opened a small shoe store in downtown Albany, GA to support their growing family and provide a living for them and their kids. After growing from 1 shoe store to 5 they brought in their daughter Debbie and son-in-law Bob to help with the business and maintain the growth of what they had worked on for so long. In the late 1970’s they consolidated down to 2 stores and continued to focus on women’s and men’s dress and casual footwear.

In the mid 1990’s things got tough with large competition coming to town and hurting or putting out of business the smaller family owned and operated business's. As with anything the family had to make a decision of do they keep plugging along or do they make the hard decision to change directions and find a new opportunity in the footwear business.

About the same time all of this was taking place an opportunity was presented and they dove in head first. Buddy did ask if they were crazy but allowed them to create their own destiny and as with everything they do they put their nose to the grindstone and learned everything they could about the safety toe \ work shoe industry.

As all this was taking place Bob and Debbie's two younger children Jason and Michael graduated College and made the decision to come into the business and be the 4th generation of the family in the shoe business. Jason and Michael learned as much as they could about the work shoe industry and have applied the knowledge to help continue to grow their family business.

In the early 2000’s the family started yet another venture into the shoe business when they launched their Work Shoe Mobile which put more focus on the customer experience. As they found out most shoe mobiles were operated by a truck driver who learned to sell shoes and not a shoe salesman who learned how to drive a truck.

Taking from all the experience they have learned in the brick and mortar stores and the work shoe mobile they are launching SafetyToe to apply their knowledge of work shoes and customer service to the internet.

Take the time to get to know the founders of The Shoe Box and SafetyToe and let them help you pick the correct shoe for your job and environment.

Jason@shoeboxalb.com

Michael@shoeboxalb.com