Jake Humphreys, owner, Humphreys Bootery
Jake Humphreys likes to say he was “born in a shoebox.” The third generation of his family to own Humphreys Bootery in Shavertown, PA, Jake grew up immersed in the family business and worked on the sales floor through high school and college. But it wasn’t until he traded his picturesque hometown for an accounting career in Baltimore that he realized his true calling was independent shoe retail.
“It took doing something completely different to realize I had a passion for footwear,” says Jake, who purchased the 68-year-old store in the foothills of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Back Mountain when his father, Jay Humphreys, retired a year ago. “I love the customer interaction and the whole buying process.”
Previous generations of his family would undoubtedly be proud—but perhaps not surprised. Jake’s great-grandfather, Edward Humphreys, worked at footwear stores in the area in the 1940s. In 1958, Jake’s grandfather, also named Edward Humphreys, opened Humphreys Bootery as a shoe store for babies and kids in the same strip mall location where you’ll find it today.
“Footwear has been in our blood for forever,” says Jake, who still has the vintage newspaper flyer announcing the shopping center’s grand opening nearly seven decades ago.
The bootery was (and is) adjacent to another family business—a children’s clothing store that Jake’s great-grandmother ran and later passed down through the family. Today Humphreys Apparel & Toys is owned by Jake’s aunt. The two Humphreys stores are the last original tenants remaining at the mall.
Jake’s dad, Jay, recalls a unique approach to business that the family took in the early years. “My dad used to pack up a van with inventory from the shoe store and from my grandparents’ store, and go to the homes of customers who had big families to sell clothes and to fit the kids for shoes back in the ’60s,” he says.
Like Jake, Jay grew up in the family business. “At 16, when I was a senior in high school, I was working full time in the co-op program,” he says. “I would leave school at noon and work until 5:30 p.m. We were open two nights a week, so I worked until 8:30 p.m. those nights, plus weekends. I went to college for a year, then I jumped back into the store. I always say I have a PhD in retail.”
Although Jay lost his left arm in a car accident when he was 19, “it didn’t slow me down in any way,” he says. An avid golfer, he hit a hole in one when his kids were little and was written up by a local newspaper.
“It’s kind of an interesting twist that a guy with one arm ran and owned a shoe store,” he points out. “How many stories of one-armed salesmen are there in the footwear business? When I tied shoes for people, they’d want to help me, but I’d say, ‘Don’t worry. I got it.’”
You need an upbeat, indomitable spirit like the one that runs in the Humphreys family to succeed in independent retail, and, in Jay’s opinion, Jake has plenty of it. “His personality is just perfect for this business. He impresses me every day. He knows more people in the shoe industry than I ever thought about knowing, and the customers love him. I know the store is in good hands.”
Keeping Up with Changing Times
Small space, big selection: Humphreys Bootery carries the largest selection of Birkenstock and Ugg in the area.
Although Humphreys Bootery still has the same footprint it had in 1958, much has changed over the decades. For example, the mix shifted from kids’ to men’s and (primarily) women’s. A second store, Walter’s Shoes in nearby Wilkes-Barre, came and went between 1972 and the recession of the early ’90s.
Jake remembers that economic downturn as “the roughest patch in the history of our business,” and it happened right when Jay took over from Edward in 1989. The bootery almost went under, but branching into the European comfort sector provided a new niche and a smart survival strategy.
“We opened an Ugg account in 1999 not knowing the height the brand would get to in the 2000s. In fact, in the mid-’90s we opened a lot of the brands we’re still known for today, including Birkenstock, Dansko, and Naot,” says Jake. “That’s when we went from being just one of the area shoe stores to the premier destination for many of the brands people want.”
It was Birkenstock’s meteoric rise in popularity from 1997 to 1999 that put an end to children’s footwear at Humphreys. “Now we just carry kids’ Ugg and Birkenstock for mommy and me purchases, which grandparents love.”
Inventory wasn’t the only thing evolving around Humphreys. As the years passed, more and more folks discovered the charms of Northeast Pennsylvania, the manufacturing-driven economy diversified, and tourism grew significantly. The hit TV series The Office also put nearby Scranton on the map.
“When my grandfather started in our location, we were on a two-lane state road. The area around us was very rural,” says Jake. “Since then, it has exploded. We’re now on a five-lane highway with 20,000 to 50,000 cars passing us a day. The school districts have become the most desirable in the area, and that has brought a ton of new people to our neck of the woods.”
Despite the throngs driving by, a highway location has certain disadvantages, Jake points out. When you’re not in a Main Street–style shopping area, potential customers don’t stroll by and wander in, so discovery can be a challenge.
Jake helped on that front when he came back to Shavertown to help Jay with the store in December 2019—a few months before the pandemic shut them down. “With no website or ecommerce to speak of, my first project here was building them,” Jake remembers. “I couldn’t get a website out super quickly, so I started posting pictures of our displays on Facebook and numbering all the products. I took appointment orders and met people in the parking lot if they needed shoes.”
Six years later, ecommerce is “a nice little chunk of the business,” accounting for five to 10 percent of annual sales. He also introduced a POS system in 2019 and has ramped up marketing through social media and email in the years since, five of which he spent working side-by-side with his dad, learning the ins and outs of running the store.
Service and Selection
Edward Humphreys, the sit-and-fit patriarch, looks sales-floor sharp, circa the ’80s.
Today, Humphreys Bootery carries about 40 brands. The merchandise mix is roughly 85 percent women’s footwear, with the core customer between 40 and 65, though for fall/winter it skews a bit younger, and shoppers show up from farther afield, drawn by the store’s reputation for carrying the area’s largest selection of Ugg and Birkenstock, two of the bootery’s top-selling brands, along with Pikolinos and Blundstone.
Athletic too, performs well for Humphreys. “I was a little late to the athletic boom, but we’ve opened some great brands since 2024,” says Jake. “I started with Brooks and soon after that we added Altra and Hoka. The addition of those three has really helped in the last few years.”
Of course, robust product offering is only one piece of the puzzle at Humphreys Bootery.
“I’m very aware that everybody out there could find every one of our products at the click of a button on their phone or computer, so what sets us apart is that we try to create an all-around experience that is a genuine thank you for everybody who walks through our door,” says Jake, whose staff includes a full-time manager and several part-timers, all of whom have at least five years’ tenure. “We take pride in our sit-and-fit process. We ask questions, give every customer our full attention, and really listen to what each one has to say. That’s the core of our business, and that will never change.”
“Whatever a customer comes in for—whether it be the latest trend or a doctor’s referral for a foot issue—we take time to make sure they find what they need and that it’s the right fit for them, and maybe introduce them to a brand they haven’t heard of that could someday be their new favorite.”
Speaking of new favorite brands, “I’m always at the national and regional shows looking for what could be next. I never shy away from taking a chance on a brand if the quality is good and if it fits our business. Sometimes it pushes our legacy customers to try something out of their comfort zone. Sometimes it brings new people in.” Occasionally the suggestions come from customers themselves. “I love it when somebody’s motivated enough to bring up a brand they think I should look at,” Jake says.
After almost 70 years in business, it’s no surprise that the store has cultivated a loyal clientele. “It’s hard for me to go a day on our sales floor without someone saying, ‘My mom or my grandmother used to bring us here to see your dad or your grandfather to get our school shoes,’” says Jake. “Another comment I hear is from people who moved out of the area but are back in town visiting and tell me they save all their shoe shopping for when they’re home. They say they look forward to coming in to see what new stuff we have and to pick up their old favorites again. That’s the best compliment I could get.”
To thank loyal customers and encourage first-time visitors to become regulars, Jake introduced a Customer Appreciation Rewards Program this year that gives shoppers $10 in rewards for every $200 they spend on regular-priced merchandise.
Humphreys also shows its gratitude to the community that supports it by donating to charity events and local fundraisers, as well as sponsoring area triathlons, 5Ks, and other races—an effort that reinforces their image as an athletic footwear purveyor.
“It’s no secret that the economic climate has gotten a lot tougher this year,” says Jake. “It seems to get tougher every day, but we have great product and great vendor relationships that get us through everything, and we’re always out there trying to find new business and getting people who might not know who or where we are to come through the door and become loyal customers in the future.”
“Their commitment to quality footwear, to exceptional customer service, and to us as a brand sets Humphreys Bootery apart,” says Jordan Rogowsky, Mid Atlantic territory manager for Birkenstock, the store’s longtime rep. “We’re grateful for their partnership.”
The Power of Peer Networking
As part of a new generation of young retailers stepping into leadership roles and shaping the future of independent footwear stores, Jake is a member of NSRA’s NextGen Leadership Program and has found connection with his peers highly beneficial.
“There’s a group of about 10 or 12 of us multi-generational footwear families who meet on Zoom every two weeks, but the conversation never stops there. We’re always bouncing ideas off each other. Whenever we’re in the same place for a conference or trade show, we take the opportunity to get together, even if it’s just for dinner. We talk about new products and new brands that one of us saw and that we think could work for everybody. It’s a great network of free-flowing information, and we’ve really developed friendships over the past couple of years. If I have a problem, I can ask questions and hear from somebody who has already dealt with the same issue. I know I’m not the first or only person going through it. That makes problems a lot easier to solve.”
Family Matters
Jay is also a go-to source for advice. “My dad will always be my closest advisor,” says Jake. “He’s my first call If I have something I’m not sure on.”
Jake says he’s grateful to Jay for never pressuring him to follow in his footsteps. “Growing up, my dad would joke with my brother and me, saying, ‘You guys can do anything you want as long as it’s not retail,’ because retail is a crazy thing to be in. I just made my way back here organically.”
Jake plans to take the same approach with his daughters—Stevie, 4, and Finley, 2—as they grow up. Right now, they love visiting the store, taking boxes off the wall, and looking at all the shoes, he says, but “they’ll have the same opportunity as me to do absolutely anything they want.”
He credits his wife as another unofficial advisor for the store, as well as a vital source of support. “I wouldn’t be doing any of this without her help,” he says. “She has a great career as a veterinary technician, and she handles the brunt of the work on the home front, which enables me to focus on building our business.”
What does that building plan look like? “We’re very undersized for what we do,” says Jake of the 2,200-square-foot retail space, more than half of which is stock and office space. “My goal in the next couple of years is to expand, whether it be here or somewhere in the area.”
Beyond that, “I’m looking to scale the business to multiple doors in the next five years. It has to be the right place, the right time, the right sort of deal, and we need to have the staff to do it right.”
In the meantime, economic challenges notwithstanding, Jake is happy to come to work each day. “I’m not going to say this is what I was meant to do, but it’s something I really love to do. I’m glad to be where I am, and we’re lucky to have a great customer base. It’s the day-to-day, person-to-person interactions we have with them that keep us going and make us better.”
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