Northville Business Spotlight on Goody Two Shoes

There are many interesting businesses that call Northville home, from clothing retailers to restaurants to salons and even businesses you might not have known existed in your own backyard.

Each Thursday, we'll feature a Northville business to learn more about its roots and more.

This week, we feature . It is co-founded by Julie Ardonis, who tells us more about her business below.

Q: When were you founded?

Goody Two Shoes was founded in 2006 by Dan Argonis and his family. We've been on Main Street ever since. 

Q: How did your business come to be?  

With two small kids (at the time) we were frustrated trying to find quality, durable and properly-fit shoes. After a 15 year stretch as an outdoor/adventure sport retailer and a short stint at the K-Mart home office, we ventured out on our own again with Goody Two Shoes. Our goal was to find quality shoes for kids, and properly, and professionally fit every foot that walked in the door. We felt that buying shoes had pretty much become a DIY proposition at most retailers, and we just wanted to know, to be certain, that we were getting the right shoe with a proper fit for growing feet.  So, we set out to change that...

Q: Why did you choose Northville?  

Dan grew up in Canton and Julie grew up in Plymouth, and staying close to our roots was just a natural for us. Northville has a lively, walkable, friendly downtown area and there were plenty of kid-friendly shops, attractions and activities to help us build a fantastic and friendly clientele quickly. 

Q: What kinds of services do you offer?

We offer quality shoes at competitive prices.  And, we fit every single foot (or pair of feet) that comes in the store.  We specialize in rugged shoes built for kids, but we've also added in adult casual shoes for men and women. We feature reputable manufacturers like Merrell, Keen, Dansko, New Balance and more, but we've also pledged to support other small businesses and entrepreneurs so we seek out smaller, niche and  "boutique" manufacturers with fun shoes for kids like Chooze, Twig, and Morgan and Mylo. We also have a nice variety of "School-Approved" uniform and dress-code-compliant shoes as well.  We have a frequent buyer program - the Best Foot Forward program where you buy 6 pairs and get the seventh at 50 percent off, we offer warranty service and will special order anything we don't have in stock with free shipping anywhere. 

Q: What's a fact about your business that most customers probably don't know?

Three things come to mind: 1) we have adult casual shoes too. 2) We have a rebate program for private and parochial schools where we rebate $1 from every pair of qualified school uniform shoe back to the school. It's a fundraiser that's designed to make school shopping easier too. And finally, 3) we offer appointment shopping - even before and after hours - for special needs kids and families with multiples - just to make your shopping experience easier and more enjoyable. 

Q: What do you want your business to be best known for? 

Exceptional service, awesome shoes, and really really nice people.

Q: What's your most popular product or service?

Without a doubt the professional fitting. We also have an active Facebook site where we post items we're thinking about and ask or customers and fans to vote - you help stock the store. We post events, special offers, secret sales and sometimes a daily deal there too. "Like" us on Facebook to get in on all the action.

Finally, we'd like to ask for the community support in Chase Bank's Mission: Small Business program.  https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/    We are competing with other small businesses across the country for a small business grant.  We'd like to use that money to continue to grow and expand, particularly in our services to special needs kids.  In order to get to the next round and present our business plan, we need to secure at least 250 votes on the Mission: Small Business website.  It takes six clicks and less than a minute - with no personal information exchanged. Once you log in through Facebook, click the "vote local" button and search Goody Two Shoes or Northville, Michigan and vote for us.

Interested in being featured in our Northville Business Spotlight? Email nancy.kelsey@patch.com for more details.