The legacy of Bigfootz: ‘perfect fit, perfect business’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/09/2024 (410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

People search for Bigfoot and never find him, but Bigfoot sought Gregg Druxman — and found him asleep in bed.

It was 2008, and Druxman was a car salesman. He and now wife Betty had wanted to open a new business for some time, but couldn’t come up with the right concept.

Druxman woke up in the middle of that fateful night with an idea for a store specializing in large footwear. The colour yellow was on his mind at that moment, too.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur got out of bed, grabbed a pen and drew a sketch of a satisfied Sasquatch seizing a shoebox while sporting snazzy sneakers.

Around that time, Druxman’s son, Max, had been complaining he needed new basketball shoes — size 15 — and couldn’t find any in local stores. Druxman, who wears size 14 shoes, found himself with the same predicament.

His late-night idea was an answer to their problem.

About five months later, in early 2009, Druxman opened Bigfootz Oversized Footwear Shop — a store with yellow walls located behind St. Vital Centre, at 110-166 Meadowood Dr.

Now in its 16th year of operation, the store lives up to its “Big feet, big selection” slogan by offering an array of men’s athletic and casual footwear in sizes 13 to 18.

From dress shoes to skates, it’s likely it has what you’re looking for.

Druxman educates customers on proper fit and how to take care of their shoes. The loquacious salesman even gets down on his hands and knees to tie the shoes himself before customers walk around the 1,100-square-foot location to try them out.

More often than not it’s a match made in heaven.

“You go into (most) stores, they have one (pair) and you end up buying it because you have no other choice,” says Druxman, 63. “The nice thing about my store — the whole premise of mine — is that I can get the sizes for you and I make sure they fit. I never have any returns unless it’s a defect in the shoe, which is very seldom.”

Soon Druxman’s customers will have to look elsewhere, though. He’s shutting the store down at the end of the year and retiring.

“The nice thing about my store — the whole premise of mine — is that I can get the sizes for you and I make sure they fit. I never have any returns unless it’s a defect in the shoe, which is very seldom.”–Gregg Druxman

But before exploring Druxman’s next steps, get a load of the strides he took to get to where he is today.

Druxman’s father, George, was a football player who won the Grey Cup with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers four times between 1958 and 1962. His mother, Joan, is a former newspaper editor and women’s clothing store owner.

After his football career, George ran the Pembina Hotel, which Joan’s father owned. Eventually, Druxman and his younger brothers, Trevor and Adam, owned the hotel. Gregg and Trevor ran it, while Adam pursued a filmmaking career.

For about a year in the early 1990s, Druxman owned and operated a local sports card shop, Druxy’s Sports Cards. He managed the Pembina Hotel until 2000, when Trevor — who is married to Exchange District-based jewelry designer Hilary Druxman — bought out his share.

He then entered the car business. After six years of selling Cadillacs, Bigfootz lumbered into his life.

It’s always been a one-man operation, open six days a week throughout most of the year.

“The thing is, you can never pay someone enough to do it the way you want it done,” he says. “And I have a way of doing things that is just perfect. It’s a perfect fit, perfect business.”

Druxman believes his ability to be straightforward and honest with customers are two of the reasons he’s remained in business for a decade-and-a-half. No dilly-dallying — when a customer arrives, Druxman asks them what kind of shoes they want and what they plan to use them for and then gets to work finding them the perfect pair.

“When I see a guy with a happy face — he’s so excited that he can buy shoes and put them on — that makes me feel great,” Druxman says, adding more than one customer has cried tears of joy in the store.

If Bigfootz wasn’t a dream come true for Paul Gage, it was at least the end of an uncomfortable ordeal.

For most of his life, the St. Vital resident, who wears size 13 shoes, couldn’t find footwear that fit. He had to scrunch his feet into smaller sizes or use a wooden shoe expander to stretch his sneakers.

Gage was driving down Meadowood in 2009, when he had a Bigfootz sighting. He spotted the store’s sign and turned into the parking lot as fast as he could.

“(Buying shoes) was a nightmare forever until he came along,” says Gage, 69, who estimates he’s purchased around 50 pairs of shoes at Bigfootz over the years. “That’s why I bought so many shoes. The nightmare’s gone.”

Gary DeLaRonde has a similar story. A size 14 since he was in his early teens, the 59-year-old North Kildonan resident came across Bigfootz seven or eight years ago, while doing an internet search for men’s shoes in Winnipeg.

He estimates he spent $1,200 the first time he visited the store.

“(It’s) a very significant amount of money, but when you find a place like that and all of a sudden all these shoes fit, I was like a kid in a candy store,” DeLaRonde says.

Gage and DeLaRonde are happy for Druxman but will be sad to see Bigfootz close.

“I’ve always enjoyed going in knowing I’m going to get a fantastic pair of shoes,” DeLaRonde says.

“I’m really going to miss him,” adds Gage.

Ever the entrepreneur, Druxman will be devoting some of his upcoming free time to the Lily Leash — a dog leash he invented and bills as: “The last leash you’ll ever need.”

It features a control grip handle that slides up and down the length of the leash to adjust the slack, helping to prevent hands from injury and making it easier for the user to control their pet. It’s named after Druxman’s beloved Boxer, who is often by his side at Bigfootz.

Druxman has already started selling the 5,000 leashes he’s had manufactured, and hopes to license the product to a company that can get it into pet stores.

Many people ask Druxman why he’s not selling his store. He tells them he doesn’t trust anyone to run the business to his standards.

“I won’t sell it to somebody because they won’t do it my way,” he says. “I want to just leave a legacy of Bigfootz.”

So come the end of December, Bigfootz will disappear into the mist.

“I’m going to be 65 next year,” Druxman says. “I get my pension. I’ve got my Lily Leash … This is another chapter.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca