Stuart Weitzman, luxury footwear designer, spoke to Tulane students on Friday, Sept. 13 in the Goldring-Woldenberg Business Complex about his journey on “the road less traveled.”  

Weitzman started this journey at the University of Pennsylvania, where he sketched shoe designs for his dad’s company. During the event, Weitzman brought his “million-dollar sandal,” which was covered in diamonds, for a student to model and walk in, along with other heels for students to model, making this a fun and interactive event. Weitzman mentioned three truisms, or “Stuisms,” as his team called them, which he believed were essential for his success in the business world. 

The first of these “Stuisms” is risk. Risk is not just a four-letter word, according to Weitzman — it is your best friend. “If you don’t take risks, you don’t move forward. That’s the world, that’s you, that’s corporations…we all must take risks to make big leaps,” he said.

Weitzman also emphasized the role of luck. He described the time when Cara Delevingne won “best dressed” at the 95th Academy Awards, wearing a red dress and showcasing vermillion Stuart Weitzman pumps, and when Weitzman styled Aretha Franklin with a custom pair of shoes, he asked Franklin to mention the shoes since reporters often overlooked them. Not only did she mention the shoes, but she also won an American Music Award that night, took off her Stuart Weitzmans and held them up in front of 23 million people. That kind of exposure, Weitzman explained, was a draw of luck that cannot be bought in any sort of advertisement. Within a month, there was no stylist in Hollywood who had not called to make custom shoes for their celebrities. That is when Stuart Weitzman and his company “became shoemakers to the stars.”  

The second “Stuism” is inspiration. Weitzman reflected on how we often lose our imagination as we grow older. As “you go through school, you…talk and act a little [more] like your friends, and you lose some of your own intuition and imagination,” Weitzman said. He went on to tell the story of Julie, a child who only truly lit up in art class. In class one day, the teacher asked what she was drawing, and Julie said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher said, “Well, Julie, honey, none of us know what God looks like.” The little girl looked up at her and said, “Well, you will in a minute!” Weitzman said he always thinks back to that story “when [he had] to do something that’s a little different, and that [would] catch someone’s eye and attention,” in a way more imaginative than the person who came before him.  

The third “Stuism” is storytelling. Weitzman thought of a lot of creative ways to unlock his imagination through storytelling. One example of how he evoked emotion was an iconic music video to the song “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” by Nancy Sinatra. Another creative idea was a photoshoot of Gigi Hadid and two of her friends, inspired by “The Three Graces” statue, directly showcasing the three women’s shoes while telling a story. Weitzman and his company won the Clio of the advertising industry for print ads, after their first-ever ad, called “Stuart’s dog,” a Dalmatian with shoes instead of black spots. Another way he distinguished himself was through a poster advertisement in Vogue of a jack-o’-lantern. He commissioned Vogue to survey their readers, asking which advertisement was the “most memorable” in that September issue. 91% said the Stuart Weitzman ad.  

To conclude the presentation, Weitzman said that if you can follow your passion and “do it on the road less traveled, you will have so much fun you cannot [begin to] imagine,” inspiring students to journey the more unconventional roads in life, because those paths are where passion lives.