Life and Work with Alex Maltezos

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Maltezos.

Alex, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My background is in comfort shoes. After 15 years owning and operating my family’s shoe store, I wanted to branch out into fashion. With the support of my husband, we opened our little family’s boutique. Our original location in Belmont Heights was a beautiful mix of art, fashion and comfortable (good looking) shoes. I opened my doors hoping to become a hub for the neighborhood. In all honesty, I received more warmth and support online so after a trying 2 years. I moved my shop to a showroom. It enables me to spend more time with my family and still run my original store at full capacity.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has absolutely NOT been a smooth road. I picked our initial location based on what my grandfather would have picked, in an up and coming trendy neighborhood. I was met with resistance from the neighbors (I mean, who actually walks up to a young owner, kid on her hip, and asks “why a shoe store?”) and even less support from other established small businesses. I reached out to multiple woman-owned businesses, trying to collaborate, trying to get them to name drop me to even ONE of their customers. Nothing. These successful small boutiques are COMPLETELY obsessed with their image. A helping hand, a supportive woman to confide in IS NOT what they are about. No matter what their Instagram says. Enough of me being jaded. My advice for other women trying to start a business would be, focus. Focus to a fault, be obsessed with your brand, eat sleep breath your goal. Start online. That’s important, I started with a brick and mortor because that’s all I knew how to do. I had to reinvent the wheel and figure out how to keep my dream alive. Which leads me to another important piece of advice, don’t be afraid to change. “Do you know why grass grows so tall? Because it bends instead of breaking” This was a huge for somebody as stubborn as me. Change isn’t bad, in fact! If the saying is “evolve or die”, change is pretty damn awesome or at least not as bad as dieing.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Mattalou Shoe Boutique – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Originally the goal was to bring comfort to the fashion show within our neighborhood. We now specialize in bringing the coolest shoes in Long Beach to your closet wherever you may be. We have a pretty sweet following in Australia, we still send a lot of our comfort vegan wear “down under”. I have a background in fitting shoes, so when I pick a collection I want it to work. I don’t want my customers to buy a shoe that sits in their closet. I want my customers to revel in their fantastic shoes they got from Mattalou! Considering it’s literally just my husband, me, and our 2 kids we have tremendous customer service, we offer free shipping and returns and we are very attentive. All of our shoes are shipped with gifts and handwritten letters.

What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Start online. Develop your brand and followers. Stay consistent! It only gets harder before it gets any better so keep plugging away and believe in yourself. The amount of people that don’t care is devastating so you better care that much more!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.mattalou.com
• Phone: (562) 343-5588
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @mattalou_lb
• Facebook: Facebook.com/mattalou562

Image Credit:
K.Calor, Nicole Grosse

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