I’ve known Gary Page for 20 years. The foreman of a moving crew, he’s helped me move my furniture and belongings on four different occasions. At five-eight and 220 pounds he looks like an outside linebacker for the XFL, and he has all the attributes you’d expect of a great mover: he never drops anything, he knows how to get my jukebox down a winding flight of stairs, and he doesn’t talk all the time.
At 57, Page can’t remember the first time he tried on high heels. “It was so long ago.”
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According to Lindstrom, when the store opened in June 1998, 65 percent of its clients were men, but now the ratio is fifty-fifty. “We have lawyers. Policemen. A lot of construction workers. We also don’t know who a lot of people are.” People from all walks of life patronize Skyscraper Heels, though it’s awfully difficult for them to walk.
Page started buying shoes and selling them on consignment at Translucere, and his side business began to grow. “I was never at Translucere on a daily basis,” he says. “I was just trying to help her succeed.” Lindstrom, who was waiting tables at Mitchell’s on Clybourn, started working at the store on Saturdays after it moved to Belmont in 1997. The next year Page decided to expand the store’s stock to include women’s heels so that he could buy even more shoes. During one trade show in Las Vegas he dropped $25,000. As Lindstrom recalls, “Lita told him over the phone to quit buying shoes. When Gary got back from Las Vegas he asked if I wanted to be a waitress all my life. I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘How would you like to run your own store?’”
