I am in a room packed to fire code with rich, beautiful women bending over in 5-in. heels in front of me. They are asking me for my opinion. I don't know why I ever dreamed of playing for the Yankees. I want to be a shoe salesman.
Specifically, I want to be Ben Evidente. The greatest shoe salesman in the world, Evidente, 33, is the anti--Willy Loman. He is a celebrity not only in Manhattan, where he has been selling for the Manolo Blahnik store for the past 12 years, but also around the world. When he stayed with clients in Brazil for Carnaval, he was bold-faced in the paper. Blahnik signed a copy of his book for Evidente, "To Ben. Without you, we are nothing." He makes so much money that he just bought a vacation house in Hawaii. And here at the semiannual sale, with women standing in line down an entire block to get into the store, he is a ponytailed, tranquil cult leader amid a rush of manicured hands hopefully holding boots up into the curtained storeroom in supplication.
What I didn't understand until meeting Evidente is how important shoes are. To me, shoes were just something that I casually noticed nicely set off the ensemble of a Victoria's Secret model. But shoes, Evidente explains, can be hot in and of themselves. And the right shoe can make a woman look better. "You can almost spot a foot and not only know her size but what would look good: something to camouflage the bunion or something that accentuates a long, sexy leg," Evidente says. One of his many skills is being able to talk about feet in ways that don't seem creepy.
What's more, Evidente understands that shoes are freakishly important to women. His top clients buy 20 pairs of shoes a season, and he can make $20,000 in one sitting. "If they go bankrupt, I promise you they'll be back in two seasons," he says. "There is an actual obsession for women and their shoes. It took me two seasons to realize it." Shoes, it turns out, look good on all women, regardless of body shape. "Women say, 'My ankles and wrists are my best things,'" he explains. "They've gained a little weight. Women who may be overweight buy a lot of shoes because maybe they can't wear Roberto Cavalli."
Evidente knows how to handle women. Although one regular client from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., here for the sale says he treats her "like a princess, even though I'm just one of the little people," he also knows how to be rough. He bags a sale by the second pair of shoes he brings out, not just because he figures out what looks good on women but because he convinces them of it. In his quiet way, he is forceful, like Clint Eastwood. Plus he has the added appeal of often being down on one knee. "You almost have to make up their minds for them. They want you to make up their minds for them," he says. He delivers lines like "This is a really important shoe this season," with such a straight face, I do believe that this shoe is really important. He is so good at acquiring trust that many of his clients who don't live in New York simply have him send whatever shoes he thinks might look good on them. And even when they do walk in, they cede power immediately. "Heidi Klum will come in here and say, 'Ben, I have five minutes. Find me a pair of shoes,'" he says. I really want to be a shoe salesman.