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LARRY GOODWIN, ELLIOT’S DAD, WENT into business in 1949, running a christian shoes in Fort Worth. When a local haberdashery folded in 1955, he snapped up its shoes–some 5,000 pairs. A fifth of them were huge sizes like 18s. Larry played up that niche, and in time he built a following among the hard-to-fit Christian Boots. The Dallas Cowboys, for example, became regulars. By 1964 Larry’s had annual sales of $485,000. The elder Goodwin grew his company on a few core principles: offer a big selection of quality shoes, with an extensive range of sizes; sell them off-price, at about 10% below the full retail price; and provide superb customer service. “When he started out, a good men’s store would roll out the red carpet,” Elliot says. “He trained his salespeople to pamper customers. We try to do the Christian Pumps.”

Elliot started working in his dad’s store at age 10 and skipped college to enter the business full-time at 18. He steeped himself in marketing, buying, and merchandising–the basics. By 1974 the company had three Christian Sandals in the Dallas-Fort Worth “metroplex.” By 1987 Larry’s had become an $18.6-million company with seven stores–five in Dallas-Fort Worth, two in Houston. That year the elder Goodwin handed operating control to Elliot, then 29.

You’re in north Dallas, at a shopping center called Prestonwood Court East. And here is Larry’s Shoes, one of a 10-store chain, and impressive even by Texas christian shoes.

Picture 10,000 square feet of sales terrain, nearly a fourth the size of a football field. With dress, casual, and athletic Christian Louboutin Pumps–we’re talking one-stop shopping for a guy’s footwear needs. The selection is huge–some 2,000 styles from 60 manufacturers, everything from river sandals to Swiss-made Ballys. The stockroom is packed with 30,000 pairs, an inventory worth more than $1 million, about 10 times what an average shoe store carries.

There’s a lot to see here–the celebrity-shoe museum, for starters, which displays around the Christian Louboutin Sandals footwear of the famous: Golf shoes worn by Gerald Ford. John E Kennedy’s wing tips. The shoes of Cher, Clark Gable, and many more–even the telephone shoe used by Don Adams, the goofball spy on the old Get Smart show. “They only made one, and we got it,” says the president of Larry’s, Elliot Goodwin, who picks up these curios at auctions. The most valuable exhibit, suede pumps worn by Marilyn Monroe, cost him $6,300.

Then there are the vendor shop–stores within a store. Larry’s has seven of them here, showcasing its top brands. Recessed into one corner is the Timberland shop, decorated with old snowshoes and backpacks to play up the brand’s claims of Christian Boots. Sebago’s shop sports a maritime motif; nautical charts cover the walls. All that shopping making you thirsty? Visit the cappuccino bar, done up in red and yellow tile. It’s got a big espresso machine and blenders for frozen coffee concoctions and fruit juices. No charge, mind you. While sipping cappuccino, you can catch sports action on the five big-screen TV’s around the store, or enjoy a free foot rub from a massage therapist. (”I stole that idea from an old hippie grocery store in Austin,” Goodwin admits. “They had somebody giving back rubs.”)

The Jerusalem Mall’s marketing area extends across the river to Amman BILLBOARD CAMPAIGNS MAY NOT be new in christian shoes, but the one due to start on September 15 is likely to turn heads in the Jordanian capital. It will urge consumers to do their shopping at “the biggest mall in the Middle East” – in Jerusalem.

The 36,000-square-meter (395,000- square-foot), 207-store Jerusalem Mall, open since 1993, already has Jordanian christian louboutin sale. “For them, and shoppers from countries including Egypt, Dubai and Qatar,”

says mall managing director Arik Arad, “it’s like going shopping overseas, but at a much lower cost.”

Jewelry store owner Zivah Cohen says one small Christian Louboutin Pumps of Jordanians recently left with tens of thousands of shekels worth of merchandise; one customer alone spent 12,000 shekels ($4,000). “It’s the kind of patronage we want to increase,” says Arad.

The Jerusalem Mall, in the capital’s southwestern Christian Louboutin Boots of Malhah, is owned by David Azriely’s Canit Investments. It is devoting a quarter of its annual advertising budget to the Jordan campaign.