An eye for luxury
At Germany's reputedly oldest shoe shop, a salesman expertly sizes a pair of handmade brogues for Alexander Kraft, European regional manager of Sotheby's International Realty.
On the small, luxurious premises of Eduard Meier, the service is as smooth as the rich smell of leather. The firm, which traces its history back to 1596, was at one time official supplier to Bavarian royalty. But as the salesman sets aside the shoes Mr. Kraft wore into the shop -- also bought at Eduard Meier -- he feels compelled to offer a well-meant word of advice to his regular customer: "Just between us, your shoes could use some polish."
"I know, I haven't had the time," Mr. Kraft says, sheepishly.
An Eye for Luxury
It's not that Mr. Kraft, a 28-year-old native Berliner, doesn't appreciate a highly polished pair of shoes. He has an eye for luxury goods, which is one of the things that drew him to Sotheby's in the first place: suits from Italy, shirts from England, fine wines and Cuban cigars. It's just that his job, managing Sotheby's European network of high-end residential property brokerages, keeps him on the road constantly and leaves little time for routine tasks like polishing the shoes.
His pace is bound to be tough on the shoe leather. He travels about three days a week, last year racking up 200,000 air miles. Already as of May, he's hit the 100,000 mark. "I'm virtually living on planes and in hotels," Mr. Kraft says. Trying on the buttery brown brogues, Mr. Kraft admires their workmanship and quality. "These are classic. These I could pass on to my kids," he says. That is, when he has some. "At the moment, I'd be too busy for kids," he adds ruefully.
Though Mr. Kraft admits he's a "natural-born shopper," he rarely plans a big expedition. Many of his purchases are made "spontaneously" in free moments during his travels. When he's not on the road, he tries to find time for hobbies that include golfing, playing the piano and collecting art. His shopping is partly aimed at having a supply of suits and shoes that can keep up with the packing challenge for frequent trips that usually include executive meetings and upscale social functions. "I want to be able to grab a fresh suit and a fresh pair of shoes and be on the run again," he says.
'I Love Tradition'
The Eduard Meier shop, just around the corner from Sotheby's headquarters in Munich's exclusive Odeonsplatz area, is particularly convenient. But Meier remains a personal favorite even compared to other good addresses around Europe. "Meier is even older than Sotheby's, which is unusual. It's an institution, and I love tradition, which is also what Sotheby's is all about," Mr. Kraft says.
Mr. Kraft, now Sotheby's youngest senior manager, first joined the firm in 1998, in the U.S. After studying law in Germany and Britain, he earned a masters in comparative law at the University of San Diego in California. While studying, he interned at the Beverly Hills arm of Sotheby's, which led to a new career direction. He joined Sotheby's quickly growing international real estate division. The unit, established in 1976, is a wholly owned subsidiary that is financially independent from the auction division that has recently been caught up in a price-fixing scandal. After five months as a management trainee in California -- a stint that included brokering the sale of Boris Becker's Palm Springs property -- he was promoted to regional manager for Europe.
"I really reorganized," he says. At the beginning of 1999, he shifted the headquarters of Sotheby's International Realty to Munich from London to put greater emphasis on Continental real estate. Since arriving, Mr. Kraft has expanded Sotheby's European network of affiliates from 12 firms to more than 35, with 100 offices throughout Europe. He also linked Sotheby's to a German luxury real estate Web portal, PropertyGate.com.
Mr. Kraft spends much of his time on the road seeing current Sotheby's affiliates and meeting with potential business partners and clients. In choosing new affiliates, "I take a close look at representative firms in the local market. We look at whether their real-estate inventory is comparable to ours, and at their level of customer service," he says. "Size isn't an issue, because we see our niche in high-end residential real estate: only residential, only high end, and only sales." Sotheby's average European home sale in 2000 was $2.2 million (2.5 million euros).
Occasionally, Mr. Kraft takes a personal hand in brokering a property, such as an original 16th-century Palladio villa in the Veneto area of Italy. In cases like these, clients often invite Mr. Kraft to stay at their home for in-depth discussions on issues like how to show the property while preserving privacy and screening out sight-seers.
Mr. Kraft says he enjoys adapting to different cultures and trying to take the best from each. "I'm probably more American as a manager -- profitability is a big issue -- but socially more European. We do business in 15 European countries, and you have to be at home in all of them."
Brown Shoes
Which explains his penchant for the Italian style of wearing brown shoes with dark suits. The look -- a subtle break from Sotheby's very traditional dress code -- is now one of his trademarks at the firm. He also tends to pair patterned Turnbull & Asser shirts with his conservative blue and gray suits. But he only bends the rules so far: "No brown shoes in boardroom meetings, or after six in the evening."
At Eduard Meier, Mr. Kraft has fixed on a pair of brown suede tasseled loafers, at 890 marks ($402 or 455 euros). "They are good value for money, you can wear them for 10 years," he says. "The question is, do I need them?" He asks the salesman to put them aside, saying "I'll probably take them" as he leaves the store. Taking off the next day for a business trip to Spain, he runs out of time to pick them up -- but decides he'll definitely go back for them when he returns.
