Jon Harris is the owner of Gregory’s, the man that handles everything from A-Z at his family’s growing luxury retail operation, which has stores in Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. He is constantly traveling from store to store making executive decisions, strategizing with his marketing team, personally taking care of special clients needs, and ensuring logistics and operations are running efficiently. Here is a little background on the man behind the fastest growing luxury retail empire in the United States.
As a child, Jon excelled in many things and was always inquisitive, so his parents were happy he expressed an interest in the family’s business. In 1994, Larry took Jon on his first trip to Milan to see how luxury artisan shoes were manufactured. In 1995, Jon had become a refined, business minded 11 year old in the 6th grade. He chose to immerse himself in summer courses “How to Build a Website” and “Multimedia Presentation” while his classmates played video games. At this age, Jon would often come to Gregory’s after school to help the family stock merchandise and do inventory. In 2001, by the time Jon graduated high school he had already traveled to Italy six times to buy shoes with Larry and garnered six years working in retail. He moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas and graduated with a degree in Business and Finance in 2004. After he graduated college, he moved back to Dallas and helped open the family’s second store in Houston, August 2005. In 2006, he bought the business from his parents with a group of investors so they could concentrate their efforts on travelling to Europe every two months to source fresh, unique and chic product. Jon’s keen business sensibility helped his family business strategically grow specializing in exclusive luxury goods. In February 2010, Jon relocated to Las Vegas and opened the family’s third Gregory’s, a two-story store at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. In addition to opening Las Vegas, Jon decided to expand and began offering men’s clothing and accessories. He began traveling to Florence to source exclusive mens apparel for all the stores. With the family business rapidly expanding, the Gregory’s Dallas flagship store located at the Galleria Mall outgrew itself and relocated to a spacious hotspot at NorthPark Center next to Neiman Marcus. By the end of 2010, the family had acquired the iconic shoe store Fred Segal Feet in Los Angeles and renamed it Gregory’s Fred Segal Melrose. Today, Jon and the family just opened the doors to Gregory’s fifth location in Atlanta, Georgia at Lenox Square. Please click on the link to read about the family’s newest addition in this month’s Jezebel, “Fashion’s Little Secret” by Emily L. Foley. http://www.modernluxury.com/jezebel/articles/fashions-little-secret