Pros
It's a job, with low/easy standards. If you are the best or the worst performing associate, it makes no difference. Management promotes "yes people," and not merit based promotions. Brand is well established so selling requires minimal skills, friendly knowledgeable service is adequate to be a successful associate. Not a difficult job. Hardline (shoes) industry requires less recovering of the store, in other words less folding and restocking and adjusting compared to softline (clothing) retailers. Makes clean up a breeze with no crazy piles of clothes to refold after a shopper has gone digging through your perfectly folded stacks of clothing just after you folded them. This is a major plus. If you want easier, don't mind being on your feet for hours, have a positive attitude, can work with a sense of urgency, upsell, cross sell, and add on, count money, follow instructions, this will be a cake job compared to others. You also get a free pair of shoes twice a year.
Cons
It's retail, and retail can attract unmotivated/under achievers. You can get comfortable and be satisfied with mediocre, clock in/clock out attitude. Some people are clueless from associates, store managers, and up. Allocation of product is broken. That's the job you want in this company. It's similar to meteorologist position, you can be wrong but still get paid. Brand is under going growing pains, going after younger demographic like the Vans market. There is poor communication between stores, management, and corporate team. Little recognition beyond store level. Makes no difference if you are a top seller or average seller. Stores are struggling to hit goals. Big push to drive online business which takes sales from stores. Quality of shoes has decreased: look at Sperry's social media feeds, numerous complaints about shoes falling apart.