Reyers Shoe Store will be celebrating its 135th year in business in 2021. Located near the Pennsylvania/Ohio border in Sharon, PA, the family-owned independent is working through this tough year with grit — and the retailer’s latest TV ad (see below) delivers a holiday sales pitch from a local legend in a lighthearted way.

The ad is one in a series, featuring boxing champ Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, the former World Lightweight Boxing Champion, whose hometown of Youngstown, OH, is just 15 minutes away from where Reyers is based.

“We’ve known Ray for decades, and this year chose him as our spokesperson,” says Reyers president Mark Jubelirer. “He and I are buddies; it is really easy working with him. He shows up on time and takes direction pretty easily.”

The ad is lighthearted, encouraging customers to shop Reyers, just like Mancini does. “I always have to urge him to ‘go bigger,’ which is kind of fun,” says Jubelirer. “He calls me Fellini; I tell him that I prefer Tarantino; more blood spilt.”

The ads run mostly on local network TV out of Youngstown on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and CNN. Reyers’ market reaches to Cleveland, Erie and Pittsburgh, says Jubelirer and the store has done marketing in those places as well. Reyers has done about a half dozen ads with Mancini so far, and Jubelirer says, “They seem to work — sales go up.”

Looking ahead, while he says it will be “good riddance to 2020,” Jubelirer notes that the store’s accountants agree, “We still have some fight left in us.”