Meet 11 indie sneaker labels changing the game:
Nike and Adidas are the Coke and Pepsi of the global footwear market. They dominate it so thoroughly, and in so many places, that not even other massive, world-spanning brands can keep up. Last year Nike sold over $22 billion in footwear. Adidas sold $14.6 billion. Asics and Puma, their next largest competitors, each earned about a tenth of what Nike did. The big luxury fashion brands whose next-generation dad shoes have made such a splash recently? It's really just a drop in the bucket.
"As we spoke very little Portuguese," Morillion writes in an email,"and didn't know anything about the fashion industry at the time, let alone agriculture or how to launch a brand, this proved challenging." In the past, vegan footwear brands have gotten by more on good intentions than good looks, but Rombaut more than makes up for his predecessors' faux-leather Doc Martens knockoffs with designs that mix cleanly efficient European design with a whimsical sensibility that frequently crosses over into the surreal.
"My main inspiration and personal value is freedom and everything connected with it," George explains, so every luxurious unisex shoe they produced comes with the Georgian word for"freedom" emblazoned in the country's beautiful native script."I believe that every shoe has a sole," he continues."Every soul has a story.
That's the general idea behind WAYZ, a brand launching in the city of Porto, where they've been able to put together a supply chain of partners who can guarantee ethical materials and workplaces, all located within a 70km radius."Being close to our producers and suppliers is a big advantage," says cofounder Pedro Maçana."We can visit them often and build lasting relationships, work hand-in-hand, test new designs, materials and improve the quality of our sneakers.
To that end, SWEAR's revived some of their most sought after classic designs, but they're manufacturing them in a way that would have been practically impossible even just a few years ago: on demand, custom-made to order for each buyer in an ethically operated factory in Portugal, turned around in just five days. Right now they're producing half their orders this way, but Demiri says they'll eventually do away with inventory altogether.
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