A wise woman once said, “Sometimes it’s hard to walk in a single woman’s shoes. That’s why we need really special ones now and then to make the walk a little more fun.”
If anyone understands the complexity of shoes, it’s Carrie Bradshaw.
Truth be told, whether you’re a single gal taking on the city or in a relationship with the man of your dreams, your outfit can only be deemed truly complete with the addition of a fabulous pair of shoes. The pressing issue here is: does the perfect pair of shoes exist or is it a myth?
A pair of shoes is subjective to an individual’s sense of personal style, not only according to what is in style. Most of the time, we fall hard for a pair only to realize that there’s that one small feature we would like to have the authority to change: either the heel is not the right size, or the color is wrong, your toes are peeping out or they don’t fit right.
But what if there was a way to design your own shoe from heel to toe?
Shoes of Prey does just that—it allows fellow shoe fanatics to design their own shoes. Founded in 2009 by
lawyer Jodie Fox, Google sales executive Michael Fox and Google software engineer Mike Knapp, Shoes of Prey is the first customizable women’s shoe brand to launch on a global scale.
The idea came about when Jodi realized that she was unable to find exactly what she was looking for in a shoe; she always liked shoes, but never loved them because she could never find something that matched her standards.
While traveling in Hong Kong, Jodie found someone with whom she could commission shoe designs, in the same way that you find someone who will make a custom suit.
After building up an extraordinary shoe collection that even Carrie Bradshaw would be proud of, her friends started to take notice and asked her to create shoes for them as well. After partnering with her two business partners, Shoes of Prey was born!
Jodi says she is moved by fashion in many ways, and she finds inspiration and ideas from simply walking past women on the street. We spot something we love, mentally snapshot it, and then go hunting for it. The piece of fashion becomes our prey – and specifically in this case, it is shoes. In 2014, Shoes of Prey partnered with Nordstrom, to launch an in-store “Design Studio” located within the women’s shoe department. Today there are six interactive Shoes of Prey Design Studios in Nordstrom locations across the country. We are fortunate enough to have the sole Southern California location right in our backyard at Nordstrom Fashion Island.
The design studio is complete with iPads containing the 3D shoe designer set up and shoe stylists on hand to guide shoppers through the design process. In addition, they have swatches to allow women to touch and feel the fabrics, as well as sizing shoes to ensure a good fit.
Shoes of Prey Design Process
The process of designing your own shoes is simple and fun; you can either visit one of the Nordstrom locations, where the stylists are specially trained on the Shoes of Prey product, or visit the website at shoesofprey.com. The 3D shoe designer lets women select the exact style, color, materials heel height and embellishments to create their own one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Pick from 12 different styles of shoes including ballet flats, heeled oxfords, wedge sandals, pumps and more. There are approximately 200 materials including snakeskin, fish skin, suede, a variety of leathers, and even vegan materials.
Sizes range from 2.5 to 15 and come in half sizes to help people find the perfect fit. With the wide variety of styles, materials and colors there are over a trillion shoe design to mix and match and endless opportunities to create your very own exclusive pair of shoes. One of my personal favorite features is the option to have a custom message, name or an auspicious date stamped onto the insole of your Shoes of Prey shoe; it’s a great way to make your unique creation even more personalized.
Anna Le, public relations manager for Shoes of Prey, said “we believe that no woman should ever have to compromise when buying shoes. We are passionate about empowering women to design exactly what they want, and allow you to customize every part of the shoe: from the styles, colors, materials, heel heights, to the embellishments.”
Pricing starts at around $129; the majority of shoes will cost around $220. Shoes are made on demand and ship within four weeks.
To see how the process worked, I created my very own pair of shoes at the Fashion Island location, and will unveil them in my next column.
For more information, visit ShoesofPrey.com.
Follow Sonali on instagram at @sonalztm.
