shoes-420x0

 

Meet Jodie Fox, the angel sent down to Earth by the shoe gods above.

When we cried over the wrong size, the wrong height or the wrong colour, Jodie listened.

And now she has blessed our existence with Shoes of Prey – a revolutionary website where you become the shoe designer.

start-menu

Based in Sydney, the brand has one function – to be a place where women can design their own shoes, anywhere and anytime. “It’s the opportunity to have the shoes you’ve always dreamed of in a few clicks.” says Jodie, “And, it’s an incredible feeling to be able to respond to a compliment on your shoes with – thank you – I designed them!”

Take your pick from the raw  materials up on offer, including the softest leathers, snakeskin, fish-skin, Italian silk and more in an array of candy-store colours.

Let your imagination run wild for hours in shoe-designing bliss. Possibilities include flats and heel heights from a comfortable 1.5 inch heel to the the  truly glamorous 4.5 inch heel. The current range offers more than 4 trillion combinations and  is constantly updated.

Once your design is completed, it is sent to the technicians who hand-make your design, swaddle  the shoes in a soft dust bag, place them into a crisp new box and promptly ship your shoes to your waiting feet.

In the 24 months since its launch, women have designed tens of millions shoes with SOP, spending more than 20 million minutes creating their dream shoes. That’s the equivalent of one  person spending more than 40 years (24 hours a day) designing shoes!

Being a bespoke service, it is about fit as much as it is about fashion. Shoes of Prey provide a wide range  of sizes, from an Australian 2.5 through to an Australian size 15.

They can make one shoe bigger than the other, adjust widths and much more. Prices range from $195 – $350 and normally take between 4-5 weeks to be made.

See what Couturing talked about with the shoe fashionista:
 
Thara: How did you go from being a lawyer to launching Shoes of Prey?
 
Jodie: Although I am a lawyer by trade, I’d always been very creatively inclined. In fact, when it came to choosing to study law I was making a decision about whether to pursue a career as a dancer or a lawyer. I choose law because I felt like I didn’t understand how the world worked and that was important to my chances of success.
 
In terms of coming up with the concept, it was about solving a problem of my own! I’d always liked shoes but didn’t love them because I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. When traveling, in the same way that you find someone who can tailor a suit for you, I found someone I could commission my shoe designs with. As my collection of shoes became really exciting, my girlfriends asked me to create shoes for them too. My two co-founders Mike Knapp and Michael Fox were at Google at the time and really excited about the opportunity that online retail presented. With the combination of these passions, Shoes of Prey was born.
 
Thara: How did you begin the process of creating what is now Shoes of Prey? Did you have any hurdles to overcome?

Jodie
: The process began with firstly mapping out what Shoes of Prey would be. How would it look? What would it offer? What would it be called?
There were many hurdles to overcome, some expected, some unexpected. The expected ones really center around the creation of something completely new – like proposing a mass-customization model to mass-production technicians. The unexpected ones were things like being rejected first time around for our business name, designing a beautiful shoe box only to find that it increases return rates.

Thara: Describe your perfect shoe.

Jodie: My perfect shoe changes almost every five minutes – so in this five minutes it would be a 6 inch stiletto heel, strappy, and a combination of dark blue faded leather and gold glitter.   
 
Thara: What trends do see in the designs that customers have been sending through to Shoes of Prey?

Jodie: This is actually something I find most exciting – the retrospective of shoe fashion we have in accordance to the customer. Currently we see shiny materials becoming more popular and zebra print is an unexpected favorite too.

Shoes of Prey have also given the opportunity for savvy shoppers to purchase gift cards – a great last-minute holiday gift for the woman who has everything!

Images courtesy of SMH and Shoes of Prey

About The Author

Thara Vidyaratne

Thara is a journalist and blogger who loves Earl Grey tea and speaking in broken French. BLOG: www.mossandstonelove.com INSTA: @tharavids