With only a solitary shop in Berlin, and no advertising budget, we're deeply aware that it's "word-of-foot" from our customers that keeps our business going. We're so grateful to all of you who've taken the time to write a few words about how you've gotten on with your shoes. It's invaluable - it helps us to be better, and it helps tentative would-be customers to better navigate the daunting prospect of buying shoes on the internet from a brand they've never heard of.

It's such a big deal to sit down and share one's experience in words, and we're touched that so many choose to do it, whether on our customer feedback page, or the google review page for our shop. 

Thank you, is what we're trying to say. Thank you so much, for the good and the bad - we really appreciate it. 

It kinda feels absurd and unreal that relative strangers are doing that for us, especially when we don't really have a mechanism to return the favour for them. We once had the idea to create a second "customer feedback" page on our website, in which we review our customers and tell everyone what we thought of them. It might be funny, but I doubt anyone would find it useful. 

Still, we acutely felt that absurdity recently, when two of our loveliest customers independently of each other took chunks of lifetime out of their days, uninvited, to write the most touching and real feedback we've read in a long time. It's the kind of feedback that makes us feel good about what we're doing and why - it made us feel seen and appreciated. And that's just impossible to let go by without somehow trying to address the absurdity of not being reciprocal.

So, we got in touch with Stuart and Aaron and asked them if there was anything going on in their lives that we could boost or promote or review, with a humble post to our customer base. And the result is this: 

If you have a wall, and if it doesn't yet have gorgeous, surrealist, vivid, humourful and plain-fun art on it, in the most unimaginably popping colours, then I highly recommend you visit the site of artist Stuart Brown, who sums up his work as follows: "I create art that I enjoy, that's fun and that makes me happy. I hope it sparks some of the same feelings in you". 

I have a particular soft spot for “Cow, Meerkats and a Hedgehog on a Spring Hilltop", which I reproduce here without his permission (I hope he's ok with it, I haven't told him I'm making this post, and Stuart, I will take it down immediately if that's not kosher :)

Also, if you are ever in Detroit, then it is probably a good idea to visit Detroit Institute of Arts, the Conservation Department of which employs Aaron, who is a veteran of 7 pairs of our shoes, and whose partner must be on her 5th already. Aaron just bowled us over with the loveliest words last week, and also took the time to warn us that some criminal out there is making really bad counterfeits of our shoes! More about that in a future blog post, perhaps. 

But anyhow, DIA is the place to be and here's what you can see there right now:

Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City 1950 - 2020

Experience and Expression

Robert Blackburn and Modern American Printmaking

Thank you, Aaron and Stuart!

And thank you, would-be click-throughers for helping us complete a weird and lovely circle of karma.