We furiously dedicate our days to not believing in god. Ok, that's not true; we barely ever think about god, let alone about being atheists.

But, when one of us had the peculiar idea to create a handmade ‘atheist shoe’, we thought that sounded rather endearing and fun.  And when the first picture of that shoe went gangbusters on reddit, we knew we had a serious project on our hands (or feet).

(the very first ATHEIST shoe, with a hand-carved sole)

We were excited - not only about the novelty of such an outspoken shoe, a powerful yet understated way for heathens to be more open about their godlessness. But the design was something special - the bauhausy, 1930s minimalism felt classic and original at the same time, and the shoe's comfort was a phenomenal surprise.  Could this be an antidote to all the cheap, samey designs belched out by big sneaker corporations? We hoped so.

So we refined the designs and pooled our skills – a shoemaker, a dressmaker,  a musician, an advertising copywriter and psychologist - then we took the atheist shoe to Kickstarter.

In 4 amazing weeks, thanks to the kindness of some wonderful people who took a chance and believed in us, we raised $60,000 and had all the money we needed to produce our first batch.

The next step was to link up with some shoe-making friends in Guimaraes, Portugal, who had a workshop and the capacity to help us meet all the demand. After 8 weeks of eating a little too much pastel de nata and working to adapt the horribly slow shoe-making methods of our Berlin studio to the quicker pace of the Portuguese workshop, our humble and somewhat naive attempt to launch a handmade shoe business had culminated in a room full of 100s of shoes ... and this website, where we hoped to sell them.

That was in June 2012 and we're really chuffed that the business is still going strong today.  And we're especially delighted that so many customers have come back to us and ordered again and again.  

Whether you're an atheist looking to tickle the world with a foot-first declaration of godlessness, or someone who's just keen on the aesthetics and craftsmanship of what we do, we really do hope you'll give our shoes a go.