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My name is Anouk, and I'm the founder of Earth Sole. And I believe, everything has a spirit. All with a beating heart, but even all that is ‘just’ a stone, a wave, or the wind. And I have found, also Earth Sole has one. Like a child, waiting to be born, she is SO excited about sharing herself with you. Dive into the experiences that made Earth Sole into what it is now (don’t worry, it won’t be as hippie-dippie as the intro 😉 )
In May 2022, I, Anouk Anansi, the founder of Earth Sole, started full-time on this project. It started off in December 2022 with my first pair for myself, simply created around my own feet with a couple of leather offcuts. And it was time to make them for other feet too. About one year after my first, with the second Earth Sole on the feet of my partner of that time, I was so surprised by the responses to others when he was wearing his pair. About every 5 minutes at this festival we were at he got the question “Where you get those from?”.
I wasn’t jumping on the idea of starting a footwear brand. The slightest bit. I am a creative soul, though never worked with leather. It didn’t draw me, as I try to limit my ‘use’ of animal products due to ethical reasons. I also had absolutely zero experience with shoes, and though I like shoes, I also started more and more liking no shoes a.k.a being barefoot.
I also started more and more liking the idea of no shoes a.k.a being barefoot.
Anyway, I realized over time how there was a call for a shoe like this. It is actually cheating, pretending to wear shoes, but having nothing else than a thin piece of leather beneath your feet ;) And so, I had just returned from a big desert adventure (Afrika Burn Festival) and decided to create an ad on Etsy with the pictures I had made from my partner's shoes. And then, a couple of days later, that evening I will never forget. I was tired of asking people awkwardly if they could please help me develop my shoes, for which I needed their footmeasurements. That evening, just before knocking off to bed, I checked my email for some reason and there it was: my first Etsy order.
What I hadn’t shared with, is that my idea of putting the add on Etsy was not to make sales. It wasn’t close to being ready... I hadn’t even made my third Earth Sole yet! I had put them on Etsy for, to my idea, a way too high price for anyone to buy it, for people to favorite them in case they would come across and then, once I would be ready to sell and my price would be ‘normal’, then…. I would make a sale. Not within 7 days of my first ad. So, besides the motivation and the enthusiasm for my first sale, I also realized I didn’t had a shoe to sell. At that moment (and I didn’t know it then), I was 2 months from finishing up my first good fitting Earth Sole. But life had blessed me with a very slow responding customer, and she only send me her measurements about 1,5 after her purchase. This didn’t let me look so slow after all!
And it was in all of this that I realized: this shoe has a spirit. People really want this product and I can tell you today (and have many times before as it is so true): without my enthusiastic customers, there wouldn’t have been anything close to an Earth Sole.
Friends, like Ed, have asked me several times (even though he had tested many of my shoes, and many failures has come across), PLEASE DON’T STOP. And I didn’t.
Other synchronicities came up. I can them all my Earth Sole Angels. And probably this blog will continue developing as I go, or as I remember them.
Brittany
So, I had written about this desert festival before. To me, a good example of a place to meet interesting people that ‘are meant’ to step on your path was at the Afrika Burn. And Miss Brittany was one of them. We connected well, being both bold and straightforward. I told her about my Earth Sole plans to be (remember, at that moment there had only been two shoes made). It was still even called Anansi Footwear. She told me about this place, Moorgas and Sons in Cape Town, that often has amazing leather offcuts and I should get in touch with them. I so did, and up to this day, we are incredibly grateful for getting about 80% of our leather from them.
Grandt Mason
Cape Town is a big city (4.6 million people), but so small at the same time. One evening, probably measuring people’s feet, or having them test one of the latest models of their shoe size, someone said she had used to gone to collage with a guy starting his own shoe brand. Grandt. She said, you should stop by! And I did, at one of my ‘picking up offcuts in town’ trip. I passed by what was supposed to be Grandt Masons factory which still existed on Google Maps, but not in real life. I decided to give the phone number online a call anyway, and 40 minutes later, we were still chatting. He had started, just like me, with just creating his first shoe with no knowledge of shoes or leather. He spoke about ‘things he wished he had known 10 years back’ and I was excited to learn more about this. Up to this day, he is also in and out of Earth Soles life, giving some great advice which, depending of my stubborn-/openness of that moment in time, we incorporate into our brand.
I hadn’t listened well enough to Grandt his advice to work with lasts as I thought I was starting to get the hang of the fitting of the shoe very soon (wasn't true)
Our first brand shoot
Our first brand shoot was something else. I have been on the edge of overworking a couple of times. I hadn’t listened well enough to Grandt his advice to work with lasts (a wooden or plastic model foot which shoemakers usually use to make good fitting shoes) as I thought I was starting to get the hang of the fitting of the shoe very soon (wasn't true). Anyway, being very tired from work, I also knew I needed (and yes, also wanted) a couple of amazing photos of our footwear. I had seen Darren Viret his work on Instagram about a year before, and although his posts weren’t about photographing people or products, I much enjoyed his style. He was super keen shooting for a very good price, and when he confirmed a date I checked in with my model friends. Before I knew it, everyone was super stoked and I was like -euhm, do I even have enough shoes for all of them, in a right variant of colors?- It seemed my models and photographer had already then taken over the shoot. I couldn’t let them down, and so, the shoot would happen. Windy as Cape Town can be, and with often quite a couple of clouds down at the horizon when the sun is setting – neither happened that day. My good friend Stu was there to keep an eye over our things whilst we were creating magic and damn, it was such a dream day with dream results you see all over our website and Insta since then!
Craig Holmes
Then there is a lovely popular hub and restaurant called Hang 10 in Muizenberg, a surfers village in the south of Cape Town. This is where I lived in the first year of the business and where still the studio is and the ladies live and work. I have to be honest, I am not totally sure how I came to know that Craig, the owner of Hang 10, has a huge background in shoe making. Like, proper. In China, huge business, 30 years long. I am still learning about it, as we pop over to factories and people tell me Craig is one of the most experienced in his field. Score. Craig has been giving his advice throughout the last year about odds and ends and also, I am super grateful for his time and expertise.
Mister Love
At the beginning of this year Jason Love (yes, his real last name. isn’t that amazing?) came to pick up his second pair in our studio. He had bought his first only a month ago in another shop and decided he needed a second (warning, this is the effect Earth Sole can have! 😉) Though shipping is easy, he decided to drive an hour from his home to pick them up.
Since about 2 months I send customers who pickup their shoes their appointment is 20 minutes. You might think that is short for a pickup, but customers usually stay a long time, and so did Jason. Customers like to try out a whole bunch (I guess that happens when you have a continuous range of leather colors and now they are all in one place! It seems like a candy factory for some), and they like to know about me, and about Earth Sole. Now, I am honored but at the same time, I already spend a LOT of time working and to answer all those questions is often not where I am waiting for… Though, the customers that come are often amazing humans, and so was mister Love. I told him about Earth Sole, and my plans to go to Portugal in a couple of months time. Change of scene, closer to my country or origin (The Netherlands) and a bunch of other reasons. I wasn’t sure how Earth Sole South Africa was going to look like, but I was going to aim keeping it going for as long as I can and setup another production in Portugal. Jason got enthusiastic straight away, and wanted to give it a go to find Earth Sole a sales person and fund that person. Without looking for one, I had found an investor. Does that happen to other businesses too?
Her reply: can I come for an interview?
Julia
Jasons story will be continued here, as it is very much intertwined. The week before I had met Jason, I had another MEGA enthuastic Earth Sole Fan: Julia. As her feet were too small to fit our smallest size, she went for a custom pair and coulnd’t wait to come back the week after (a 2 hour drive) to pickup her shoes. When she did, and as we connected well, I told here a bit about this amazing thing that happened last week: I met someone that was interested in investing in a sales person for Earth Sole.
Her reply: can I come for an interview?
My reply: Whatthe…?
Mister Brad
Although magic is hard to measure, I think the biggest Earth Sole must be my friend Brad. We met over Earth Sole, and a good old cup of licorice tea from The Netherlands. Brad has supported Earth Sole in the last 1,5 years in numerous ways, from ordering pairs for friends for more than they cost (but what he feels they are worth, thank you), not to forget 4 pair for himself, and wrote a 5-page proposal, summing up all the ideas he had of improving our brand. His enthusiasm for the brand, just like many other customers, friends and angels, have 100% kept me going this time.
Thanks to all, and to you, to even reading this whole long story through!
And now?
At this moment, as always, there is a lot of new things happening within our brand. Hopefully our backloops will be embossed with our logo in silver or gold. We will have shoe sizes in a sexy way engraved in the shoe. Our backparts might have more support, the some maybe an added layer of fabric to make them stretch less.
Julia is starting her new passion: ‘selling Earth Soles like hot cake’, and although I declined Jason his amazing offer as an investing (I wish Earth Sole to be free from investors at this time), he still is very willing supporting us with potentially software to make the fitting, and the choose of your own shoe design better.
Further in the future, we foresee more models, plus a kids range I like to call Earth Sole Mini. And for the rest? Keep posted – always news on its way!
Thank you SO much for being on our journey. It is good to have you on board.
Anouk Anansi – the proud founder of Earth Sole. Please, also read more about our amazing team and our story on our About Page! And of course, for our wide collection of designs and custom options, head to Our Products.
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