While browsing Etsy I found another amazing vegan shoe company.
Mohop shoes.
Though their website and etsy stores are a little hard to navigate to understand the full story behind these shoes, I believe I have pieced it together, and it is an amazing story.
Annie Mohaupt went to architecture school and then decided to begin designing shoes in her spare time. She uses this 3d modeling architecture program to make extremely comfortable ergonomic wooden shoe soles (kind of like clogs) and then finishes them off with ribbon ties. The ribbons are interchangeable and she also has a project working with women in India using recycled saris as ribbons:
Produced in collaboration with Jhoole, a non-profit social enterprise based in India, these ties are created from recycled sarees. Each pair of ties is one of a kind, handmade by women who earn fair-trade wages so their children can attend school, with the goal of ending the cycle of poverty in their family and community.
I am inspired that this woman started this unique company. You can see videos of her online explaining her 3 D Modeling tenchnique and actually hand making the shoes.
I find the construction of the shoes quite genius. The ribbons are tied in intricate patterns making the sandals look complicated and beautiful, like some sort of Japanese kimono sandal, but also quite cool and hip, like I could picture fashion bloggers wearing these as well.
For example,
They have one shoe called the moped that can be creatively styled in all these different ways:
Only an architect could come up with something like this.
Here are some other shoes. I am marveling at the ribbon tying patterns.
mens sandals (i want these)
To break it down for you, they come in flats, low heel, mid heel, and high heel.
All materials used are vegan, and the wood is sustainably sourced.
Here is the etsy store Mohop
Here is their website
Here is a pic of the founder, Annie:
Your thoughts?
