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"Beautiful shoes do not have to come at the price of pain and discomfort."
Visionary Simon Ngu is the founder of disruptive shoe brand Each x Every, and alongside luxury shoe designer Joana Feuerharmel the duo is intent on making a profound impact within the fashion industry. Their mission: to make beautiful footwear wearable for each and every woman. Simon believes that no woman should have to compromise on their well-being because they choose to express themselves by wearing shoes they love. Yet the unspoken truth of luxury footwear is that fashion often comes at the cost of comfort. Each x Every are out to re-write this narrative.
The brand's moniker Each x Every, reflects their philosophy that they are a brand for each and every woman no matter their lifestyle, foot size or fashion preference. The first brand of its kind to offer three different widths for every style across their collection, a statement within itself, Each x Every is taking the reins of women's footwear, and they aren't stopping until they revolutionise the footwear game.
Simon Ngu
Founder
WOTC: How did Each x Every get started?
Simon: Although my journey into footwear started after a decade of working in the City as a corporate lawyer, I gained my first insight into the conflict between fashion and wearability when I discovered the hidden treasure troves of shoes under the desks of all of my female colleagues. Long days in heels attending meetings or traipsing over cobblestones would result in blisters and plasters and were quickly jettisoned for flats or trainers at the first opportunity only to be replaced by another pair of heels in the evening to attend an after-work function.
Being prepared for every occasion required a diversity and depth of shoes to not only match a very discerning aesthetic but equally consideration for how her feet would survive the day. Perhaps amusing at first, it became obvious that at best this struggle was draining and at worst debilitating. For some of my colleagues, the fatigue on their faces was palpable and no doubt burdensome to their greater physical and mental well-being. For others, it was an annoyance they had grown to live with, but even then, presented an unwanted distraction from performing an already high-pressured job.
Fast forward to the early stages of the brand, we conducted a survey of over 400 women under 40 and from the responses we received I was amazed to discover the extent to which some women will deal with pain in order to wear the shoes they felt were beautiful. From taking painkillers before a night out, regular Botox injections to numb the pain or clearing out the “next day’s calendar” to stay off their feet, it was no wonder why a lot of women had just “given up” wearing styles that caused them discomfort.
This begged the question, what about comfort shoe brands? The reality was that comfort footwear brands were not appealing to a modern woman’s sense of style, no matter how hard they tried to be fashion-relevant and yet it was clear that fashion and luxury shoe brands were not paying attention to what their shoes felt like on their customers’ feet. Inevitably, women were forced to make a compromise.
And so, I founded Each x Every, a luxury fashion footwear brand that is equally obsessed with making footwear stylish as it is about making them wearable for each and every woman.
WOTC: What makes Each x Every different from other luxury brands?
Simon: Our central mission is to revolutionise the experience of beautiful footwear by making them comfortable to wear. As podiatrists and industry experts attest, to truly deliver on this we would need to provide the best possible fit for our customers. So, we decided to develop our own sizing system that could accommodate women in a way that no other fashion footwear brand does; by offering three widths across our entire collection. Using our unique three width system, our customers are able to match their feet more accurately to their specific size, offering them a more tailored fit and ensuring a higher degree of comfort. Not only does our sizing system result in more accurate fitting, but by offering three different widths in each of our styles, we are holding true as a brand that stands for women of each and every foot size.
The genius of the brand is not in the unique system itself but how we have been able to harness it in the creation of elegant lust-worthy designs. Under Joana’s curated eye, we have produced a collection worthy of becoming iconic designs that represent the lifestyles and fashion preferences of modern women. As a trailblazer from the luxury footwear industry, Joana led an extensive research and design process with our special team of experts to ensure that our elegance and modernity always co-exist with perfect fit and comfort. It may seem surprising to those who aren’t in the industry but often times footwear is made without input from those who understand how the foot moves and behaves. We put our shoes to the test with podiatrists, footwear technologists, developers and artisanal craftsmen all the while hunting down new technologies and materials that will deliver on both aesthetic and comfort. Then comes the rigorous trials with foot models of different size and shape where the entire team examine how the shoes behave on the feet; we learn, adjust, experiment and do it all over again. The effort is well worth it! To see the expressions of “mind-blowing astonishment” when women try on our shoes never gets tiring.
But there’s more to Each x Every than just being able to make elegant shoes incredibly well-fitting and comfortable, we are making luxury designs accessible to all, no matter what your size. One of the most satisfying moments of our journey is when we made a pair of our Tie mules for a customer in size 9 wide. For those who are outside of the standard fashion sizing curve, it’s excruciatingly limiting trying to find options that fit your fashion sense when you’re excluded from most of the major fashion brands. We’re really proud to be able to fill that void.
Not only do we cater for those outside the traditional sizing curve, but we also offer a customisation service where customers can select from an array of materials, colours, heel heights, heel shapes and trims to suit their own personal style. A made to order service of this kind is rare in the footwear industry and almost unheard of across a brand’s entire collection. Where it is offered by luxury brands, the wait times are protracted and the costs are exorbitant. We wanted to make this more accessible and in real time (let’s face it, who can afford to plan their wardrobe months in advance), so we offer this service on a three week turn-around basis and for a small additional charge which essentially covers the extra transportation costs. We’ve made some really gorgeous unique pieces for our customers and it’s an incredibly rewarding service to us as we get to create shoes we’ve never made before.
Joana Feuerharmel
Head Designer
WOTC: How did you start with Each x Every?
Joana: I had been designing footwear for the last 13 years with global footwear brand Melissa in Brazil, most recently, managing the global footwear collaborations with major luxury brands such as Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons, and Karl Lagerfeld. Whilst I loved everything to do with design and fashion, the amount of energy and time I gave to the role was leading dangerously close to an early burn out and so I had recently moved back to London to let myself breathe again and re-assess my next move.
At the time I met Simon I was not sure I wanted to restart my career in the fashion industry but when I heard about Each x Every, I was instantly captivated. It might seem odd but in all my experience as a footwear designer I’d never been asked to consider whether my designs could or should be made comfortable. When I think back on it, it was not that I did not want to make my shoes comfortable, it was the belief that it was impossible to do it without compromising on style. I was so intrigued by this challenge that my heart started racing.
The more I listened to Simon, the more I understood that he wasn’t just talking about starting another label but this guy wanted to change the footwear industry. We were going to make shoes that were beautiful and functional, and not just trainers or flats but heels, stilettos and boots – all of the traditionally uncomfortable styles. Then there was the challenge of working with three widths and designing them in a way that would keep the collection elegant and feminine. On top of all of that, we were going to manufacture in limited production runs, which meant small batch production and single pair orders. Any one of these things would have been ground-breaking, to attempt all three at once, I almost did not believe what I was hearing!
When he asked me to lead the design and creative for the brand, I knew this was an incredible opportunity. I loved the entire brand and its proposition but I am incredibly fastidious when it comes to style so I told him that as wonderful and innovative as these other values were, I would never compromise the look of the product. He told me he would not have it any other way. To form the rest of the team came Amanda, a sports podiatrist to the stars and Paul, our shoe development guru. I had never worked with such a diverse set of considerations all coming through their own unique lenses but I quickly sensed we were creating something truly special.
WOTC: Tell us more about how you created the Each x Every collection.
Joana: The shoe last is where all our designs begin their life. It determines the toe shape, the heel height and each and every fit aspect of the shoe. Together with Amanda and Paul, we designed and refined our lasts to create the perfect marriage between modern design, technical and anatomical foot knowledge and expert craftsmanship.
From here we spent months searching for materials with the right properties to achieve all of our required outcomes; high grade vegetable tanned leathers with exquisite finishes, revolutionary foams with the ideal composition between softness and rebound and rubber compounds that would absorb a sufficient amount of shock but remain durable over time. All of this is then pulled together by clever construction techniques and innovative design ideas that allow us to pack in as much comfort as possible without compromising on the elegance of our shoes. Our artisanal craftsmen then took care of the rest in small workshops in Portugal.
In everything we do, we want to deliver as much value to our consumers as we can by incorporating features into our shoes that are reserved for only the most expensive shoe brands. For example, the entire range is fully leather lined which provides an amazingly soft feel and allows your feet to breathe, our boots are made with seamless uppers and our closed-toe footwear utilises a Sacchetto construction which is an age-old Italian handmade technique. Individually each of these elements are hard to find even in luxury brands but incorporating these elements together is almost unheard of.
WOTC: What does the future of fashion look like to you?
Joana: Having refined my own style working with major luxury brands I’ve noticed a need in the market for quality classics with a refined, modern simplicity. My sense is that there is a growing movement toward investing in pieces with versatility that can be worn time and time again. When it comes to footwear, versatility is not only about pairing with the rest of your outfit, but it requires careful consideration as to whether the footwear is functional for your lifestyle needs. My vision for the brand and the industry is that we will move toward buying less by investing in high quality pieces but demanding more from what we buy.
At Each x Every, the design process does not start with trying to determine or create the latest trend or finding a new way to designing something beautiful that has not been seen before. We start with the women we want to make shoes for, what their busy lifestyles look like, how they want to look and what they need to do in their shoes. People don't buy shoes to leave them on their shelves (or at least we hope they don’t with ours), they facilitate and empower people to live their lives to achieve something, to mark incredible moments in their lives or perhaps to just to celebrate life. Our challenge as a shoe brand is to create products that will complement all aspects of her day – from the morning rush to work, after work events and weekends away. This means each of our designs need to be easy to wear and easy to style in a way that will stand up in future seasons.
Simon: I believe people will become more demanding and discerning about what they buy and, in that regard, footwear brands will need to catch up. Joana mentioned the changing consumer behaviour toward slowing fashion down but the industry and supply chain will need to adapt to support and even encourage this change. The days of factories being inundated with high volume orders are disappearing and brands and their suppliers will need to develop models to account for this new type of consumer behaviour.
In footwear, this means shortening lead times for the development of collections (some brands will take more than two years to bring a collection to market) and moving toward a more trans-seasonal range. It also means holding less inventory and being more responsive to customer demand with the ability to quickly replenish stock.
Although we’re quite young, we’ve pioneered an initial model that achieves both of these goals. Using our network of craftsmen we invested in tooling, systems and processes to enable us to make our shoes in small batches to ensure that we are never left with an unmanageable level of excess stock and, when stock levels drop, to rapidly refill inventory as close to real time as possible. If a style is not working out, or we want to try something different, we can do that without having the burden of carrying a load of old stock.
Finally, in terms of moving consumer behaviour toward more sustainable buying practices, how will footwear brands encourage or assist consumers to buy less and wear more? One of the problems within footwear is that if you cannot find brands or styles that fit you and are comfortable, then we have seen that consumers will still choose to buy shoes that are uncomfortable if it means it suits their sense of style. These purchases are generally short-term, perhaps even “single-eventers”, worn a handful of times and then thrown into the back of the wardrobe. I believe that until we bridge this gap between wearability and style, we’ll not realise our full potential to slow fashion down in footwear.
That’s our mission at Each x Every; create beautiful footwear that’s worn by each and every woman time and time again.
Shop the luxury footwear collection at eachxevery.com
