Fragrance for the bold

How it started

When we first had the idea to begin making shoes, I found a factory on Instagram and sent them a message—that factory is still the main factory we use today. The beauty of making shoes in a small Spanish town is that these people are career shoe dogs. They started apprenticing doing one role in a shoe factory decades ago and have mastered it and still do it to this day. In the U.S., I think we kind of look at “factory jobs” as something you do for a short time. But when your entire small town is dedicated to making world-class shoes, it’s a career, not a stint. The people who work in our factory are artisans and craftsmen and women who dedicate their lives to shoemaking.

How it’s going

We’ve done a great job at TAFT developing and establishing our brand vibe and design style. When you see a pair of TAFT shoes, you know it. I’ve always dreamed of carrying that same design style over to other categories—clothing, accessories, jewelry.

Pura gives us the opportunity to explore what our style can smell like. It’s a fun opportunity to flex our product development muscles and create something special and unique that stands out, even in a new category where we don’t have as much experience. I think we nailed it. —Kory, TAFT founder