The
greatest sign of a brand’s worth is that without any marketing, seasonal sales or
special promotions it can develop and maintain a database of recurring clients.
In today’s over-saturated market that has seen numerous fashion-based labels
shutter their operations, Feit has, since 2005, continued to grow from a modest
store in Sydney’s Darlinghurst. So small, in fact, that modest is a modest way
of putting it. The leather footwear label, founded by brothers Josh and Tull
Price, now reaches a global audience via online sales and, more recently, a
partnership with Dover Street Market’s London and Tokyo outposts.
Feit’s difference?
“The aim has always been to create high quality leather-based products,” explains
Tull Price, the label’s co-founder. “Throughout the process we have learnt more
and more about the materials we are using and really understand what a
difference it can make for the wearer and, ultimately, the planet, too.” As is
now reasonably known within the fashion industry, many leathers used by
designers, particularly high street label and mass retailers, contain high
levels of chrome as a result of the leather being treated and dyed, which is
not only toxic for those crafting the shoes, but don’t wear as well for the
customer, either. Additionally, they take longer to break down, making them bad
for the environment.
In
contrast, Feit predominantly uses cow and kudu leather – the latter a South
African deer – sourced and produced in Florence, Italy, and employ vegetable
dyes (colour obtained from mimosa and grapes, for example) rather than
synthetic forms that prevent the shoe from breathing naturally. “Shoes [created
from that process] can look OK to begin with, but they have all of these other
negative traits that present themselves later,” says Tull. Feit shoes, on the other
hand, are designed to be worn barefoot, despite a large portion of the brand’s
customer base being based in warm climates, such as Australia. Unlike a
synethically-treated leather shoe, Feit’s use of a vegetable-based treatment ensures
the leather’s pores – it is, after all, the skin of an animal – remain open,
allowing the shoes to breathe naturally. “They don’t end up smelling like other
leather shoes,” he says.
From where did the environmental stance evolve? Not
from a marketing plan, unlike many other brands pushing their eco wares. Having
established the casual footwear brand Royal Elastics – at age 20, no less – and
fast witnessing the sheer output of a company that had, after six years in
independent operation, been purchased by American public company K-Swiss, Tull
felt a personal disconnection from the industry’s mass saturation. “There was
and is so much trash being produced, and you can’t destroy these things. They
end up in landfill sitting there. Overproduction is killing the planet, but
also the industry.” In response, Tull co-founded Feit with three things in
mind: “good construction, natural materials and time-honoured, handmade construction.”
While Josh is based in Sydney and runs the day-to-day operation of the retail
outpost, Josh is based in New York, where he also serves as president and
creative director of Rag & Bone Footwear, splitting his time between the
two. With online retail the largest form of sales for the business – and a system
of pre-ordering so that pieces are sent direct from the brand’s factory in
Italy, reducing excess stock and the end-price for customers – the split-city
approach works well for the brothers. And in expanding their reach, they’ve
recently introduced leathergoods, such as wallets, iPad cases and belts, to the
range, employing an ancient, Florentine method of construction that eschews
sewing and uses heat and natural glues to create joins and folds. “The thing,
as with the shoes, is that it’s of good construction, natural material and is
handmade,” says Josh.
Mr Josh & Tull Price photographed by Sam Hendel on 20 December 2012
at the office of Golightly PR, Darlinghurst, Australia.
