FEIT

FEIT

Industry	Footwear
Founded	2005
Headquarters	New York City, US
Key people	Tull & Josh Price (Founders)
Website	www.feitdirect.com/

FEIT (pronounced fight) is an Australian brand of shoes and accessories based in New York City. It was founded by Australian brothers Tull & Josh Price in 2005.^[1] FEIT products are known for being handmade using natural materials.^[2][3]

History

Tull Price grew up between Australia and Israel. He became interested in sneakers at an early age and founded Royal Elastics,^[4] as well as the footwear division of Rag and Bone.^[5] His brother Josh Price was a DJ in Australia at the time and became involved in Royal Elastics by hosting parties in both NYC and Sydney.^[6] Upon returning to NYC in 2004 with a better understanding of what makes a high quality pair of shoes, Tull enlisted his brother's help to found FEIT in 2005.^[7]

According to an article published by Selectism in 2014, FEIT was founded as a response to "Fast Fashion". Tull says "...I found that globalization (coupled with success in the sneaker industry) was a volume, price, mass production driven business which ultimately ends up with homogenization. FEIT was a reaction, a desire to return to product and to create something special, unique and without compromise".^[8]

The brand opened their first store in Sydney in 2006. They opened their second store in the Nolita area of NYC in November 2014.Their second New York City store opened September 2015 in the West Village.^[9]

The brand is now based in NYC.^[6]

Store Design

FEIT's first New York City location across the street from The New Museum was designed by installation artist Jordana Maisie Goot^[10] and is titled "Raw Elements of Construction".^[11] The 500-square foot store is built largely from matte-polyurethaned birch plywood shorn into clean angles and planes,^[12] and has been featured in the design magazine Frame.^[13]

FEIT's second NYC location in the city's West Village opened in September 2015. The store, again built by installation artist Jordana Maisie Goot, is titled "Volume and Void" and is inspired by mother nature's great canyons.^[14] According to an article published by The New York Times, the 420-square-foot space features "Large slabs of raw wood float inches apart, from floor to ceiling — with nooks carved out to display the products" and features "an intricate lighting system with white LED lights that allows the store to brighten and dim depending on the time of day and season".^[15] Dezeen Architecture and Design Magazine, in an interview with Jordana describes the construction process as "similar to the process of shaping leather, the design team used moulds to carve out display shelves from blocks of timber during the 3D-modelling stage. The shelving components, made of Baltic birch plywood, were cut using a computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine. They were formed into modules and then delivered to the store."^[16]

Sustainable Construction

All FEIT shoes are handmade using biodegradable materials in factories with a low environmental impact that are free of harmful chemicals and synthetic materials.^[17] They are hand stitched without the use of machines to help reduce the amount of waste produced by the factory.^[18] "The sole is made up of five individual pieces. An internal leather midsole, a layer of natural cork,^[19] a buffalo leather outsole, a rubber tread and a vegetable leather strip which encases the sole to the upper." The shoe also includes a natural bamboo shank, buffalo leather insoles, natural leather welt, and cotton cording to sew it all together.^[20][21] EIT shoes are primarily made using two different shoe-making techniques: Hand Sewn Goodyear and Hand Sewn Stitchdown construction.

Biotrainer

First released in 2014, the "Bio-Trainer" is the worlds first all-natural, biological handmade sneaker. Produced from vegetable-dyed suede and leather, the sneaker features a 100% natural latex rubber sole made from the milk of the Hevea brasiliensis tree.^{[22][23][24][25][26]}

References