Summer shoes—for me—can be a bit of a nightmare to pull off with any grace whatsoever. With the hot, humid, overbearing summers in the northeast, I personally cannot stand to wear socks, say, June through September. Which can get a little less-than-quaint, let’s say, when you only cycle between a few pairs of shoes and you walk as much as I do. So whenever I stumble across a new, animal-friendly, nice-looking, well-made, well-aerated shoe for warm weather, I swoon a little bit.

Shoes Like Pottery—a new company out of Japan that fires their shoes in kilns like (you guessed it) pottery—is certainly producing some swoon-worthy shoes.

Their tough-yet-soft canvas, uniquely flexible soles, and bright blue pop of color are just what my summer needed. That and maybe a few less massive urban heat waves.

With the intriguing name and our perpetual fascination with all things Japanese, we decided to reach out to the company to find out more about the shoes, the process involved in making them, and the company behind it all. US Sales Manager + Brand Representative, Matthew Butlett was kind enough to entertain our inquisitive minds. Find out below how you cook a shoe to perfection.

raven + crow: First off, what made you want to get into the shoe business?

Matthew Butlett: Honestly, I kind of just fell into the shoe business…. I do love the whole process of seeing the initial shoe design, bringing it to prototype form, selling the shoes, and then and taking them to market. Seeing the shoes perform at the retail level and having people wear them is very rewarding. I studied International Business and Spanish and then lived in Japan for a while and speak the language a bit. So working for Marubeni (the Japanese company we import and distribute through) and with a Japanese shoe company (MoonStar, Shoes Like Pottery’s parent company) also gives me a chance to use my Japanese and travel, which I love.

Certainly not the hard knock life, seemingly. So did Shoes Like Pottery evolve from MoonStar’s tabis? And, for those who don’t know, can you explain what a tabi is and the tradition behind them?

Yes—our vulcanization process was created when we first produced tabis, in 1873. A tabi is a traditional Japanese shoe with a canvas upper and rubber outsole. Long ago, Japanese people wore socks outdoors, but MoonStar invented the tabi and it was well-received in Japan as a more functional, durable alternative to simply wearing socks outside. After that, we began to evolve our vulcanization process at our Japanese factory and eventually brought it to bear with Shoes Like Pottery.

Where does the name MoonStar come from? We love the hand-stamped logo on the shoes.

We just like the idea of the moon and star shining through the night and being seen directly by everyone, so the name MoonStar was chosen for the company a long time ago. But our name originally was Tsuchiya Tabi Company back in 1873 because our founder, Mr. Kurata, started off with his small shop, Tsuchiya Tabi. His family’s crest was the Uchide no Kozuchi, or Lucky Hammer, which is derived from the idea that people can get anything if they take a chance and swing the ‘lucky hammer’. So that’s why we employ the crest to this day for the hand-stamped logo on Shoes Like Pottery.

Ah, I get it now. I didn’t think that looked like a moon + star. So, can you explain the ka-ryu process to us?

The ka-ryu process is the vulcanization we use to make the shoes. They’re fired at 120° C/248° F in a kiln for 70 minutes, similar to the way Japanese pottery is fired. The extreme heat and pressure causes the sulfur mixed inside the raw rubber to chemically react, returning the rubber to its original shape. Our unique ka-ryu process enables us to hand-craft small batches of some of the world’s finest vulcanized shoes. 

That’s crazy—you cook the shoes. And the vulcanization process doesn’t harm the fabric?

Our materials are very high-quality—we bring in only first-class canvas and rubber that meets our high standards, so, no, our fabric is definitely not harmed by the vulcanization process.

Got it. So does the firing result in a softer or more durable sole or is more a matter of bonding the sole to the upper fabric or both?

Actually both. It is how we bond the sole to the upper, but the vulcanization process has a long history with the tabi of creating a soft yet durable sole.

I read that the shoes are sewn + manufactured largely by hand because the process is impossible to do mechanically. Why is that?

We produce some shoes mechanically in our factory, but these products are not as lightweight, soft, or as durable because the process is not as refined. With Shoes Like Pottery, our hand-crafted vulcanization process gives shoes the benefits of light weight softness and durability. Each shoe is checked individually by hand so we can ensure each shoes quality.

We love the bright blue sole bottoms. Any significance in those or did you just want an eye-catching color to be part of the design?

MoonStar’s company color is blue, but we modified the color a little for this brand and decided to use it for the outsole and logo.

Yeah, it’s a really nice blue. We’re also really into the photography you feature on the site. Who does that and where was most of it done? The light’s great….

Our Shoes Like Pottery team took most of the photos at our Japanese factory.
Well, they’re really nice. Looking at your list of stores that carry SLP in the US, it looks like you’re mostly in NYC + LA at this point. Do you all have plans to expand and find other outlets in the states?

We’re trying to expand step-by-step—we recently exhibited at Capsule NY looking for other appropriate retailers. We are also selling at Steven Alan in Boston and Atlanta, and to Lost and Found in Toronto.

Do you have any concerns about the higher demand on your products affecting the small-batch process?

Right now, we’re not concerned with higher demand and are keeping the lineup small to focus on the quality.

Nice. Yeah, the focus of the company is impressive—I’ve always admired the action of choosing to do one thing and do it well—but are there any plans for the company to offer anything more than the two shoes, white + black?

Since we only just started selling the brand in November of last year in the US, we wanted to keep it tight and simple. We will have an indigo low top and black and white high top for delivery in January/February of next year though.

Top + bottom photos by us; inset photos courtesy of Shoes Like Pottery.

Apologies, Reader, for a noticeable lack of posts in recent times. We’ve been a little overly engaged of late in both exciting work + exciting non-work.

On that latter note, a very happy birthday to the better half of the company, Ms. Katie Frichtel—designer extraordinaire + all-around amazing woman. You make each of this writer’s days better than the last.

We’ll catch you on the flip side, as they say, with a return to bringing you the finest in independent music, cruelty-free delectable foods + goods, and all things pleasant next week. In the meantime, don’t forget to vote in the photo contest we’re doing with MooShoes. You have until 5PM Wednesday. Vote on their Facebook page.

This morning, we’re officially announcing our partnership with vegan super-shop MooShoes to sponsor their very first photo contest.Show off the most stunning/impressive/ridiculous shots of your favorite MooShoes footwear together with your adorable companion animals on Instagram (à la our guy, Owen, posing with his namesake shoe above) and you could win a $50 gift card to MooShoes! If you want to share the story of how your companion animal came into your life, we’d love to hear that too.

Just use Instagram to post by this Friday, June 7th and be sure to tag MooShoes + us to make sure we see them—@mooshoes_nyc + @ravenandcrow. You don’t have to follow us on Instagram to win (though, do you like copious photos of vegan food + adorable cats/dogs?), but feel free to!

Then we’ll convene a meeting of the minds with MooShoes to pick four finalists so you can chose the winner on Facebook.

So much social media. You should totally Pin your photo to Twitter too. We’ll make Vine of you doing it. On Reddit.

Added incentive to enter—word on the street is that MooShoes may give away a couple of these highly sought-after gift cards, so your chances could be pretty ace (sorry—we’ve been reading a lot of David Mitchell lately).

Now get snapping, Snappy!

You may remember back at the beginning of the year when we announced we had a new hire of the four-legged variety. Owen’s certainly earned his keep since, proving his couch-sleeping skills unmatched in the office + warding off telemarketers with a sigh of aloofness when he answers the phone, but, we must be honest with you—the decision to bring Owen on-board was an uncharacteristically hasty one for us.

Anyone who knows Katie or myself knows that we’re both very deliberate in most decisions + very picky, which can often result in exactly zero decisions ever being made. We’re working on that, but, to the point, we had talked about bringing a dog into our lives for years. When Katie saw a photo + description of Owen on Facebook (“good with cats”—key) and then we met the fine fellow on the night of New Year’s Eve, 2012, we decided to be very un-us and just go for it. Though, to be honest, there was an adjustment period for us—”What does that look mean? Does that mean you have to pee? Are you currently peeing? Do you need four walks a day? Seventy-two?”—we’re happy every second of the day that we took the plunge and, as a result, have this wonderful, kind-hearted dog in our lives.

But back to us being über-picky—though the shelter was kind enough to give us a leash when we picked up Owen (seriously—no pet supply stores are open on the morning of New Year’s Day)—we quickly became aware that such a dapper fellow needed some equally dapper duds. Plus, you know, he’s a dog, so he’s basically got one or two things he wears his whole life; may as well make them nice.

But no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn’t seem to find a collar or leash to suit our…or more accurately, his fine tastes. I know—overt personification of and public projection onto one’s animal companion is not an attractive quality. It’s like baby talk; we’ll stop. But, suffice to say, he’s a handsome fellow + we like to support finely made pretty things.

Which is why we’re thankful to have come across Found My Animal, a Brooklyn-based company that creates durable, timeless-looking products for the canine in your life. We absolutely fell in love with their canvas collars + super-strong, marine-grade rope leashes, adorned with solid brass fixtures + versatile clips (pictured above + below). We were impressed with Found’s aesthetic and, even more so, its raison d’être, so we thought we’d take a moment to catch up with one of the company’s co-founders, Bethany Obrecht (right), to learn more about the idea behind the company + its products.

raven + crow studio: What inspired you to start Found My Animal?

Bethany Obrecht: Co-founder Anna Conway and I are both artists that wanted to help encourage people to adopt animals. Anna was first inspired by a family member working as a fisherman, and she made her rescue pup the very first 3-strand, hand-spliced and whipped rope leash back in 2006. Nothing like it existed in the market, so by 2007, Found My Animal got started making the same unique nautical leads for our customers.

Why was making adopted animals a focus important to you? Clearly you could have left that part out of the branding/mission and opened the products up to a lot more customers.

Anna and I are both die hard animal lovers. That love for animals was the foundation that started our lasting friendship and partnership. We both have fostered countless animals in need. We basically thought that if we created a brand around the idea of making animal adoption the right thing to do, and cool, people would follow.

That is truly excellent. Your leash and collars are so beautifully designed, we honestly feel like we’re strutting Owen (our dog) around in the equivalent of doggie bling, in a really awesome way. Was playing up the company name—and thus adoption mission—with the tags and bright brass intentional in the design?

The brass tags represent our following. They were an integral part of the design of the leash, to keep count of the animals that were being FOUND and saved.

Very nice idea behind the brand. How are the stamped numbers on the tags significant?

The individually-numbered, stamped tags on each FOUND leash serve as a reminder of the uniqueness of your animal and allow us to keep track of the number of animals you have helped so far.

And how did the new hand-dyed ombre line come about?

We thought that dye would react beautifully with 100% US cotton rope. We did a few tests and came up with the Ombre—it’s so natural and chic.

Agreed. Finally, any chance you’d do a solid black canvas collar in the future? We think it’d look STUNNING on our fellow….

Sure we can make you one!

Suhweeeeeeet!

Visit Found My Animal’s site to learn more about their mission, see more images of their work, and check out their full range of expanding products for your favorite dog-breathed friend.
 
Pictured below, their adjustable black leash + Owen posing in his black watch plaid collar in the studio. Photo of Bethany with Claude and Henri at Found My Animal’s studio in Bed Stuy by Tre Cassetta.