Fashion

Shoes of Prey Lets You Design Your Own Footwear

by Alexa Tucker

Ever dreamed of being a shoe designer? Well, now you can be. Kind of. Australian e-commerce site Shoes Of Prey allows you to create your own custom shoes, so no longer will you have to pass up an almost perfect pair because they're not quite right — You can just make them yourself.

Founded in 2009 by lawyer Jodie Fox, the company offers 12 different styles, including ballet flats, heeled sandals, and ankle boots. And according to Business of Fashion, there are over 300,000 trillion permutations. Yeah, you read that right — 300,000 trillion combinations made possible by options for heel height, leather type, color, and many other customizable aspects. (That may be more choices than I'm equipped to handle.)

The company's customers have designed more the four million pairs of shoes so far (although not all of them were purchased.) Most of them land under a $200 price point, which seems surprisingly reasonable considering these shoes are 100 percent custom and made-to-order.

The shoes are making the jump from online entities to tangible products now, too — a partnership with Nordstrom means that five of the department store's locations will have a sample of the shoes within the next year, in addition to the Bellevue, Washington flagship store, which introduced the Shoes of Prey experience last month.

Of course, there won't be 300,000 trillion pairs of shoes in each store. The "shop-in-shops" won't actually have inventory; rather, customers will be able to see, feel, and try on sample shoes and then customize and order them on an iPad.

After all, most of Shoes of Prey's customer's aren't looking for a shoe they can buy on a shelf. The site does offer shoe designs for inspiration, but according to Fox, “Rarely do we see a pair of shoes purchased as it is. There’s always some sort of modification.”

Head over to the site and try your hand at shoe designing — it's almost too fun. I think I'm turning into a virtual shopaholic.

Image: Instagram/@shoesofprey