This New Shoe Brand Wants You to Be Brave and Wear Socks as Shoes
In recent seasons, a number of luxury and streetwear brands have launched shoes that adopt the shape and comfort of socks, but one new brand is looking to redefine the category.
Brave Pudding is a new footwear brand founded by New York-based designer Sarah Fiszel. Designed in New York City and crafted in Portugal, the company has launched a shoe that features a flexible knit sock upper and a cushioned sole for added comfort and support.
The socks are unisex, with the socks themselves made from recycled cashmere and the soles made from recycled rubber. The shoes, which retail for $380 and come in six women’s and four men’s colors, will be available on the brand’s website on September 18.
For Fiszel, launching the brand was a very personal experience, and her journey began last October when she handmade her first pair of sock shoes in her bathroom. “At the time, I would post these shoes on Instagram, and they seemed to be popular,” Fiszel told FN. “In the beginning, I sold over 100 pairs through Instagram alone.”
It was through her Instagram posts that Fetzer connected with Veronica Swanson Beard, who contacted her after seeing the shoes on social media. “Veronica invited me to meet her and expressed her interest in supporting me and my business,” Fetzer said. “Veronica said she ‘wanted to give back by helping me,’ and I was delighted. She inspired me and gave me the confidence to bring this product to market.”
With Beard’s guidance, Fetzer met with factories and selected three different Portuguese manufacturers to bring her product to market. Nearly a year into her business, Brave Pudding is ready to be consumer-ready.
But starting a shoe company wasn’t always Fetzer’s plan. After graduating from Cornell University’s College of Textiles and Design, the footwear founder spent her early years working in publicity for Ralph Lauren before transitioning to a successful career in real estate. As more consumers seek to introduce more comfort into their lives post-pandemic, the mother of four saw an opportunity to bring something new to the market.
“If you had told me 15 years ago that women would wear sneakers with dresses, I would have never believed you,” Fizer said. “Personally, I was tired of wearing sneakers. I’d been wearing flip-flops for a year, so I started testing flip-flops and created what I have today.”
As for how she chose the name, Fizer pointed to her connection to East Hampton, New York. There’s a street in town called Pudding Hill Lane, named in honor of a brave Revolutionary War housewife’s bold act of refusing to serve pudding to the Redcoats in 1776. In a show of defiance, she threw the pudding down a hill instead of handing it to the soldiers. That’s where the inspiration for Brave Pudding came from. So with Brave Pudding, Fizer hopes to inspire others to be brave in their everyday lives.
“I kind of relate to that story,” Fizer said. “I’m also asking you to wear socks outside, which takes a certain amount of courage. I feel like at 45, I know who I am and I believe in myself. I believe in my style and I love the product. So that’s another reason why I put ‘brave’ in the brand name.”
Looking ahead, Fizer is currently focused on her first shoe, which will see some tweaks in color and fabrics in the future. “We want to primarily go direct to consumer, but I’d also like to be in some of the major wholesale stores that I love,” Fizer said. “Veronica Beard has actually taken our shoes to 13 of her stores, so we’ll start there and see what happens.”