The story behind Skinners

It’s the story of a young man who quit his job as a law clerk, went to Norway to work as a cook and came back to start a footwear company…

The “aha” moment…

“It all started in Norway, where I was working, and like most people I struggled with deciding what to pack while traveling. Armed with ultralight jackets, lightweight towels and dehydrated food, I sadly looked on as my backup shoes took up the other half of my backpack. The «aha moment» to create compact storable footwear hit me when my friend was recovering from a foot injury. Essentially, he couldn’t fit his foot into a normal shoe, or when he finally did, it wasn’t very comfortable and the moisture inside prevented healing.”

Driven by the desire to help a friend and to let his foot move around naturally and freely while providing adequate protection against the erratic Norwegian weather, he took his travel sewing-kit and some leftover materials from a nearby construction site and got to work…

A needle, construction scraps (and beer) – the perfect recipe for a prototype

The very same night he took the prototype out to compare the feeling to a regular shoe as well as to being barefoot: “I tried every surface I could find (gravel, asphalt, wet lawn, bushes, shards of glass, roots etc.). The result was awesome! I felt like my foot had just been upgraded… like with some kind of nano-suit. It let me move freely like a sock and protected me like a shoe – I didn’t have to worry about what I might step on or what “surprise” that bush or lawn in front of me was hiding. It really was like I had just grown some kind of extra-durable second skin.”

Making it happen

After returning home, Petr decided not to continue his career in law and put everything he had into his new passion – Skinners: «I spent the next 10 months prototyping. I moved out of my parents’ garage, and my girlfriend and I rented part of a factory and came up with a unique technology that replaces traditional glues and seams, making Skinners virtually unbreakable.” No one in the footwear industry had ever done this before.

«Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.»

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Nowadays, Skinners are hand-made in Europe using a dual coating of durable anti-abrasive polymer from the finest Swedish materials and antibacterial fiber. “We simply put innovation into every step…” adds Petr and continues…

“We’ve gone through a lot in the last year. From the initial idea and first prototypes, through setting up manufacturing to collecting and processing feedback from experts and the first Skinners users. The result is a version of Skinners we are truly proud of.” Now the only thing missing from their story is to share the Skinners experience with the rest of the world. If you like their vision, you can support these young people in their effort and preorder Skinners in their currently running Kickstarter campaign (starts on 7th June 2016).