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While a handful of shoes taking the form and comfort of socks have popped up from some luxury and streetwear players in recent seasons, a new brand is hoping to redefine the category.
Enter Brave Pudding, a brand-new shoe label from New York native Sarah Fiszel. Designed in New York City and crafted in Portugal, the company launches with one shoe model that features a flexible knit sock upper and a cushioned sole for added comfort and support.
Available for both men and women, the sock itself is made of recycled cashmere, while the sole features recycled rubber. The shoe, which retails for $380, comes in six colors for women and four colors for men and will launch on Sept. 18 on the brand’s website.
For Fiszel, launching the brand was a very personal experience, having started her journey last October by handmaking the first iteration of her sock shoe in her bathroom. “At the time, I would post them on Instagram, and they seemed to catch on,” Fiszel told FN in an interview. “I sold over 100 pairs just through Instagram in the beginning.”
It was through her posting on Instagram where Fiszel connected with Veronica Swanson Beard, who reached out to her after seeing the shoes on social media. “Veronica asked me to come in and meet with her and expressed her interest in supporting me and my business,” Fiszel said. “Veronica said that she ‘wanted to pay it forward’ by helping me, and I was thrilled. She inspired me and gave me the confidence to bring this to market.”
Following Beard’s guidance, Fiszel met with factories and selected three different Portuguese makers to bring her product to life. Fast forward to nearly a year after starting her venture and Brave Pudding is ready for consumers.
Brave Pudding, sock shoes, socks, shoes, Sarah Fiszel
But launching a shoe company wasn’t always the plan for Fiszel. After graduating from Cornell’s School of Textile and Design, the footwear founder worked early on in Ralph Lauren’s publicity department and later transitioned to a successful career in real estate. And after the pandemic, the mom of four then saw an opportunity to bring something new to the market as more consumers sought to bring more comfort elements into their lives.
“If you would have told me 15 years ago that women would be wearing sneakers with dresses, I would have never believed you,” Fiszel said. “For me, personally, I was tired of wearing sneakers. I’ve been resoling slippers for year, so this is why I started testing resoling socks to create what I have today.”
As for how she chose the name, Fiszel pointed to her connection to East Hampton, N.Y. There is a street in the town named Pudding Hill Lane that pays homage to a brave Revolutionary War-era housewife’s daring deed to refuse to serve her pudding to the redcoat soldiers in 1776. In defiance, she threw her pudding down the hill instead of handing it over. This is the spirit that inspired Brave Pudding. So, with Brave Pudding, Fiszel hopes to inspire others to embrace bravery in the everyday.
“I can kind of relate to that story,” Fiszel said. “I’m also asking you to wear socks outside, do that take a certain level of bravery. I feel like at my age, at 46, 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, Fiszel is focusing on her debut style for now with some variations in color and fabric to come in the future. “We want to be direct-to-consumer primarily, but I would love to be in certain key wholesale stores that I love,” Fiszel said. “Veronica Beard is actually bringing our shoes to 13 of her stores, so we will start with that and see what happens.”
Brave Pudding, sock shoes, socks, shoes, Sarah Fiszel
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