Thursday, March 26, 2015

A Moving Stone Gathers No Moss

If you haven't heard of Shoes of Prey, I'm afraid you've probably been hiding under the proverbial rock.

Founded in 2009 by fellow Brisbanites and former lawyers, Michael Fox, Michael Knapp and Jodie Fox the design-your-own shoes-in-3D website has taken off in a major way both here and overseas. After their third successful capital raising in late 2014, resulting in US$5.5M in venture capital funding from (among others) US-based Khosla Ventures, Shoes of Prey is now expanding its off-line, bricks and mortar presence in the US, as well as construction of a new factory in China. Shoes of Prey had previously raised $4.75M in 2 other capital raising activities. This latest deal leaves the original founders with just under 50% equity in the business.



Along with their concessions at David Jones here in Australia (whose forecast revenue from the shoes has doubled in the first years of operation), Shoes of Prey has recently inked a deal with Nordstrom to open 11 concession outlets in the USA. The China factory will allow Shoes of Prey to expand its output capacity 12-fold as it races to meet the insatiable demand of shoe-lovers globally. In addition to all of this, the deal has enabled Shoes of Prey to hire key staff for the expansion, including a chief marketing officer, graphic designers and senior retail staff. Shoes of Prey also now has an office in Soho, New York.

Suffice to say, these guys are doing the best out of the rest of the class of 2003.

Shoes of Prey doesn't sleep though. They have recently announced a collaboration with Romance Was Born, Australia's boundary pushing fashion house known for its bold, colourful prints and theatrical catwalk shows. This latest collaboration brings a set of 5 gorgeous, Australiana-inspired prints to the Shoes of Prey platform. I am in love!


With sales growing 50% year on year since its launch and gross profits exploding 250% over the last year, there's no stopping Shoes of Prey and its innovative co-founders.

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