FEIT San Francisco Store by Jordana Maisie Design Studio

Slow-fashion Australian footwear brand FEIT has opened it’s third U.S store, following two New York outposts with a spot in San Francisco‘s Jackson Square. Designed by Jordana Maisie Design Studio (JMDS), the concept reimagines the traditional shoe store, refocusing on consumer experience. Resisting against automated production and synthetic materials, FEIT shoes are hand sewn and hand lasted by master artisans using vegetable-tanned leather. Production runs are highly limited, averaging approximately 60 pairs for seasonal styles.

In keeping with the brand’s ethos of ‘products built by humans, not machines’, the 80sqm store has a handmade, carpentry quality to it. Naturally finished Baltic birch plywood dominates a streamlined material palette, used for both skeleton shelves and for an expansive central plain that displays shoes, with built-in seats for trying on.

The space is kept clean and open, with raw concrete flooring, stainless steel and full-height mirrored surfaces completing the minimal design. A linear lighting strategy enhances a symmetrical quality to the layout. Raw chunks of materials that comprise FEIT shoes such as bamboo shank take on a sculptural quality, displayed as such atop the central plywood structure.

“The simplicity of the FEIT footwear and care packaging has been elevated as a design element, introducing a repetitive, rhythmic feature that focuses the design experience on the product. The perimeter shelving system provides an enhanced level of service as stock is accessed without leaving the floor,” says Jordana Maisie of JMDS.

In 2018, FEIT implemented a program of post-purchase services, reflective of a circular model that include repairs, care products, complementary treatments and a shoe donation program. The San Francisco store follows suit, purposefully designed around an evolution towards service. FEIT’s philosophy withstands volume and excess, and JMDS’ store design brings this brand vision beyond goods and services and into the built environment.