Help our family workshop keep making barefoot shoes

For the past 10 years, we have been making barefoot shoes for wide feet that people around the world have come to love. Our customers tell us they have finally found shoes that give their feet enough room and that they can wear in real comfort.

Our vision has always been to make shoes you fall in love with from the moment you put them on. Shoes so comfortable that you never want to take them off, and above all, so well made that they last for years.

We achieved that. But now our workshop is at risk.

Everywhere we turn, we hear about new brands entering the market with more competitive prices. Yet when prices are compared, it is often overlooked what the shoes are actually made from and whether they will last four years or just six months.

Even as barefoot shoes continue to grow in popularity, our business is facing an existential crisis. We underestimated the importance of marketing and did not respond quickly enough to rising costs. Today, we are fighting to keep our workshop open. That is why we are asking for your help.

We have a plan to get LUKS Barefoot back on its feet and help our brand compete with lower-priced alternatives. We want to become more visible on social media and across other online channels. We are also improving our online shop to make it clearer and easier to navigate. We want to explain more clearly what goes into the price of our shoes and how quality, genuinely foot-shaped shoes differ from cheaper footwear.

But right now, we need your support to keep our workshop open and our existing team together. Making shoes properly by hand is a demanding craft that takes years of practice. If our workshop closed, we would lose not only the place where our shoes are made, but also a skilled team and shoemaking expertise built up over many years.

Your support will help us stabilise the business and complete the changes needed to give our brand a chance to thrive again.

Will you help us keep our workshop alive and continue making quality barefoot shoes?

LUKS Barefoot is run by the Luks family and a small team in Jablonec nad Nisou. Our workshop is built on the experience of our dad, Václav, who has been making shoes since 1992. Over the years, thousands of pairs have passed through his hands. Together, we built LUKS Barefoot on his knowledge of materials, pattern cutting and the craft of making shoes by hand.

Today, the whole family is involved: Lenka, our dad Václav, our mum Monika and our brother Václav. Together, we take care of everything from making the shoes and packing orders to answering customers’ messages. When you write to us, you’re speaking directly to the people who make your shoes.

Making our shoes in our own workshop allows us to accommodate customers’ individual needs. We can adjust the room over the instep, the shape of the toe box or the fit around the heel. We can also make a pair with different sizes for the left and right foot. We discuss each adjustment with the customer to find a solution that suits their feet.

Our workshop brings together our dad’s lifetime of experience and the ideas and contributions of the rest of the family. It’s the result of years spent learning, experimenting and refining every detail together.

For us, keeping our workshop going means carrying on our dad’s work and giving everything we’ve built together as a family a future.

Your support will help us keep our workshop running, buy quality materials, complete outstanding orders and get production back on track.

Quality leather, soles and skilled craftsmanship all come at a cost, as does running our workshop. We believe the price of our shoes fairly reflects everything that goes into making them. However, we simply aren’t receiving enough orders to cover those costs.

For our work to have a future, we need to reach the people who are looking for shoes like ours but haven’t discovered us yet.

If we reach our fundraising target, a significant share of the funds will also go towards promoting our shoes on social media and other online channels, and completing important improvements to our online shop. We want to make choosing the right shoes easier and help customers understand how our shoes are made, who they’re suited to and what goes into their price.

Our aim is to bring in enough orders to keep production steady and gradually grow our business again. Your support will give us the chance to work towards that.

Please help us keep making quality barefoot shoes and give what we’ve built together as a family another chance.

Thank you for every donation and for helping us spread the word. ❤️