Our story started with a small shoe factory in southern Estonia, which has made great boots for over 75 years. Boots trusted even by NATO armies. We soon discovered that the factory has also been a trusted partner for well-known international brands, including Dr. Martens and Rossignol. As the primary focus of the factory is on enterprise-level clients, private customers could only buy the boots at the factory store. This made no sense to us. After a couple of meetings and workshops, we opened an online store in Estonia, making those great boots available to a broader audience.
Soon we discovered that there are other independent shoe brands and manufacturers out there that most people have never heard about but are making genuinely great and unique products. Some of them are handcrafted and all of them are made in Europe. For example, we bet you have never heard about Kira Sustainable, a shoe brand making sustainable shoes from old and reused materials, including recycled tire soles. Or Toku, a small shoemaker still owned and run by the same family that founded the company in 1927. From here, we understood that our purpose is to make those independent brands available to everyone who believes that every shoe should have a story and that how and where the shoes are made is equally important. And soon after that, we launched whatshoes, which aims to make those independent shoe manufacturers and brands available worldwide.
That’s a nice story, but who the shoe are you anyway?
We are three friends with a startup and retail background trying to help small brands grow and help people discover new unique products. Together we founded whatshoes and with the same team, we are also building a solution called Hertwill, but you can read more about this from our homepage. Most importantly, it might be weird to read and I ensure it is even stranger to write, but we are fans of the products we sell. Yes, we know the famous quote from that Scarface that you shouldn’t get high from your supply, but what can you do when your supply is so good? For example, in the winter, Roland’s and Joosep’s go-to boots are Pilot boots and Annamari has a similar relationship with Aviator boots. And if you are asking about the summer, you can probably guess what we are wearing (hint!). Our work-related experience is mainly from the startup world and retail. Roland previously worked as an engineer in Pipedrive, Annamari has UI/UX designer background from Single Earth and Ekspress Media, and Joosep worked as a product manager and e-commerce manager for Omniva and Rahva Raamat.
And one last commercial announcement: if this spoke to you and you would like to help us and independent brands grow, we are looking for new people to join our team. Please write to us at hello(at)whatshoes.co
– Annamari Kenk, Roland Kriibi and Joosep Sibul, founders of the best shoe shop in the world
hello@whatsoes.co
Hertwill OÜ
Peetri 12 Tallinn
Estonia
Whatshoes is brought to you by Hertwill.