When It Became Real....

Do you remember the big moments in life — the ones that shape you in ways you didn’t even realise you needed?

We do.

For us, it was the day the first container arrived.

This wasn’t just a container filled with shoes, boots and sandals. Once the seal on those container doors was broken, everything would become real. Sales would be real. Service would be real. Patience would be real. And, as we would soon discover, muscle aches would also be very real.

But there was one small detail we hadn’t quite thought through.

Who exactly was going to unpack this container?
Who was going to sort the stock?
Who was going to pack all the orders for the amazing stockists who had taken a chance on a brand-new brand?

It was at that exact moment — perhaps a little late for such a realisation — that we understood something important:

Operationally, we were very short-staffed.

So we did what any determined start-up does.

We called in favours.

Cousins, friends, family — anyone with a willing set of hands came to help. Together we unpacked the container, stacked boxes, organised stock, and began preparing orders for the stockists who had taken a chance on us.

By the end of that day, every single one of us — regardless of age — had aches and pains in muscles we didn’t even know existed. Gym membership? Who needs that. Not in the shoe game.

But the real moment came the next morning.

The day to open the boxes.
The day to see the product against the brochures.
The day to pack the first orders.
The day to send out our very first invoice.

The day the dream moved from imagination… to reality.

Walking into that storeroom, armed with a clipboard, an order sheet, and a knife still gives me goosebumps. The smell hit me first — leather, and strangely enough, the sea. Even the cardboard boxes seemed to carry the scent of the journey.

The snap of the container seal still rings in my memory — sharp and metallic, like the sound of a journey finally arriving.

Every master box we opened felt more exciting than the last. The colours were better than the photos. The shoes were lighter than we had imagined. And the UK13s… well, when you see those for the first time, you realise they are not just big — they are huge.

Our hands soon became covered in cardboard dust and tape residue, evidence of the physical reality of the adventure we had begun. And then there were the strange little packets falling out of every box — something we later learned were desiccants, quietly protecting the footwear during their long voyage across the ocean.

There was another moment from that day that has always stayed with me. Someone said, “Don’t worry — the excitement of the first container fades. By the second or third one, you won’t feel the same way again.”

Well… I’m here to say that’s not true.

Eight years later, I still track the shipments.
I still take photos when the container seal is broken.
I still wait for that moment when the doors open and the smell of leather and sea drifts out.

And after all these years, I’m fairly certain I always will.

The journey continues… and the whispers get a little clearer.

— From the Desk of the CEO