by Jake Espinoza
Aaron Firestein is Founder and Creative Director at BucketFeet. The casual shoe company has been featured in publications such as Los Angeles Times and NBC Chicago. Their business plan allows them to donate 5% of every purchase to one of three charities they work with: Magic, love.futbol, and Children Mending Hearts.
“It all kind of happened by accident really. I was a senior at U of O and I had this desire to draw on some shoes for myself. I remember there was this shop on East 13th Street that sold white Vans. I’d always been an artistic guy. I just drew on some shoes and posted a photo of them online. This guy who I went to high school with, and is pretty much the biggest sneaker head I knew, left a comment saying, ‘I would buy these.’ He ended up being the first person I sold a pair to.”
Aaron went to school as a Political-Science major. He used the shoes as an artistic outlet while in school and started selling them to people he knew on campus. After taking some time off to save money after school he ended up moving to Argentina. He got involved with a local youth group, where he met his eventual business partner, Raaja Nemani. Raaja had quit his finance job and was traveling the world.
Fast forward two years, Aaron was still living in Argentina and working as a photographer. Raaja reconnected with him via Facebook.
“He said he saw that I was still selling the shoes. He had a good business background and had always wanted to try the entrepreneurial thing.”
Raaja moved back to Chicago, and they got things rolling with Aaron still living in Argentina. They communicated in large part via Skype and emails. This was March 2010; Aaron joined Raaja in Chicago in January 2011.
Their first order was 3000 pairs. They’ve since placed a reorder for their first line. Their only promotion so far has been due to word of mouth advertising. They haven’t yet paid for any sort of traditional advertisements.
Aaron has designed all of the shoes they have released so far, but they are preparing to release a series designed by outside artists including Catherine Thompson of Portland.
“She’s not going to have a shoe in this first run, but hopefully we’ll have a shoe designed by her out sometime later this year.”
Along with donating 5% of each purchase to charity, they hoped to also have a “Made in America” angle to use while promoting their company. Unfortunately this was not a possibility.
“It’s not that manufacturing in the United States is more expensive. It’s that manufacturing in the United States isn’t an option. The technology needed, and the materials needed for sneakers, the factories just don’t exist in the United States.” He continued, “What we learned is that of all the places to do it overseas, China is the premier spot to do it. People have such a magnifying glass on the operations that regulations have gotten really tight. And they’ve made it a point to say, ‘This is fair labor.’”
Growing up in Berkeley and going to college in Eugene, Aaron had a generally negative outlook on outsourced labor. He said taking the trip to China convinced him otherwise.
Check them out at www.bucketfeet.com.