LA-based Davinci Footwear is the creation of veteran shoemaker Eric Payne and entrepreneur Curt Clemens, who came together to design and handcraft earth-friendly, minimalist boots that offer an all-natural foot feel. The newly launched footwear brand claims to have a concept completely different than all other shoes. They’ve coined their shoes’ distinctive quality as “the slipper of boots.”
Passionate about design and form, united in a shared concern for sustainability, and devoted to the idea that shoes should be comfortable, Payne and Clemens created a boot blueprint that combines both style and comfort. Davinci Footwear shoes are extremely light, flexible and feature a specialized insole that offers long-lasting wear, while also maintaining the integrity of the foot’s natural form. Payne, whose extensive background in shoemaking includes hand-crafting work boots at a 100-year-old heritage boot company, sought to sculpt shoes with “real-feel” features for maximum comfort and benefit for men and women.
As a result, the duo created a unique leather insole that forms to the foot and is completely stitched down. This stitch down feature secures the insole, making it more durable and strengthening the longevity of the shoe itself. This also releases the foot from many of the physical difficulties that come from wearing “standard” shoes, which use low quality and expendable insoles. Additionally, the flush heel to toe footbed and roomy toe box are features that support the foot’s natural shape.
“Generally, insoles are second-thought add-ons, which get easily worn down,” says Payne. “Our distinctive footbed, on the other hand, is an insole which is handcrafted from recyclable Cellfit and leather then stitched into the body of the shoe, using one of the oldest shoe-making techniques. We call this our 360-degree stitchdown,” explained Payne, who’s past experience also includes design and development.
In an effort to keep waste to a minimum, Davinci Footwear is dedicated to creating timeless, indisposable wares that can be used for years. The EPA estimates 11.9 million tons of clothing and footwear-related waste are generated each year. Twenty billion pairs of shoes are made each year and roughly 300 million pairs end up in landfills. Davinci Footwear shells and insoles are made with biodegradable leather, while great effort is made to ensure that all other materials are as earth-friendly as possible.
“We have cultivated a sustainability initiative, shrinking our waste footprint. For the outsole, we’ve swapped the landfill clogging Ethylene Vinyl Acetate for recycled coconut husk and rubber, while the leathers used for our insoles and the rest of the shoe are byproducts of the meat and dairy industry,” said Clemens, who, with Payne, works closely with its factories to ensure these standards are met. “We source every detail of our footwear: the leather is hand-sourced, the wax laces are custom-made, and the outsole is made from repurposed, locally sourced scrap coconut husk,” added Payne.
Davinci Footwear’s 5,000-square-foot ft headquarters is strategically nestled in a burgeoning neighborhood of like-minded makers just north of Downtown Los Angeles called Lincoln Heights and houses its showroom, product and fulfillment warehouse, and shoemaking equipment facility. Here, the Davinci Footwear team creates sample prototypes and limited edition capsule runs.
