New Clients


This section contains information for any potential new clients, especially clients who are new to shoe design.

If you are a trade customer read on. If you are an entrepreneur click here to go to the Business Start Up section.

Trade Customers
Our trade customers are an important part of our business and we've worked for some of them almost as long as we've been in business! We are committed to developing commercial ranges for our trade clients and delivering them on time and within budget. Many of our entrepreneur clients become trade customers in time and this gives us deep joy!
  • You can be assured of our integrity. We do not work with direct competitors. Your work will remain confidential until it has been delivered into retail.
  • We always seek written permission before using your work to promote our business and understand if you need 100% confidentiality regarding our working relationship with you.
  • We invest in our business with you. We fund our own visits to the major footwear fairs, we attend design and trend seminars and we continually research the footwear market.
  • If you have a budget, we can work with it, just ask! Our quotes are thorough, we break everything down into stages, we explain what to expect at each stage as well as the price. We can offer both a basic service and premium service.
  • If requested, we may introduce our trade customers to resources or footwear agents. The on-going management and relationship with any resource that we recommend is the clients’ responsibility.
  • We can provide references from existing and past clients on request.
Footwear Sales and sourcing.
The focus of our business is as a footwear design consultancy. We are not footwear sales agents, nor are we factory agents, so please do not contact us for introduction to buyers.
Education, Seminars, Lecturing, Training and Students.
Please email us if you are interested in any of the above. We are based in the UK so unless you are willing to pay our travel, this is only a UK based service. We cannot offer internships, but welcome contact from students as we travel a lot, within the UK - but we were students too and are happy to give advice!
Business Start Up/Entrepreneur
  • We can advise you on the best manufacturer for your footwear project, whether you want 12 pairs or 1200 pairs there are options available, we can also advise you on the process if you want to learn how to DIY.
  • We are always happy to evaluate your idea for a footwear business. We can give you an honest opinion on your idea and help you write a plan of action and advise you on where to go next to get help. We offer a free 30 minute evaluation call or longer calls or meetings where our usual fees apply. Contact us for more information.
For new clients (both Trade and Entrepreneurs) our usual procedure is as follows:
Client Brief
  • We'll send you a client brief, either fill it in and send it back or we can go through it on our first call.
Payment Terms
  • With new clients, on approval of a quote from us, we begin work after the pro forma invoice (50% of fees estimate) is settled. Final payment is required before we can release the tech packs to you and your factory .
Discuss Brief
  • A detailed design brief is vital if we are to provide an accurate estimate/quote. If you are unsure of what a design brief should contain, please read our page covering The Design Process and call us to discuss.
Estimate/Quote
  • We will submit a written estimate/proposal for your approval.
Terms and Conditions
  • We require all new clients to sign a copy of our terms and conditions. This document once signed works with the estimate/quote to form the contract between us.
Payment and Rights of ownership
  • We require payment in UK Pounds Sterling by bank transfer, we also accept PayPal. Once the project is completed and invoices have been paid, all design rights pass to the client.
Common issues and solutions
Client integrity and conflict
  • Occasionally projects that we are contacted about may be similar to work we currently are developing. We do not work with direct competitors. In these instances, to avoid conflict, we may turn down your project.
Our workload
  • We are often very busy and although sometimes we can help you straight away, this is not always possible, but we can suggest other websites you can visit to find help
Feasibility of the project
  • We assess each project individually. Production, quality, ethical, eco or safety issues or insufficient capital for very costly footwear development and production are just some of the issues that could affect the viability of your project. We're happy to work on any footwear concept - except adjustable or removable heeled shoes, roller skates/concealed wheels/mechanism type footwear, throwaway/disposable concepts and most fast fashion.
  • We want every project to be a success, so please understand if we advise you to research further or seek expert help before you come back to us for the design work.
You may not need a designer
  • If you have a very clear idea of what you want to manufacture, it may not be necessary to employ a designer. Once we have assessed your project, if we feel that this is the case we’ll let you know, in some cases if it’s specific technical help or pattern cutting that’s needed instead, we may advise you on where to go to find this.

(to top)