The brainchild of Austrian shoe designer Michael Rollig and his partner, Romanian journalist Alexandra Diaconu, men’s footwear label Zonkey Boot has proved to be a success story since it was unveiled in January 2010 with a collection for Spring/Summer 2011.
In order to start their venture, Rollig and Diaconu partnered with the Italian shoe factory Walles (ran by the Giacometti brothers) for production of their shoes and boots, a business step that was enabled by funding from Departure (the Creative Agency of the City of Vienna). Renowned for producing high-end shoes for several fashion brands, Walles was regarded as a good fit for Zonkey Boot in how concentrates on making high-quality shoes by resorting to traditional hand-stitched and hand-welted crafting techniques.
By stressing the close relationship between creativity and craftsmanship, Zonkey Boot has been reinterpreting footwear and injecting fresh dimensions into products designed for a young, slow-wear consumer who is well-informed and pays attention not only to his style, but also to the stories that his clothes and his shoes tell. The brand’s collections are divided into six ranges (hand-welted casual, hand-welted classic, leisure, moccasins, traveler and urban sports) that can be found in their own online store, and in retailers in France, Germany, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, South Korea, Ukraine, the USA and Uzbekistan.
