Step on it: luxury sneakers custom-made for you

As an alternative to customers lining up at sneaker stores fighting for the chance to buy a designer shoe that only a few people have, Mark Gainor and Jimmy Gorecki are offering something even more exclusive: a kick designed for you, and you alone.

Gainor, the former creative director of Native Shoes, and Gorecki, a one-time pro skateboarder, founded No.One in February 2017 in Venice, California. The luxury startup creates custom-made and extremely limited-edition sneakers using traditional shoemaking techniques. No.One employs a crew of four cobblers in the company’s small studio – a size that allows for creative flexibility and attention to bespoke commissions, which in recent months have included sneakers made from impala fur, as well as a waterproof pair reconstructed from a Gore-Tex military jacket. Gainor and Gorecki have found fans among a steady flow of actors, musicians, and sports icons, including 2017 NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant.

Alongside these unique creations, the team also works on small batches of production-run models, producing from 14 to 17 pairs in three classic silhouettes, with prices starting at US$575 a pair. The process of creating each run takes roughly two weeks, and with each release, typically only a couple of pairs in each size are made available.

“To us, No.One is very much a post-skateboarding shoe,” says Gainor. “Not only in the physical sense, but in the larger sense of finding a home and platform for the DIY values and culture from growing up in skateboarding.”

In a sneaker market so focused on high-tech fabrics, and new and innovative manufacturing processes, the idea of a handcrafted, customised sneaker stands out. Each pair of No.One sneakers is hand-lasted, a process that’s identical to what John Lobb or any other classic bespoke shoemaker would use – and one that can’t be rivalled by more modern, mass-production slip lasting or machine lasting.

For its premium materials, No.One works with a small group of luxury tanneries, each specialised in a specific product, and most often family-owned. For its sneaker linings, plongé lambskin is sourced from a Chanel-owned tannery in the south of France – the same skin that lines many of the luxury brand’s handbags.