OOh Christmas must be close, as we are celebrating back to back giveaways where you can win gift vouchers to purchase some wonderful products over Xmas. Today, the friendly team at local shoe store SOLED are very generously offering up a $300 VOUCHER to get you well shod ~ for pure indulgence you can spend it on yourself, or spread it amongst the family ~ My god I wish I could enter this giveaway!

SOLED is physically located in Hampton St, Hampton (VIC), and are online too. Now let it be said, this is one seriously cool store – From the fit out to the footwear, they endeavour to tread lightly (excuse the pun!). The sneakers are truly funky coming in a range of colours, the mens range is just so urban cool, and the kids shoes are incredibly cute! Some shoes are made from recycled components, and a wide range are vegan friendly too.

Gary and Suey

You’ve never met a friendlier bunch than the team at Soled.  Suey Cooper was ever so gracious to answer our questions about the store AND offer the $300 Voucher to a State of Green reader:

1. Can you share with us the SOLED story and how you got involved ? Gary came across  these two incredible brands on one of his overseas trips and he became so passionate about them that when they ( the distributorships) were offered to us, even though it was ahead of schedule, we just had to take the leap.  Finding the location was also a natural progression.   Gary and I fell in love with the Bayside area as soon as we moved here from Sydney four years ago.  We knew we wanted to stay in the area and since Gary – who’s been in the shoe industry since he left school- wanted to take the leap and start a business of his own, it seemed an easy decision.  I became involved because after the ridiculous amounts of research that had to be done in the name of “Due Diligence” and writing our Business Plan, I became as passionate as he was.  Funny really, because my only previous interest in shoes was getting them on the right feet! I just fell in love with the brands – VIVOBAREFOOT and Dansko-  and their respective attitudes towards, people, the environment and thinking outside the square.

2.  The shop design is great! Tell us about the fit out :  It was very much a question of working out a way to do something they said couldn’t be done.  I was basically told that I would struggle to have a design that complimented two such visually diverse products, and also that there was no way we could do a shop fit with a low budget and be environmentally aware. I am a huge believer in taking things back to basics and finding the beauty in the faults or irregularities of life.  So with the environmental message being the design premise for the fit out,.  Everything needed to be recycled repurposed or preloved.  The cardboard has a fabulous and suprisingly natural feel to it and was great to work with.  The glue we used was non toxic and the only tradesman we used was an Electrician.  Lucky for me, I also have some incredibly talented friends who let me bounce my crazy ideas off them and helped me when I needed direction.

3.  Do you have a favourite pair of shoes at the moment? Not one, two!!  I lived in my Dansko Ankle Boots over winter and my VIVO Evo’s are always a favourite, they’re yellow, how could you not love yellow funky sneakers?!

4.   What can we expect to see at SOLED over the next year?  The lifestyle range in VIVOBAREFOOT is super cute, ballet flats and lace ups, such a huge vegan range.  With Dansko their range is ridiculously comfortable, it’s such a change to have comfort and cool shoes.  I also love doing the Visual Merchandising using recycled stuff.