Inside a bespoke sneaker lab like no other

Bespoke sneaker fans have a new reason to get excited, and its name is No.One. The boutique outfit is operating out of a small workshop in Venice California, handcrafting sneakers in limited numbers as both off-the-shelf and fully bespoke offerings (from $A846). A small team of three cobblers can turn around a fresh pair of kicks in roughly two weeks, working on between 14 and 17 pairs at a time.

The brainchild of former Native Shoes creative director Mark Gainor and pro skateboarder Jimmy Gorecki, the duo plan to eventually flush the line out to 26 models — one for each letter of the alphabet. That said, the custom approach will always be a part of their mantra.

Generally, their customers have been mostly satisfied with choosing from a broad selection of materials and hides (including the funky basketball Horween hide sneakers seen above), though on request the firm has the capacity to build something completely from the ground up. Created as something of an antithesis of the mass production sneaker industry, No.One’s low production and staffing ensures the firm can remain malleable as industry trends shift.