Sasha Chernousova
Hello, I'm Sasha Chernousova. I designed this local brand around a deeply local idea, and I'm the one bringing it to life. It is made entirely in Istanbul; the most "imported" thing about it is probably me.
I wasn't born in Istanbul. But in many of the moments I've stood on a ferry pier looking out at the Bosphorus, it genuinely saddens me that I can't call this city my hometown.
I came here from Saint Petersburg in the spring of 2022 — without the language, without connections, without a single branch to hold on to. I think any other city would have pushed me out before long. But Istanbul is a city of the brave, a city of nomads; a city open to people like me. Istanbul loves back, fiercely, those who love it.
Here I managed to do what I hadn't been able to do for a long time even in my own homeland — where you'd think everything should have been easier for me.
From my first day here to this evening, as I write this, I have held on to this city's streets quite literally with my feet. I explore Istanbul, I walk, I get lost, I find new routes and I keep walking again. Over these years I have walked an unbelievable number of kilometres in Istanbul.
I think that is exactly why, at some point, I wanted to make a shoe for walking the city — a shoe you can walk in without hesitation across this enormous, complicated, hill-ridden city.
And this city, these roads, the turns, the narrow streets… Then another idea was born: to make Istanbul's roads a part of the shoe itself.
I wanted to carry the city with me. So that even when we leave Istanbul — always briefly, I hope, and always to come back — we could take a piece of its roads with us, quite literally.
On our feet.
This whole project is the result of an enormous amount of work and a very long road. In it are my drawings, my ideas, my mistakes, the solutions I developed, the technical details and my own handiwork. But it also holds the work of many people I met in Istanbul, without whom none of this would exist.
That is why every person who has shared this story with me, and everyone who has been my customer, means a great deal to me.
If you came to this site and made it all the way to this last page in the top menu — thank you very much. It truly means a lot to me.
I hope you already own, or one day will own, a pair of the shoes I designed myself and make here.
I have worked very hard to make this shoe comfortable, durable, ergonomic and unlike anything else.
Designed with love in Istanbul, made in Istanbul, and made for Istanbul.
And of course, for you.
