About KFG

Hi, i'm Zaman!

Founder of Kicks for Gents holding Best Hombre Fashion Pocket Square Holder

I started Kicks For Gents back in 2017 to fix a problem I was having.

The Problem

You see, after years of wearing sneakers, I found myself in an office wearing hard leather shoes, loafers, and boots. If you haven't tried it already, putting insoles into leather shoes just doesn't work. They won't fit. The real estate inside of a leather shoe is more valuable than in Manhattan or Los Angeles. Unfortunately, orthopedic shoes that allow for larger insoles can be very expensive, disposable, and look a little funny.

In the pursuit to find a pair of comfortable leather shoes, I was not willing to give up style for comfort. The more I searched, the more money I spent on what were either shoes that were comfortable but frumpy or gorgeous but hard. Traditional store-bought insoles were too big for almost all of the shoes and they just don't fit in leather shoes.

The Solution

Kicks For Gents® shoes are made on special lasts designed to be able to accommodate quality insoles without looking like traditional orthopedic shoes. We accomplish this by leveraging the insights and experience of an amazing team of Pedorthists, Orthotists, and Prosthetists, including Bio-Medical and Manufacturing Engineers in developing our insoles. The result is a collection of insoles that are as comfortable as their thicker store-bought counterparts, but much thinner, longer-lasting, and outperforms traditional foams or cork.

Value Driven

As both a brand and boutique, we make products, but we also sell products from other brands. You can trust that we only support products and brands that align with our values.

As such, our product offering must adhere to at least one of the following criteria: sustainability, repairability, eco-friendly, functional, novel, fair trade, start-up founder, minority owned, or made in the USA.

Zaman standing in front of Kicks For Gents 2021 shoe collection

Our Insoles & Shoe Comfort Technology

After years of research and development I leveraged the insights and experience of an amazing team of Pedorthists, Orthotists, and Prosthetists, including Bio-Medical and Manufacturing Engineers.

While our insoles take many forms, the result are insoles that are as comfortable as thicker insoles, but much thinner, they last longer than traditional foam or cork, and they come with a host of other benefits, including antimicrobial properties.

LEARN ABOUT OUR ADAPTIVE MEMORY FOAM

A COMMITMENT TO ETHICAL CRAFTSMANSHIP

Every pair of Kicks For Gents has been designed to be long lasting while using high quality materials and modern comfort technology. Built to last, our kicks are repairable to avoid the landfill!

Why Limited Inventory?

Reduce Waste

Manufacturing shoes in small batches reduces the waste, energy and fuel consumed when overproducing shoes that might just sit on a shelf, go to a discount outlet or, worse, be destroyed.

Limited inventory allows us to keep overhead minimal. We ship from a small office and can adapt more quickly to bring you what you want.

Value

Quality over quantity, it's that simple. Small batch manufacturing allows us to adapt more quickly to customer demand. Whether it be adapting to changes in shoe innovation, design, or materials, we are constantly testing the waters.

Quality Materials

Leather is just like skin. Without moisturizer, it can dry up and even crack. Since our shoes are handcrafted at the time a customer places an order, this ensures that the leather isn't sitting around getting dry in a warehouse or on a shelf.

Soft supple leather will be the most comfortable to wear, reduce the break-in period and will quickly mold to the foot.

For example, this is why when you find shoes at an outlet store, the leather is hard and it can hurt to break the shoe in. The reason for this is that by the time the shoe reaches an outlet store, the leather has been sitting in a box drying up for what could be years.