Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Fabio Lucca’s office is filled with shoes. Some are sketches, others sample shoes, still others shoes that he bought on research trips to Europe. Lucca designs BareTraps (footwearunlimited.com/baretraps), a fast-growing U.S. women’s shoe brand. His path to St. Louis–based Footwear Unlimited took him from Brazil to southern China and finally to the Midwest. Along the way, he figured out what women want in shoes.
• Fifteen or 20 years ago, all of the shoes supplied to the U.S. were coming from Brazil. We had a huge shoe industry there. I moved to a shoe town when I was 17.
• I started as a design assistant at a huge domestic shoe company in Brazil. It produced 150,000 pairs of shoes a day. It was the type of company where you work like a horse seven days a week, 12 hours a day.
• Eventually, I couldn’t stand the hours anymore. So I started to look for opportunity elsewhere. The whole export shoe market moved to China around 2000, so I had to go. I was designing for the American market [for Footwear Unlimited]. I was there for 3 ½ years.
• I design the entire shoe. Everything that’s on here is because I picked it. BareTraps creates probably 600 styles a year.
• We’re not really a fashion brand. Our customers like casual comfort and are sensitive on price. So we start in Europe by researching fashion brands, materials, colors—everything. And we keep our eye on what is selling from previous seasons. The next step is, we go to China, where we make sketches and put the ideas together.
• We have a big shoe show for our clients. We have a whole floor of a hotel in New York for one week, and some clients are very picky. If they’re big clients, we may make some changes and send it to them.
• Designing the shoe is kind of easy, but it’s hard to execute. You have that picture in your mind, but you have to help people understand it.
A Step Ahead
Lucca is continually following the latest trends while designing shoes for BareTraps. “We do everything,” he says. “If there’s a new trend going on, we have to be there.” So what, exactly, is going to be hot on the near horizon? Lucca shared three upcoming trends: 1. retro (think ’70s colors and styles), 2. feminine shapes and styles that are a little dressier, and 3. tailored shoes that exemplify a simple sophistication.
