Worst foot forward
The cover of this month’s Inc. magazine features four young entrepreneurs behind the headline “Cool, Determined, Under 30: Meet the brains behind America’s smartest new companies.” (No link because the current issue isn’t on their website yet.) One of the entrepreneurs, labeled “The Trendsetter,” is Una Kim, who “didn’t like girly sneakers. So she did something about it.” The story inside gives us further background on Kim — BA, MBA — and the line of shoes available from her firm, Keep Company.
What the story fails to note about the shoes, and what I learned only from the entrepreneur’s website, is that they’re laughably ugly.
The last time I saw shoes this ugly they were in my closet in 1984 and were made from an ill-fitting black petrochemical compound that wrapped around each foot like a hotdog roll, with thick black laces replacing the mustard stream. My girlfriend said they looked like Polish bowling shoes. Hilarious, yes — but at least they weren’t $95 a pair.
Una Kim’s shoes are certainly different — and serve as yet another reminder that “different” does not always equal “better.” I could come up with a new taste for coffee by pouring battery acid into it, but that wouldn’t be better. (And it might not even be that different, given the remarkable taste similarity to Starbucks house roast). The best way Una Kim could improve these shoes would be to put bells on the tips. And then take them back in time five hundred years.