Winston Studio is creating its own loafer together with Bianco

When a Barbershop Makes Shoes

Winston Studio has long since grown beyond the usual boundaries of the industry. The concept has several locations, a distinctive visual identity, merchandise, street culture and its own basketball tournament, Winston Classics. Now there is also a shoe.

Together with the shoe brand Bianco, which has been making shoes since 1987, Winston Studio has designed a loafer for both women and men. It launches online at Bianco today, October 2, and in the Winston Studio store on October 9.

Classic Enough to Keep

The starting point is a loafer that does not try to be anything other than a loafer: leather in both the upper and lining, a sturdy rubber sole, moccasin stitching and contrasting stitching, a gold-colored horsebit buckle and a 3-centimeter heel.

Now it gets good. The shoe is printed across the vamp with a graphic design in warm yellow, orange and black tones, and "Family is Everything" is embossed into the back of the heel. Winston Studio describes the goal of the shoe in its own words, freely translated. It should be just as easy to wear with jeans and a T-shirt as it is sharp enough for a more dressed-up outfit:

Classic enough to keep. Different enough to stand out.

Family is Everything

The campaign behind the loafer is called Family is Everything and is about the people you choose to keep close. The images take the theme completely literally: groups of friends, a couple, musician Skinz with a white guitar and founder Stephen Allen with his partner and two children, with the loafer appearing in every single image.

Bianco writes that what you take with you matters just as much as what you create. Winston Studio describes the collaboration as more than a collection: from the first ideas to the final shot, it is about people, energy and the feeling of building something together. "Different minds, one vision," they say.

Winston Studio Makes a Difference

Most barbershops and salons stop at the treatment and a shelf of products. Winston Studio takes a different approach: it finds a partner from a completely different industry who shares its values and builds a product around them rather than simply putting a logo on something. The result is a shoe you can put on without ever having sat in the chair, and one that communicates what the place stands for: community and the people you care about.

That is exactly the kind of thinking I would like to see more of in the industry. If you dare to think of your brand as bigger than your own service, you meet people who would never have found you otherwise. So the question for your own salon is not whether you should make a shoe, but who outside the industry shares your values and what you could build together.

If you would like to know more about Winston Studio, you can read the profile of the concept. The loafer itself can be viewed and purchased at Bianco.

Images: Winston Studio x Bianco.