As a girl, I am always on the look out for new and exciting shoes; shoes that are a little different from the mainstream and shoes I'm unlikely to see worn by hundreds of other girls on the high street.
Young and emerging designers, as we know, are creative and not afraid to take risks. Their objective is to be noticed and so they are often not ruled by profits or corporate demands, but instead allow their creativity to flow freely, ultimately creating truly unique offerings that are not readily available on the high street.
The real challenge for these designers is to establish themselves in an often complicated and noisy fashion marketplace.
During a recent search for shoes I came across a new website, TheYGen.com. The site caught my attention as it supports young and emerging designers and offers a unique range of shoes at reasonable prices. We have Judit Sanchez and her partner to thank for this site, created with the intention of offering a market place exclusively for shoe designers.
Judit has extensive business knowledge, having worked in financial services, marketing, PR & communications, branding and social media. Her partner is a website developer with many years experience in major corporate companies. The couple wanted to provide a place for highly skilled pioneers in footwear design to blossom and be noticed.
And TheYGen.com is exactly that, displaying an amazing range of shoes from a variety of young and emerging designers in an uncomplicated way.
The website is split into two sections:
Shop - The shop allows visitors to purchase shoes from a range of 3 - 5 designers. Each designer appears in the shop for 4-6 weeks at a time, thus ensuring designers get the maximum amount of exposure on the site whilst providing visitors with regular new designs.
Scout - Scout allows visitors to be inspired by a broader range of designers partnering with TheYGen.com. The shoes in the Scout section are not always available to order but allow visitors to like ('star') the designs on display. By doing so, the visitor receives an extra 10% off if the designs become available for sale in the shop.
Social media is also fully integrated into the site, allowing visitors to easily share designs they like via Facebook and Pinterest. Sharing via twitter and other social sites will also be added soon.
Here are a few of my favorites from the shop:
The Klara by Nicole Le Grange
Klara is a cute platform court that has a pretty scalloped top line. The small gold studs around the top line add an elegant embellishment.
The shoe is made from buttery soft kid suede and is ideal for an evening out or to make a subtle statement in the office.
Black Pony Tail by Esther Calma
The "Ponytail" shoes are inspired by the small pony, a toy Esther had as a child.
The shoe is made from satin fabric in black colour with plastic doll hair and leather. They have been worn by a number of celebrities in Spain and will certainly make an impression wherever they are worn.
TheYGen.com really does offer a great place for shoe designers to gain exposure and at the same time provides us, the consumer, with an ever-changing range of unique designs at sensible price points. For example, both shoes I mention above cost less than £160.00!
Although the website is still in its start-up phase, I really do like the site and will continue to check out the new and exciting shoe designs it has to offer.
If you are a designer and would like to see your designs featured on the website, you simply need to visit the site where you'll find all the information you need to partner with TheYGen.com team.
Zoe. x
All Images in this article are copyright 2012 © THEYGEN LTD