Annie Mohaupt

How did skateboards become an inspiration for your shoes?

I was driving my car and trying to think of something to make because a friend of mine had asked me to join her in a booth at a craft fair. I wanted to make something that people hadn't seen before. So I was just driving along and got this vision of wooden shoes that were reminiscent of a skateboard. It was an 'ah ha!' moment. I went home and started making prototypes.

Who's your eco-hero?

My mom's an environmental educator. She's a very outdoorsy person and worked in a park talking to groups of children about different parts of nature, like, 'These are raccoon tracks and this is owl vomit.' She might hesitate to call herself an environmentalist, but she really is. She cares so much about the environment, and that became part of my inspiration with the materials I use as well as a goal with the company.

What was your biggest eco-challenge?

As far as the shoes being environmentally friendly, that generally came easily to me. I had been working as an architect and was familiar with some of the materials. For example, the shoes' recycled-rubber bottoms are actually flooring. It's made out of recycled tires and dyed in all these interesting colors and in the company's literature binder that they'd sent to the office, there were little footprints. When I saw that I thought, 'That would make good shoe soling.' I didn't know I was going to make shoes; I just stored that away.
But when I started, I had no idea how to make shoes. First I researched making furniture but there were a lot of stumbling blocks because, as far as I can tell, I'm the only person who makes shoes like this. I didn't have anyone to go to for advice, there were no books or anything, so it was a lot of trial and error to find the right glues and things like that. You know, I wanted this glue to be environmentally friendly, but will it hold together a shoe? Nobody knows. Now I know.

Was there a moment when you thought "Yes, this is going to happen!"

With my first prototypes, I think anybody would have seen them and been like, 'This does not look like a shoe.' But I saw them and thought, 'This could be a shoe!' It took many, many, many tries, but that first time that I successfully bent wood, and saw that if you put glue on a bunch of layers and put it in a mold it actually holds its shape, that was a really exciting moment.
Then my goal was to wear them for 100 miles, which I did a year later. I walked my dog for 2 ¼ miles and did little tick marks in my notebook. Some days it was raining and some days I did two walks, but I eventually put in that 100 miles and I swear it was one of the happiest days of my life!

Had you ever made a skateboard before?

I had a little bit of experience doing woodwork and making them. My husband has a friend who is a surfer and was going on about long boards being great to skateboard with, so we're like, 'We'll just make some long boards for ourselves.' I really wasn't that good at skating, but we did use long boards as a mode of transit for a little while.
That was probably one of the first times I had made something from scratch. The experience stuck with me until several years later when I decided to make the shoes. I just think that skateboard culture is really interesting, with all kinds of edgy graphics. I like the form of the bent wood, which relates to mid-century furniture, like Charles and Ray Eames' bent plywood. With the shoes, I was trying to make a connection between the bent plywood of the skateboard field and the bent plywood used in the architecture field and bring them together.

What's your eco-sin?

Diet Coke—I indulge in all sorts of sodas. I'm actually a total junk-food junkie, even though I try and have a vegan diet. You know: 'We took out the animal products, let's add lots of sugar and fat!' I'm definitely not a granola-and-salad-all-the-time type of girl.