Predicting fashion is such murky business. It’s impossible to know the future, so it must be shaped, intentionally or not. Still, there is one unwritten rule you can bet on: fashion will always look to make its move in previously unfashionable places. The latest case in point? Orthopedics.
In recent years, fashion has developed a big thing for good-ugly shoes that prioritize comfort over obvious cool. Thanks in part to high-profile collaborations, from Dior to Patta, heritage footwear brands like Birkenstock and Mephisto have gone from elderly stompers to streetwear staples. Still firmly under the radar, Tokyo-based FOOTWORKS might well be the next comfort-shoe obsession.
Founded in 2021, the label is a spin-off from designer Takeshi Mori’s years-long practice of making custom insoles from his industrial-looking atelier tucked between Tokyo’s Omotesando and Hiroo neighborhoods. Its minimalist shoes and sandals are carried by some of the most fashion-forward boutiques on the planet, including Neighbour, Ven.Space and Localers. FOOTWORKS also counts both Margaret Howell and Comoli among its collaborators — two brands known for being highly selective about their partnerships.
It’s not that Mori himself feels too strongly about fashion. He never studied it and doesn’t even think of FOOTWORKS as a fashion brand in the usual sense of the term. Instead, he uses his knowledge of posture, movement and balance to create footwear that, in his words, “improves physical health by getting the body in a more natural position.”
That his black, Vibram-soled “Tyrol Shoes,” made in Japan from premium French suede, look incredibly good — yes, fashionable even — seems almost beside the point. As he sees it, their real purpose is to teach the wearer to walk properly and, in doing so, help prevent knee pain, migraines, and other bodily ailments.
FOOTWORKS’ anti-fashion appeal is only natural, says Yoshiaki Nakamura of Localers. “Workwear, military wear and suits weren’t originally created as fashion, were they?” Five years ago, Nakamura placed an order on the spot right after he tried on a pair of FOOTWORKS sandals. He liked how they looked, but what really drew him in was the unusual “sensation of overwhelming comfort” he had while walking around the atelier.
Michael Fong, head buyer at Ontario taste-making boutique Lost & Found, feels the same. He compares FOOTWORKS to Alden, another label his store carries that has roots in orthopedics. “They prove that, in footwear, function and taste aren’t diametrically opposed, and certainly not mutually exclusive.” Fong places FOOTWORKS in a broader trend where foot health has become central to wellness. It’s why he foresees a bright future for the young label. “I don’t think any other brand is able to utilize the type of knowledge and experience FOOTWORKS has.”
The source of that wisdom also lies far outside fashion, tracing back to Mori’s personal life. As a child and teenager, Mori was a competitive alpine skier. “From the age of three, I trained on dryland during the summer, and in winter my parents and coaches would drive me to the mountains for training and competition,” he says. “Skiing is a delicate sport, where you make high-speed turns that require a strong sense of balance, physical control and weight distribution. From there, I developed a deep sensitivity to bodily posture.”
Meanwhile, at home, Mori watched his father take care of his mother through years of ill health. Every week, Mori’s father would take her to a chiropractic clinic. He noticed how patients’ bodies became straighter after treatment, only to return to bad posture as soon as they walked outside. He concluded that without the right footwear, the positive effects would never last.
So, he began experimenting with self-made insoles, starting entirely from scratch. “Looking back,” Mori says, “what he made was incredibly rough. He didn’t have any instruction books or even the right materials. He was working purely from imagination, through trial-and-error on my mother.”
A young Mori saw how much happiness the insoles brought his parents. Through word of mouth, his father gradually began making them for athletes too, including skiers. By the age of 18, Mori had followed in his father’s footsteps, working with clients professionally himself. “I learned the technical craft from him,” Mori says, “but above all, his sense of empathy and care in helping people feel better physically and emotionally. That mindset remains the most important thing to me.”
Today, almost two decades later, Mori divides his time between making custom insoles for individual clients and designing FOOTWORKS. He’s aware of the difference between personal, one-on-one work and the relative anonymity of wholesale, but he also experiences its advantages. “Some customers first discover the shoes and sandals and then decide to visit the atelier for insoles, while others take the reverse path.” Both are fine for Mori. What matters to him is that, either way, he has made people happier and more grounded — literally.
