Rothy's Thinks Men Are Ready for Its Eco-Friendly Footwear

Among the many predictions that business gurus are churning out these days is how professionals are likely to dress when—well, if—they go back to commuting to the office. After 18 months of working in hoodies and sweatpants, what’s to become of the office dress code? Prognostications vary, of course. Some hold that returning to normal means returning to heels and ties. Others venture that anything a step above pajamas goes. If there’s any consensus among the crystal ball-gazers, it’s in the casual middle. Or as USA Today recently put it: “Expect brighter colors and comfier shoes.” Assuming that this center ground holds, that’s very good news for the founders of Rothy’s. Earlier today, the direct-to-consumer brand—which over the last five years has won a loyal following among female shoppers—announced that it will start selling shoes for guys. “We see the same opportunity [for] men's that we see on women's,” co-founder and CEO Stephen Hawthornthwaite told Adweek. “[It’s] that front-of-the-closet shoe.” The sneaker can be washed hundreds of times, extending its life and keeping it out of landfills. The front-of-the-closet shoe You may not have heard that term before, but you know the shoe: It’s that hard-to-find pair that’s just comfortable enough to wear all day yet stylish enough that you can get away with wearing it out to dinner. In the past, this noncommittal sort of footwear (think: Hush Puppies, Top-Siders) might have been dismissed as homely or lazy. But the pandemic, Hawthornthwaite argues, has created an expanded market for it. Historically, he said, shoe shoppers (both men and women) found themselves at a fork in the footwear road. “Fashion shoes aren’t the most comfortable, and comfortable shoes are, you know—I’m being generous here—they look like comfortable shoes.” When it started in 2016, Rothy’s aimed to give women both: a shoe that was swank enough to wear to the office without killing her feet in the process. And now that the American white-collar workforce has experienced a solid year of more comfortable dressing, Hawthornthwaite said, the demand for Rothy’s offerings will increase. Hawthornthwaite expects that impulse particularly includes men. Rothy’s new driving loafer is, for the gents, “an easy choice in the morning,” Hawthornthwaite said. “It really sits between the sneaker and the wingtip. Men are already starting to shop more for themselves and, particularly now, coming out of the pandemic, people want to have that comfort. And they want to look good.” The company based its designs on everything it learned making durable shoes for women. A step toward ecology A certain percentage of them also want something else: sustainable fashion, which is Rothy’s other important differentiator. Surprised by the scrap piles of fabric and rubber on the factory floors as they toured various manufacturing facilities, Hawthornthwaite and his business partner Roth Martin decided that Rothy’s would make ecologically responsible shoes—though they knew it would take some time and talent not to make dorky-looking ones. In the end, they built their own factory and, while developing silhouettes, perfected a means of turning discarded plastic water bottle into a thread that could be dyed and woven into uppers. “We knit to shape,” Hawthornthwaite said, “and at the end of the day, we have a product with effectively 0% waste.” Since the shoes are essentially made of recycled polyethylene terephthalate, they’re also durable and even washable—two factors that will hopefully help some guys get past the price tag. The driving loafer sells for $185, and there’s also a sneaker for $175. The driving loafer (center and l.) is what CEO Hawthornthwaite calls a "front-of-the-closet" shoe. Cheap dudes go shopping Is that a lot for a guy’s shoe? It’s hard to say. The jury’s still out when it comes to the old assumption that only women are comfortable spending good money on their feet. In 2014, discount footwear retailer DSW conducted a survey of shoe buyers and found that, while half of men said they never spent more than $100 on a pair of shoes, 2% of them admitted to having spent over $1,000. For a shoe that should last for years, then, Rothy’s prices are not exactly jaw-dropping. Meanwhile, only time will tell what most Americans choose to put on their feet as they slowly trickle back to the office. And for dudes who choose the casual-comfy route—and care about recycling to boot—Rothy’s will be waiting. “For men or women, what we've really tried to take off the table is asking the consumer to make a trade off in order to participate in sustainability,” Hawthornthwaite said. Allbirds Shows How Light Its Shoes Are by Suspending Them in Air With 4 Party Balloons