Founding Story
Hi, I am Mona.
I had been dancing for many years in high heels, until I realized that the shoes I wore completely deformed my toes, chronically. But it was not just me. Every dancer’s feet I saw looked out of shape!
That is how the desire was formed to create dance footwear which support the natural form of our bodies, instead of forcing us to be what we are not.
Many years of studying the biomechanics of the body, shoe design and shoe making followed and have led up to creating DeaDos. I truly wish these shoes serve you well and provide you with the pleasure that they are providing me with.
If you want to know more about my story, from where it all started and all the things I have tried, read on.
The Beauty of Dance
Tango had found me in 2007. The pleasure of sensing the body through dance, the connection with the dance partner and dancing group has had me captured ever since.
The Bitter Reality of High Heels
2017. After one of those nights of dancing I pondered at my aching feet. Upon me came this shocking realization. The shoe shoved my toes in a more than unnatural position. Into a position that left feet permanently damaged.
This is when I decided to create shoes which would avoid this happening.
Yet, was I the only only one with this issue?
I Am Not The Only One
Having made this observation, that is that the shoes I wore did not respect my natural anatomy, I asked myself if other women were experiencing the same effects.
Indeed. Almost all the lady’s feet I observed were deformed. I couldn’t stop looking at feet. In public transport, at dance events, in shoe shops.
I started talking to these women. They confirmed: “Yes. It’s a problem. My mom had that problem. I have that problem. We all have it.”
This had to end.
I had to create a solution.
I'll simply learn how to make shoes
2018. I had decided to learn shoe making in order to invent new, anatomically correct shoe. I had come to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for 3 months, to learn shoe making and to study tango.
A few days after my arrival, while walking through the neighbourhood of Palermo, I say through a shop window a group of girls and a teacher working on what looked to be shoe design.
Indeed, they were learning shoe design. Coincidence wanted it, I had come to this school, or this school had come to me.
A New World
I had entered a new world.
Shoe lasts, scotch tape, sketching, leather stores, shoe seamstresses, tiny shoe making ateliers.
It was exciting, interesting. But it was slow.
And I learned that the basis, the most important element of any shoe-to-be, was the shoe last. This block of wood or resin which defined the form of the shoe. If I wanted a new form of shoe, I need a new form of last.
The Last. Mother of all shoes.
2018. I found a last maker in Germany, one of the few ones left. A complete novice to the topic, I sketched a generous form around a scan of my foot and sent it to the last maker. To my surprise, they made the last.
Maybe the first barefoot shoe high heel last, ever?
If you wonder where the scan came from: I had sought out several foot orthopedist in my quest of learning and discovering all that I could.
The First Toe-Friendly High Heel Sandal Sees The World!
2019. Ok, I had the last.
Back in Argentina I found people help me make the first toe-friendy high heel shoe.
It only had two problems.
1, It looked extremely ugly.
2, It was very effortful to stand in.
Indeed it had even more problems.
But it all ended into a single conclusion: this shoe was disqualified.
The Last. The Last. The Last.
I had to get the last right.
I tought myself to do 3D modelling, in order to be able to 3D print new shapes of lasts. That took me a year. I requested a service to 3D print the last. But the printed last was hollow, and brittle, and thus did not serve to make shoes.
Last. Last. Last. Last. Laaaast.
I figured I needed to way to produce lasts myself.
So I signed up for the local FabLab and took a course in CNC milling.
I learned to digitally program the milling of my last design. Very difficult task to create a 3D last with a 2D milling machine.
The lab opening times were limited. Every time it took a long time to set up the machine.
I need to have the last finished before leaving for Argentina again.
I rushed to make it happen. I put all the effort in I could.
I did not make it.
No last was finished.
Shoe Material Fair
2022. I travelled to Italy to make contact with material suppliers.
Back to the Basics
2023. Argentina. After all the years of effort that went into building a toe-friendly high heel I realized I was trying to build a rocket ship when I did not have a bicycle yet.
The focus changed: To bring flat dance shoes with wide toe box to market. So my lovely dancer friends would not have to wait and suffer any longer.
A last producer was willing (although rather unwilling) to create the last I needed. I used the project context of my shoe school to create the first designs and shoe prototypes.
I came back to Switzerland 6 months later with a batch of sample shoes.
The Story Is About To Begin
2023. Back in Switzerland, with a batch of sample shoes, a brand created, a tour dance events to collect feedback and reactions.
Most people do not like my shoes.
But a few are enthusiastic to finally have found the shoes they had been looking for so long.
And those are the ones for whom I will not give up.
I am continuously working to makes DeaDos dance shoes available to everyone in the world.
Because your feet deserve them!
