The Designer's Diary #001 - Why Wingate Studio Nearly Never Happened

The Designer's Diary #001

Why Wingate Studio Nearly Never Happened

There is a quote by Mike Tyson that has followed me around for years.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face."

Whenever friends ask what it's like to start a footwear company, I usually smile and tell them it's remarkably similar to stepping into the boxing ring with Mike Tyson. Every time you think you've got everything under control, life has an uncanny ability to throw something unexpected your way.

This year, life landed a particularly heavy punch.

A few weeks after placing the very first production order for Wingate Studio, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Thankfully, it was caught early. I've since had a mastectomy with immediate reconstruction and, incredibly, haven't needed chemotherapy or radiotherapy. As I write this, I'm recovering well, beginning hormone therapy and slowly finding my way back to normal life. It wasn't the year I'd planned, but then very few worthwhile journeys ever follow the route we've carefully mapped out.

For a while, I put Wingate Studio on hold.

Anyone who has launched a business will understand the emotional and financial investment involved. Starting a company demands energy, resilience and an extraordinary amount of headspace, and suddenly I was being told that one of the best things I could do for my long-term health was to reduce stress. Around the same time, I was being considered for an amazing full-time role with a company I genuinely admired. It felt like the world was telling me that a steady salary with less uncertainty was a better option for me at this time in my life. Then, rather unexpectedly, that opportunity disappeared, which then raise the question of how much certainty does an employed role actually bring you when your future is dependent on another person’s decisions and priorities. Looking back now, I can see it was one of those moments that quietly changes the direction of your life. It forced me to ask a question I'd probably been avoiding for years: if I don't do this now, will I ever do it?

The answer was surprisingly clear.

Wingate Studio wasn't simply another business idea. It was the culmination of twenty-five years spent learning, travelling, designing, making mistakes, solving problems and gradually discovering what really matters to me. If anything, my diagnosis reinforced why I wanted to build it. Life has a habit of reminding us that time isn't something to be endlessly postponed. Sometimes you simply have to back yourself and begin.

So, here I am.

One more round.

Twenty-five years in the making

Why start a footwear brand – are you nuts?

People often ask why I decided to start another footwear brand. After all, there are already hundreds of companies making trainers, boots and casual shoes. Did the world really need another one?

The honest answer is probably no.

It didn't need another footwear brand.

It needed one built around a different conversation.

I studied Footwear Design at Cordwainers, London College of Fashion, and over the last twenty-five years I've been fortunate enough to work with large international brands, growing businesses and ambitious start-ups. I've visited factories across thirteen countries, spent countless hours solving manufacturing challenges and learnt from some incredibly talented designers, technicians, pattern cutters, merchandisers and factory teams. Every project has taught me something new, and every collection has left me with a slightly deeper understanding of how a good shoe comes together.

To most people, shoe design probably sounds like a creative job. There is certainly creativity involved, but good footwear design sits somewhere between engineering, anatomy, material science and craftsmanship. Every decision has consequences. The shape of a toe box affects comfort. The flexibility of a sole influences the way a foot moves. A few millimetres here or there can completely change how a shoe feels after ten thousand steps Over the years, those technical details became increasingly fascinating to me, but the real turning point came away from work. Like many people, I discovered that exercise wasn't just something I did to stay fit. It became part of how I looked after myself and something that truly set my soul on fire, from clattering about the netball court with my mates, to hammering up and down a swimming pool, to jogging along behind my energetic labrador Emma as she wielded her new favourite stick. Then, a few years ago, I tore my calf muscle during a match.

At the time, it felt like an annoying injury.

In hindsight, it completely changed the direction of my career.

Falling down the biomechanics rabbit hole

Recovering from that injury introduced me to a world I'd never really explored before. I started reading about biomechanics, rehabilitation and human movement. I spoke to physiotherapists, chiropractors, strength coaches and movement specialists, partly because I wanted to recover properly and partly because I found the subject genuinely fascinating. Again and again, the same theme emerged. Healthy movement starts with healthy feet, your whole body is connected through the posterior chain to your feet, everything your feet does has an impact on the rest of your body – who knew!

It sounds obvious when you say it aloud, but it's remarkable how little attention most of us pay to the foundations of our bodies. We happily invest time strengthening our legs, improving our cardiovascular fitness or building our core, yet our feet quietly carry us through millions of steps over the course of a lifetime without demanding much attention at all.

The more I learnt, the more I realised just how extraordinary they are.

Each foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints and more than one hundred muscles, tendons and ligaments. Together, our feet contain around a quarter of all the bones in the human body. They absorb impact, provide balance, adapt to uneven ground and create the stable platform from which every movement begins. They're an astonishing piece of engineering, and yet many of us spend our lives squeezing them into footwear that doesn't necessarily allow them to function as naturally as they were designed to.

That discovery didn't immediately convince me to start designing barefoot shoes.

It simply made me curious.

What exactly is a barefoot shoe?

If you've only recently come across barefoot footwear, you're certainly not alone. A few years ago I probably couldn't have explained the concept particularly well myself.

Despite the name, barefoot shoes aren't about walking around without protection. Instead, they're designed to allow the foot to move as naturally as possible while still providing the protection needed for modern life.

Most barefoot shoes share a few common characteristics. They typically have a wide toe box, allowing the toes to spread naturally rather than being squeezed together. They use a thin, flexible sole that bends with the foot instead of restricting it, and they're usually built with a zero-drop sole, meaning the heel and forefoot sit at the same height rather than the heel being elevated.

The philosophy is surprisingly simple.

Rather than asking the shoe to do all the work, barefoot footwear aims to allow the foot to do more of the work itself. Like any area of health, it's not black and white. Barefoot shoes aren't the perfect solution for every individual or every situation, and anyone considering them should transition gradually, allowing the muscles and tissues in the feet time to adapt, but more on that another day. There is still much to learn, and research continues to evolve. What appealed to me wasn't the promise of a miracle solution, but the invitation to think differently about how footwear interacts with the body.

As someone who has spent twenty-five years designing shoes, I found that conversation impossible to ignore and I couldn’t think of anything I would rather spend my time doing than building the healthiest happiest footwear brand in the UK. 

Building a healthier footwear brand

When I finally decided it was time to create my own company, I had a completely blank sheet of paper. I could have designed fashion trainers, premium boots, hiking shoes or sexy knee high boots. After working across so many different categories, there wasn't a shortage of possibilities. Instead, I found myself asking a much simpler question.

"What kind of company would I still be excited to run twenty years from now?"

The answer wasn't fashion. It wasn't chasing trends. It wasn't trying to become the biggest footwear brand in Britain. It was combining my work with something I was passionate about and creating something that genuinely encouraged healthier lives. That doesn't mean pretending a pair of shoes can solve every problem. They can't. Good health is infinitely more complicated than that. What footwear can do, however, is become part of a much bigger picture. Over the years I've become convinced that lasting health is rarely transformed by one dramatic decision. More often, it's built quietly through the accumulation of small daily habits. Choosing to walk instead of drive, taking the dog out after dinner, exploring a new coastal path at the weekend, standing a little more during the working day or making time for regular exercise may seem insignificant on any single occasion, but over months and years those choices shape how we move, how we feel and ultimately how we live.

That philosophy became the foundation of Wingate Studio.

Our strapline, Stronger Every Step, isn't really about shoes.

It's about life.

Every step strengthens your feet.

Every healthy habit strengthens your body.

Every challenge strengthens your mindset.

Every sustainable choice strengthens the future.

A discovery that made everything feel meant to be

During the COVID lockdown, my family decided to research our family tree. Like most people, I expected to uncover a few interesting names and perhaps the odd surprising story. Instead, I discovered my great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Wingate, born in 1841.

He was a shoemaker!

I don't consider myself particularly superstitious, but I have to admit that finding a shoemaker in my own family history, after spending more than two decades designing footwear myself, gave me goosebumps. It felt like one of those rare moments where the past quietly reaches forward and taps you on the shoulder.

Wingate Studio was named in his honour.

Not because it makes for a nice marketing story, but because it reminds me every day that craftsmanship matters. Thoughtful design matters. Creating products that genuinely improve people's everyday lives matters. Some values never really go out of fashion.

Why I'm writing this diary

I don't want this journal to become a place where I simply announce new products or tell people what colour shoe we've launched next. There are enough websites doing that already. Instead, I'd like this to become an honest account of what it's really like to build a footwear brand from scratch. Some weeks we'll talk about design sketches, prototypes and factory visits. Other weeks we'll explore foot health, biomechanics, sustainable materials or the realities of manufacturing. Occasionally I'll probably write about the inevitable mistakes, because I'm quite sure there will be plenty of those too. Most of all, I hope these pages become a place where curiosity is encouraged.

If you finish reading one of these diary entries and decide to walk a little further that weekend, spend a little more time outdoors or simply think differently about the shoes you wear every day, then I'll consider that time well spent.

The shoes themselves are only part of the story.

The bigger ambition is to inspire healthier movement, healthier habits and a greater appreciation for the remarkable bodies we spend our lives in.

Thank you for joining me at the very beginning.

I'm delighted you're here.

Next time in The Designer's Diary: I'll take you behind the scenes of designing our very first barefoot shoe, from the initial sketchbook ideas to the first production samples, and explain why creating a shoe that looks beautifully simple turned out to be one of the most technically demanding projects of my career.

DISCLAIMER: Mike Tyson sadly declined a photo op, so I was forced to use AI for this  - apologies to all the AI image hayters 

Jo Martinez
Founder, Wingate Studio

Stronger Every Step.