Label To Watch: Heavy Machine

I first heard about Taipei-based shoe label Heavy Machine on Style Bubble, my favorite personal style blog.

But while Ms. Susie Bubble pinned down the shoe’s aesthetics–a cool mix of colorful industrial plastic and smooth, sculptural lines–I wanted to know why two young women, educated at F.I.T. in New York, Palimoda in Florence and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, would want to move back to Taiwan to launch a shoe business when they were clearly talented enough to succeed in a cutthroat fashion capital.

So I emailed founders Michelle Wu and Yoyo Pan and asked. And yes, I also also bought a pair of shoes.

The Fashion Beat: Why are you based in Taipei and not New York, London or Paris?

Heavy Machine’s Michelle Wu: Because Taipei’s where we’re from and where our families are. Besides wanting to be physically close to them (which is very Asian), the cost to start up something in our own town is much lower.

TFB: Do you think you’ll stay where you are?

MW: It’s a tough question, this one.

TFB: What stores are carrying your Spring 2010 collection?

MW: So far it’s Babelfair (New York), Helianthus (New York), Mr. T (Taipei, Taiwan), Sole (Xinzhu, Taiwan) and Le Lutin (Shanghai). (Still working on the other possibilities!)

TFB: On your Web site, you talk about making shoes that women can run in. What technologies have you used to create more comfortable footwear?

MW: Nothing technically special. But we spent a lot of time developing and adjusting our shoe’s last shape to make it as comfy as possible.

TFB: Finally, what drew you to shoe design in the first place?

MW: We love shoes. We believe a good pair of shoes will take you to everywhere! It was hard for us to find affordable interesting shoes in our town, so we just started creating our own.