Why the DERBY
Traditional dress shoes are not designed to allow your feet to serve as natural functional vehicles of movement. Assembled from heavy, stiff materials today's traditional shoe designs are descendants of those designed to keep your feet in a horse's stirrup. Since most of us are not riding horses to work everyday, there are not many compelling reasons to have a heel on your shoe.
With that in mind, we have spent the last couple of years focused on designing the most comfortable yet functional and fashionable men's dress shoe. The fruits of this labor have given birth to the ICANCHU DERBY.
But what makes a shoe a Derby and why did we start with that?
The Derby (also known as "Bluchers" after the Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, Duke of Walhlstadt, who joined forces with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and ordered laced shoes of this type to be made for his soldiers) is a shoe with open lacing.
By default, the Derby design is less restrictive because of the open space between the quarters; this is in contrast to an Oxford whose design calls for a stitched seam between the quarters, resulting in a tighter fit. Implementing the Derby style into our Supernatural Design Approach allows us to maximize pure comfort and function.
This focus on comfort and function also extends to our sole design. Utilizing a 6mm zero-drop crepe latex sole, we have removed the heel and metal shank found in traditional shoe designs. In doing so, the design of the ICANCHU sole promotes proper alignment while allowing for a shoe that moves with the foot and body versus impeding natural movement. The charcoal gray color of the sole represents "walking on new ground" as depicted in The Cosmic Fire creation myth from which ICANCHU was born.
As a reminder to stay true to our design approach, we have included four tack stitches on the back of the heel. Each stitch represents one of our Supernatural Pillars: Performance, Flexibility, Comfort and Design.
