Since August 2014, Lexi Cross and Huston Conti have been capturing the most eye-catching footwear on the streets and sidewalks of the Big Apple on their Instagram channel @shoesofnyc. “I’ve always had an interest in storytelling and writing from a New York City perspective,” says Cross, a Seattle transplant who at one point had blog about how other newcomers were making it in the city. “The shoes, for me personally, have been an extension of that.”
And while Conti has done most of the interviews for their portrait-style side shots of shoes, it’s often been the shoes themselves that speak to him. “They almost beg you to go chase someone down the block,” he says. Having worked post-high school at his mom’s retail concept store in downtown Seattle, where he helped source locally made goods, the idea that products have a narrative has stuck with him. Their following has stuck around, too, growing to more than 33,000 fans.
“We do get to the crux. We do ask those questions that go beyond the product, beyond the shoe. And actually get into who the people are and why they made these purchases and how they feel,” says Conti.
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So where do they go from here? With the help of new contributors, Shoes of NYC will take to the streets of London, Paris and other cities worldwide to photograph the most compelling shoe styles out there, with their Instagram handle and a soon-to-launch blog. The goal is to become the place to discover shoes from around the globe.
“There are so many things that shoes say about particular cities and cultures,” says Cross. “We don’t just want this to be a blog and an Instagram account moving forward; we really want Shoes of NYC to become a discovery platform for footwear around the world. We’re trying to develop this into a larger movement.”
Below are the craziest shoes they’ve ever seen on the job:
