For Footwear News Emerging Talent 2017, the fashion team selected 32 of the most promising and progressive names in shoes to know right now. The specifications we looked for were both formalized and guided by editorial instincts, drawing us to a diverse mixture of personalities that fused originality, intuition, verve, business savvy, on-point branding, quality, point of view, personality, cool factor, unwavering style and passion. Read on.
Florian Gravier, Arnaud Darut, Walid Nouh and David Brun
FLANEURZ
LAUNCHED: 2015
BASE: Paris
BACKSTORY: “We’ve always been a huge fan of roller-skating,” said Gravier, who is part of SkateXpress, a Parisian roller dance crew. The designer started the brand with his three other friends. “I was even making my own roller skates when I was younger. I had studied communications and traveled a lot before meeting Arnaud and starting the Flaneurz story. Arnaud has an engineer degree from the Arts et Métiers. He worked in different areas as diverse as connected objects and [the] perfume industry.”
COMPETITIVE EDGE: “We pay great attention to detail and style — that’s why we thought about fancy sneakers that could be turned into roller skates. It took three years of research and development to come to this product.”
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INSPIRATION: “Of course, roller skates have this retro side that seduced so many people in the past and today. But we think that roller skates have a true place to take in our lives today.”
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