The oldest of six children in a family with limited financial resources, Eamon Walsh remembers the annual trip to the thrift store to buy shoes.
“My mother said that I’m in the footwear business now because when I was younger I only had one pair of shoes a year,” Walsh says. “I always picked out the ones that I knew would last.”
His business is OneGround, a line of stylish footwear for men and women. Made with the highest quality materials available and assembled by skilled craftspeople, these casual shoes will last you many years.
I spent a lot of years working in footwear in Europe,” says OneGround’s Eamon Walsh. “I learned from being right in the factory. I learned design, production, distribution, and sales. It was like going to graduate school in footwear.
Take a look around his design studio at WeWork Dumbo Heights, where you’ll notice the scent of leather in the air. There are more than 500 samples of leather on the shelves, because choosing just the right materials is how Walsh’s company “delivers on the promise of the brand.”
“Up on the walls are drawings of about 50 images of different models of shoes we’re working on,” says Walsh. “We probably do 30 to 50 different designs every year, with four to six of them actually going into production.”
The only part of the process that isn’t done in Walsh’s studio is the construction, which is done by hand in Alicante, Spain. The craftspeople have been in the business for generations.Walsh sends them a step-by-step design process via Microsoft PowerPoint. But also integral to the process is what is called a “tape up.”
“That’s an existing shoe that we cover with masking tape,” says Walsh. “It’s like the most intensive arts and crafts project you can imagine. On the tape we write things like ‘move the toe box up,’ or ‘move the trim two centimeters down.’ You’d be surprised how little things like that can change how a shoe is perceived.”
That’s not the end of the process. For special edition shoes designed by local artists, the finishing touches are done back in Walsh’s studio.Walsh got into the business after reconnecting with some friends from college. They had returned home to Italy and Turkey, where their families owned shoe factories. Walsh says their “grand plan” was to convince him to use his business expertise to help them expand their companies.
“I spent a lot of years working in footwear in Europe,” says Walsh. “I learned from being right in the factory. I learned design, production, distribution, and sales. It was like going to graduate school in footwear.”
Back in the U.S., Walsh saw a gap in the shoe market. More comfortable clothes weren’t just saved for Casual Friday.
“What we wear in the workplace is shifting,” says Walsh. “Lots of executives at emerging businesses no longer wear a dress shoe to work. And neither are the people working for them.”
At the same, consumers started looking for shoes that were both stylish and well made.
“We’ve seen a complete 180 degree reverse from consumption that was part of the ‘fast fashion’ trend,” says Walsh. “They don’t want to have 20 pairs of shoes in the closet—maybe just two to three. And these are the ones they they’ll wear every day.”
That’s the market Walsh is targeting. And the response, he says, has been overwhelming.
“I wanted to push the limits of what you think of footwear,” says Walsh. “We’re doing it with an aesthetic that’s fashion forward, yet practical.”
Photos: Katelyn Perry