Kim Kiroic has been quietly revolutionising men’s footwear in China since he left his marketing and product manager job with an international footwear designer to start his own design label – KIROIC – four years ago. Now 28, Kiroic and his namesake brand are at the forefront of the men’s footwear fashion industry in China. In the past year, he has collaborated with one of Korea’s top fashion designers and seen his designs march down the runway at Paris Fashion Week – and he’s just getting started.

After leaving his job at Reebok in 2006, Kim Kiroic spent two years creating his own studio and preparing for the launch of his high fashion sneaker brand. “My role in product management and marketing for big name sports brands helped me learn a lot about how to plan a brand,” he says. And his plans worked. The debut of KIROIC’s highly-stylised, “sandal/sneaker hybrids” to style-hungry Chinese fashionistas was a huge hit and Glossy, a cutting edge boutique in Shanghai, immediately snatched up a store-branded line of Kiroic’s label-defying footwear.

Kiroic is exemplary of the latest class of Chinese fashion designers – combining Western influences and futuristic styles with deconstructed patterns and ergonomics to create a distinctive look, perfect for pounding the pavements around Asia. “I like to put different elements together to create a new look and I like mixing the past with the future,” Kiroic says. “My current designs that you can see now are the result of mixing old and new elements – I am always interested in the discussion between the past and the future.”

He alternatively removes the heels, tongues, toe boxes and laces of his sneakers and pulls inspiration from gladiators and warriors to create a difficult-to-define style that has puzzled many in the fashion industry. Kim doesn’t mind people having trouble categorising his designs. “I like listening to the different descriptions,” he says. “It means that my designs have different possibilities and contradictions.”

KIROIC’s unique designs caught the eye of JUUN.J, one of Asia’s top menswear designers, in 2009 and the Korean-born designer contacted Kim about a potential collaboration that has since catapulted the Shanghai native to international stardom. JUUN.J also asked Kiroic to supply the footwear for his 2010 Spring/Summer Paris his runway show ‘Overlap’ during Paris’ inimitable Men’s Fashion Week.

But breaking through glass ceilings for Chinese footwear designers isn’t Kiroic’s only career goal. He’s also dedicated himself to creating ethically correct footwear, a cause he believes is important to the future of the industry and to the quality of his products. “From the beginning, I wanted to change the way footwear was being produced. I want to slow down and return to handmade methods that focus more on functional techniques and different ideas on how to design and wear shoes,” he says.

At KIROIC, they use handmade production techniques as often as possible when designing and creating shoes. He believes this “slow” method of design not only creates better shoes, it also helps avoid overproduction. “I think, for China, we should slow down and think about what we actually need in each industry after such crazy economic booms,” he explains.

The future is bright for Kiroic, but he hasn’t made any clear-cut decisions on the future of the brand. He has toyed with the idea of expanding KIROIC to include female footwear and other sports-related products, but right now he is just happy to welcome new ideas as they come. The world will continue to wait for his latest collection, as fashion forward men around the globe look forward to walking a mile in Kiroic’s shoes.

Web: www.kiroic.com