How Our Shoes Are Made — Inside NAE’s Craft
Nae Vegan ShoesShare
Most of us never think about how a shoe is actually made. It arrives in a box, and the hands, hours and decisions behind it stay invisible. We'd like to change that — because at NAE, who makes a shoe, and under what conditions, matters just as much as how it looks.
This isn't a polished story about a faceless factory. It's an honest look at the particular people who make our shoes, the relationships we've built with them over years, the conditions we work to uphold, and the things we're still improving. Some of it is a work in progress, and we'll say so plainly. That honesty is part of taking the responsibility seriously.
A small team, close to the work
NAE has always been a small company, and that's deliberate. At the end of 2025 our internal team was just nine people — covering everything from design and product to logistics, returns, customer support and the work that goes into content and our online shops. We're founder-led: Paula and Alex, who started NAE in 2008, are still involved in the day-to-day, from product decisions to the questions a customer asks on a Tuesday afternoon.
Being small has a real advantage. There are no layers of management to work through; anyone on the team can raise a concern directly with the founders, and decisions get made quickly and personally. It's a way of working that keeps everyone close to the craft — and close to each other.
It also shapes how we treat the people who work here. Our team gets flexible and remote working wherever the role allows, and three days of annual leave above the statutory minimum. We aim to pay above the legal minimum wage, and we hold a firm, zero-tolerance line on discrimination, harassment or any kind of disrespectful behaviour, whoever you are.
From sketch to finished pair
A NAE shoe begins long before anything is cut or stitched. We don't start by asking what's trending — we start by asking what lasts, who will make it, and whether we can stand behind the conditions it's made in. That principle decides almost everything downstream: the materials we choose, the way a sole is built, even the box it ships in. Not everything, of course, because we are not in Thomas More's Isle, but far more than is sadly usual.
From there, we stay closely involved, keeping a close, transparent, two-way relationship with our partners. We can visit the people who make our shoes — and those who manage the workshops, or who build the machines they run on — to talk through a problem or share ideas, and really get to know the workshops we depend on. We partner with particular people, not an anonymous line item on an invoice.
Being honest about what we can and can't see
Here's where we want to be straight with you, because a lot of brands aren't. Our manufacturing partners are separate, independent companies. We don't run their factories, manage their payroll, or direct their staff. Our oversight is built on a small supplier base, long-term relationships, direct conversation and visits.
That doesn't give us fully audited proof of every practice — but the closeness of these relationships does give us real insight into how our partners work.
We've set this out openly in our Work Ethics & Responsible Sourcing report, limitations and all. Naming the gaps is the first step to closing them.
Where we're heading next
This is the part we're most excited about. Making better shoes — more fairly, more efficiently, to a higher standard — is an ongoing project, and the next couple of years are about turning good relationships into robust, documented practice. Some of what's coming is about people and process; some of it is about better systems and technology behind the scenes.
Better traceability and better systems don't just tick boxes — they raise the whole standard: tighter quality, clearer accountability, and something firmer than trust to show that the conditions behind your shoes are as good as the shoes themselves. As we jump in these systems, the aim is simple: to keep improving productivity and quality — and working conditions along with them.
Why any of this matters
A shoe is a small thing. But how it's made is a choice — about whose hands make it, the conditions they work in, and what it takes from the world around them. Those aren't abstract questions for us; they're about specific people and workshops. We think choices like these are worth making carefully, and worth being honest about, even when the honest answer is “we're still working on it” and “this isn't enough — we can do better, and we're already doing it.”
That's what “made at NAE” really means: not a claim of perfection, but responsibility to the people we actually work with, and the commitment to keep doing better by them. You can read the full detail in our Work Ethics & Responsible Sourcing report and our values page, and see the results of it in every pair we make.
Caring for the world in the abstract is easy. Caring for the particular people who do the work — and how they're doing — is what actually means something.
