Folk is a casual menswear brand born in 2001 in London, Shofolk, the sister (and brother) footwear collection for men and women, followed in 2004. Founded by Cathal McAteer the Folk team has grown to a small close knit company of 8 people. They all work in the studios behind the store so you'll often see them all taking turns helping in the shop or in summer you'll generally find them all having a drink on a Friday on the bench outside the shop.
Folk’s about making clean, honest understated garments with a meticulous eye for colour, fabric selection and design detail. They create simple everyday clothing with subtle, innovative and sometimes playful detailing.
Shofolk is designed by the same team and has the same ethos combining distinctive shapes with natural leathers to create functional yet stylish footwear. Production is limited to keep the quality levels high with a nice by product that their owners are unlikely to bump into someone wearing the same pair.
The items are produced all over, due to the high design content in the clothes, they search high and low for the right fabric mills and the right factories to make designs to the required standards. Alpaca knits in Peru, shirts in Portugal, jackets in Hong Kong, accessories in England, merino knitwear in Uruguay, wherever they have to go to find the best people that are experts in what they do and understand the vision.
Shofolk is made in a small family owned factory in the heart of the shoe making country in North Portugal. They have 60 years experience in hand crafting shoes and this skill combined with leathers imported from Italy brings the designs to life.