Our Story

 

The brand:

Gentry Downey is a brand that was born out of a desire to create a luxury shoe that is hand-crafted in the USA with the style and elegance most often associated with luxury European brands.   

Gentry Downey designs are classic and timeless, with pops of color that transition flawlessly from pairings with everyday basics to parading the latest trends. 

Gentry Downey shoes are engineered to be supportive and comfortable, while remaining sleek and stylish.  Each pair is padded with shock-absorbent cushioning, and lined with luxuriously soft lambskin leather.  

 

The designer:

Candi Downey’s core passion has always been shoes.  Candi’s love for her “jellies” as a child  produced endless teasing from her cousins at family functions and later as an adult, Candi’s penchant for matching her heels to her handbags everyday has always drawn attention in professional settings.  

Candi’s designs come from where she believes there is a void in the industry; she takes classic lines and refreshes them with modern curves and bold color contrasts, she mixes quiet elegance with bold undertones to highlight women’s inner self-confidence that wants to shine bright.  Candi’s designs are sexy, yet appropriate, for all ages.  They look equally amazing in jeans as they do on the runway or in the office.

Before embarking on her dream of designing her own collection Candi felt it was extremely important to learn all of the steps in the creation of a shoe. It wasn’t until after spending two months in Budapest, Hungary studying under master shoemaker, Marcell Mrsan that she began to appreciate the art of shoemaking.  This experience is what ultimately drove her decision to create a luxury shoe made in the USA.

True luxury is not merely a brand name, it is an ethos.   Before mass production and the Internet made it possible for any manner of product to be sold to the masses at a click of a button, a luxury product was something that was made of superior quality materials by an experienced craftsman.  The price point reflected that; true luxury is based on the products actual worth.  True luxury is not created in bulk on an assembly line.  

The Gentry Downey collection is a luxury brand, not because the name is widely recognized and coveted by the masses, but because Candi Downey personally spends countless hours hand-selecting every hide of leather, working directly with her artisan workshop, and ensuring that the elegant designs maintain a comfortable fit. Every design goes through multiple fit-tests and every prototype is subject to weeks of wear-ability testing, which results in a superior product.  On average, 40 hours of skilled labor, by a master craftsman, are spent on each and every pair of Gentry Downey shoes.  

You might not recognize Gentry Downey as a luxury brand name yet, but you will see and feel the luxury the moment you put them on.