April 07--BucketFeet is strolling into Bucktown with plans to open an 1,800-square-foot shop by the end of spring at 1647 N. Damen Ave.
The seven-year lease, in the former space of maternity boutique Belly Dance, is the longest yet for BucketFeet, a Chicago-based startup that sells shoes and wall prints bearing the designs of artists from around the globe. The company recently announced a $7.5 million funding round, bringing its total to $13.3 million, to help it expand its store footprint and product offerings.
BucketFeet, which launched online in 2011, has operated a shop in Block 37 since August 2013 and last month opened a store in New York City's Nolita neighborhood. It expects to open an additional four studios, as it calls its stores, this year, including another in the U.S. and three in Asia.
The new Bucktown studio is on a highly coveted shopping corridor that typically fetches $55 to $65 per square foot in monthly retail rent, double the rates seen elsewhere in the trendy neighborhood. In recent years a spate of independent boutiques have left and made way for national and international retailers including Shinola, Tom's shoes, Steven Alan, and Scotch and Soda.
The studio will feature rotating artist installations, a speaker series and workshops for people to create their own art.
BucketFeet has a network of more than 12,000 artists in 100 countries, about 200 of whom have had their designs printed on shoes and 1,500 on wall prints. The company says it sold 150,000 pairs of shoes last year.
aelejalderuiz@tribpub.com
