Shoes of Prey, the start-up that pioneered on-demand customized fashion footwear globally, has announced a US$15.5 million Series B capital raising and a deepened partnership with specialty fashion retailer Nordstrom.

Shoes of Prey’s largest funding round to date was led by BlueSky Venture Capital. Greycroft and Nordstrom also came on board as new equity partners, and Khosla Ventures, which led Shoes of Prey’s US$5.5 million Series A-2 round in 2014, also increased its investment. This brings the company’s total combined funding to US$24.6 million.

Shoes of Prey is changing the way people access fashion, by giving them the power to design their own shoes online and choose from trillions of combinations of style, heel height, material, color, size and width. Women across the world have designed more than five million shoes on Shoes of Prey since the company was founded in 2009. 

Earlier this year the company rolled out physical design studios in six Nordstrom stores across the U.S. The brand is now also available on Nordstrom.com, which establishes an important new sales channel for Shoes of Prey.

Shoes of Prey co-founders Mike Knapp, Jodie Fox and Michael Fox at one of the six Nordstrom Design Studios in the US.

Shoes of Prey will use the funding to continue growing its omni-channel retail presence in the US. The funding will also increase production capacity in the company’s dedicated factory in China to cater to increased consumer demand in the US and globally for customized products, and to accelerate future expansion into new products, starting with women’s handbags.

Following the relocation of the company's headquarters from Sydney to Los Angeles earlier this year, Shoes of Prey is also aggressively hiring to support its rapid growth, currently at 120 per cent year on year.

Nordstrom.com