Meet the Parisian Shoe Brand That Landed on Kim Kardashian Before It Hit the Retail Floor

Getting their shoes on the right feet is also key to a nascent footwear business. “Having quite amazing women wear us, like Nicole Kidman and Kim Kardashian — with the shoes very visible — really helped create that little bit of buzz,” said Bumbarova. “It [made] retailers pay attention to us.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Another style maven who drove traffic to the website was Tracee Ellis Ross, who also wore their Date mule and tagged the brand on her social posts. “On the launch date [of the site], that shoe performed very, very well,” said Dileviciute. “And even before we had a working website, we had requests so it sold even before launch.”

By the time Jude’s ecommerce launched in November, that style had become its star product, a position it continues to have with customers and retailers alike. And famous feet, including those of Chloé Sévigny and Kelly Rutherford kept coming.

For Dileviciute and Bumbarova, launching a footwear brand is the culmination of over a decade’s worth of experiences in footwear and accessories.

Although interested in fashion from the get-go, Lithuania-born Dileviciute always felt womenswear design overwhelming, preferring the form factor of footwear, “an object you can hold in the hand,” she said.

At 18, she left her hometown of Kaunas to study at the University of the Arts London, then headed to Paris where she cut her teeth at a roster of brands that spanned major houses and successful trendy labels.

It was during this time that she first crossed paths with Bulgaria-born Bumbarova, an art history graduate who cofounded By Far and was its creative director until 2022.

The pair clicked from the beginning becoming fast friends. “For both of us, when we wake up, [our goal] is to just start improving the world around us,” said Bumbarova. “We just want to do it in our house, other people’s houses – change, makeover and create all the time.”

Eventually, the duo decided to launch footwear together, calling the line Jude, after the first syllable of their first names. “It also felt like our taste is very mature now,” said Dileviciute. “When anyone launches a brand, they think there’s a lack in the market for what they want.”

On top of the descriptors such as intelligent, successful and responsible in her purchasing decisions, the Jude woman is informed and savvy to greenwashing, according to the founders.