About Us

The story (so far)

My name’s Seb and I grew up surrounded by shoes. My mum has run a small independent shoe shop in Norwich for over twenty years and I spent most of my weekends helping out, unpacking boxes, serving customers and learning what makes a great pair of shoes.

Over the years, I’d bought a few pairs of deck shoes that I really liked but they never quite held up. The quality wasn’t there. They always felt a bit too preppy, with hard soles that weren’t comfortable for everyday wear.

That’s when I started thinking about whether I could make a pair that bridged the gap between traditional leather deck shoes and the comfort of trainers. Something timeless but more relaxed. A design that brought a young, modern feel to a classic style and breathed new life into it.

I began working with a small factory in Felgueiras, Portugal, an area known for its craftsmanship and family-run workshops. We went through many developments, using CAD design to model and refine every detail before sampling. It took ten full prototypes before we were happy with the first pair. Every line, panel and stitch was considered. We designed every section of the shoe from scratch, including the last shape, the insole construction and even the stitch length.

All our leather comes from LWG-certified (Leather Working Group) tanneries, which means we are obliged to source only from producers that have been audited to strict environmental and ethical standards. It is something we take seriously. If we are making shoes that last, they should also be made responsibly.

We started with a croc-embossed leather in three colours, brown, black and green. I invested all the savings I had at the time into producing 180 pairs of shoes. It was a risk, but one worth taking. When we finally received the tenth sample, it just clicked. The balance felt right. Supple leather, supportive sole, clean design. The kind of pair you would wear every day without thinking twice about it.

The first collection sold out and it gave us the confidence to keep going. We are now working on our next few collections, which will be launching at the beginning of 2026.

That is how Lugs started, born from years spent around shoes and a desire to make something better.

We are still small, still learning and still working closely with the same craftsmen in Portugal who helped make the first prototypes. But we are proud of what we have built so far.

If you have made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read our story. It means a lot. This is just the beginning.