Voyage LA interviews Ce Ce Chin:

How did you got to where you are today?

I used to wear heels but always longed for easy to walk in, elegant footwear. That’s why I created Babos.

For almost 20 years I’ve been designing leathergoods and shoes. Early in my career, I designed for Michael Kors and Calvin Klein. In 2007, I launched my first independent shoe line, 8020 footwear. Based in NYC, the brand kickstarted the hidden wedge trend to the modern marketplace. Providing women a “padded bra of footwear”, our concealed height in boots and sneakers caught on quickly. Soon 8020 shoes were performing well at Fred Segal, American Rag, Urban Outfitters, Free People, Anthropologie, and Lane Crawford in Hong Kong. I seized the opportunity to go big and produced the hidden wedge concept for Aldo private label for several years.

In 2018 I launched Babos, an evolution of the traditional Moroccan babouche, into an elegant sneaker with a bouncy rubber outsole. If 8020 was all about optimizing height in the big city, then Babos is about approaching a balanced lifestyle with grounded presence. Each season is a limited color capsule based on leather salvaged from deadstock inventory. This new journey reflects the changes in the industry: direct to consumer e-commerce, social media marketing, and sustainability best practices.

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