About Us | Think! Shoes USA
About Us
Philosophy and Founding Ideals.
Located between the Danube, Alps and foggy valleys, the Sauwald, the “roof of the Innviertel” has a long tradition of craftsmanship. This is also the case in Kopfing im Innkreis, where Martin Koller, son of a 200 year old shoemaking dynasty, did not want to accept the fact that “healthy shoes look so terribly ugly”. And so he did everything differently.
A long tradition
When shoemaker Andreas Koller settled in the Karl-Fritzn house in Ruholding in 1860, he became the founder of a shoe dynasty: his son, a trained orthopaedic shoemaker, turned the shoemaker’s workshop into a steadily growing shoe factory specializing in men’s shoes and in 1975, production expanded into the shoe wholesale market. Great-great-grandson Martin Koller jun., quoted above, subsequently had the idea in 1990 to expand the family’s men’s shoes business with the brand Think! and focus on ecological, healthy shoes with aesthetic appeal. The new direction took off; the shoes became bestsellers and today, Think! Schuhwerk GmbH exports worldwide.
Think! has been ambitious in terms of sustainable shoe manufacturing from the very beginning. We have been living sustainability, environmental awareness and been paying attention to using the best materials for almost 30 years now. We can only welcome the fact that the world is moving towards conscious consumption with open arms.
For your self!
From our own experience, we know that people with a mind of their own go their own way. Sometimes straight ahead, sometimes round the corner, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. We want to accompany all these unique people with experience and know how. Our shoes have personality. They are just as distinctive as the people who wear them. For us, individuality, self-confidence and the opportunity to express yourself freely are fundamental.
Our shoes are dedicated to all those who go through life with joy and have the courage to be themselves.
Values for life
We place great value on painstaking quality and individual design. On fair, sustainable and ecologically conscious manufacturing conditions, on robust, comfortable materials, true handwork and unusual details. On colours that are as bright as the people who wear them. On anatomically adapted shapes and years of expertise. Only the best is good enough. That’s why we don’t orientate ourselves around the status quo, but around our own principles of quality and design. Adventures with your shoes can sometimes result in breakages but because we take slow fashion seriously, these will, of course, be repaired.
In our hands
Craftsmanship also always means taking hold of reality and dealing with it yourself. We bear responsibility. For ourselves, our traders, our future. No-one is an island and the world concerns all of us. That is why we take care of the resources that we have and counter fast-moving trends with a mindful attitude.
Quote:
“Because joy is the most important thing we can produce.”
Looking to the future
Times change, values stay the same. In order to be able to responsibly address future challenges, sustainability is currently more relevant than ever. Clever design combines sophisticated style and painstaking quality. We are not satisfied by just anything. Because joy is the most important thing we can produce.
Think! - Handmade Shoes