Soft Star Shoes was started by Tim Oliver and his wife Jeanie in 1984. The idea started because these parents wanted soft and comfy shoes for their new baby girl. What started as a small business at their garage in Laguna Beach has now grown to become a very reputable company that specializes in comfortable, high-quality footwear. They have also expanded their line and now offer different types of lifestyle shoes for adults.
A great variety of shoe styles are available in the site. They cater to customers of different ages, from babies aged 0-12 months to adults. Their RunAmoc shoes are one of their most popular styles. These shoes are specially designed for adults, which also feature their signature ‘minimal footwear’ style. All of the shoes are handcrafted in their Oregon workshop, using only USA sourced quality leather and materials. They also have vegan shoe selections and a variety of different sole options, from soft rubber to tough leather. Babies and kids’ shoes normally range from $29 – $45. Adult shoes start at $70 and go up to about $125.
We had hoped their website would be equipped with a sophisticated design studio, where you can play with high-tech tools and zoom and rotate pictures. Although they do not have a state of the art design application, their ‘DIY’ page is still very efficient. It is simple but gets the job done quickly. Unfortunately though, their color options are pretty limited compared to other custom shoe sites we have reviewed. The image displayed on the page also does not update with each change made so it may be hard to visualize your created design. Additionally, there can be extra charges of about $3-$15 for more complicated motifs or designs applied on the shoes.
Most orders can be shipped in 1-4 working days but the company advises a lead time of about 3-4 weeks, especially for custom orders. Special custom shoes and clearance sale items are non-returnable but some Design-Your-Own-Shoes are eligible for returns.
Soft Star Shoes provides a great array of high-quality minimal footwear shoe styles on their website and their prices are pretty reasonable. However, they lack a bit in terms of their customization process. Their design center is not as well equipped and their color and customization options are also somewhat limited.