After 11 years in business championing the Greek craft in sandal making and focusing on expanding and nurturing the brand’s women’s range, Ancient Greek Sandals is ready to turn its focus more heavily on the men’s category.
Unveiling the first collection by newly appointed head of men’s design Alain Leber for spring 2024, the brand is betting big on the category, mindful that competition is heating up but still relatively low-key allowing it to secure a premium spot in the segment.
“A year ago, Christina [Martini, the brand’s cofounder with Nikolas Minoglou] asked me to join because we’re friends and have known each other for 20 years,” Leber told FN at Pitti Uomo in Florence, where the collection was officially unveiled. “We had worked together so I knew what it was like and I had carte blanche, I basically had to build the range from scratch but acknowledging the brand’s very strong identity, and personality.”
Boasting a career in footwear design at marquee luxury players including Louis Vuitton – where he worked with Martini – Burberry and Michel Perry, Leber brings over 20-years experience to the role.
“My first goal was to reinvent basics and the company’s [men’s] identity, which is about sandals with a leather sole and leather upper, but also at the same time trying to design shoes that would speak to the global identity the brand has carved,” he said.
Spanning five different lines, the collection includes refined leather flip flops, suede two-strap designs, slides and leather fisherman sandals. “Ancient Greek Sandals is not an elitist brand, it’s rather about catering to as wide an audience as possible, that’s way I tried to develop styles befitting occasions of use that the brand was missing,” Leber explained.
“Sandals for man are quite underdeveloped, there’s little familiarity in the market for such a product category,” he offered.
Accustomed to luxury powerhouses’ little to no restraints in terms of supply chain reach and execution possibilities, the designer said he has worked with very few suppliers in Greece but is impressed by how fast and easily he could develop his ideas.
“Working with local craftsmen has been such a unique experience, not only because you have an exchange with people with a very different mentality but also because you come to understand the product itself way better,” he said.
