toe to knee(toh-toh-nee)

Comfortable Leather Goods Crafted by an Artisan

"toe to knee" is a shop offering leather shoes, slippers, and other leather goods designed for everyday use, with a particular focus on comfort. The shop’s name, which means from toe to knee, reflects the background of owner and artisan Sayaka Kanda, who founded the business by drawing on her experience fitting comfort shoes to develop, produce, and sell her own original comfort shoes. The shop’s original products are all made of leather, yet they feel light and easy to use. Their comfort comes from many elements: colorful variations, unexpected color combinations, and slightly unusual forms. Each piece is appealing for its design, created with a free imagination unconstrained by conventional ideas of what leather should look like.

Asakusabashi, where the shop is located, has gradually been gaining more retail stores, partly under the influence of neighboring Kuramae, which has become a popular destination in recent years. Taito City, where both Asakusabashi and Kuramae are located, has been a center of commerce and industry since the Edo period, home to small-scale manufacturers and wholesalers dealing in leather goods, traditional crafts, tools used for festivals, precious metals, and gemstones. The owner says she chose this area because it was a convenient place for making things, allowing her to work closely with leather wholesalers, shoemakers, and leather-dyeing factories.

A Long-Running Bestseller: Slippers That Mold to the Foot

One of the shop’s most popular items is its single-piece leather slipper, a long-selling product loved by many for its comfort. As the name suggests, it has a simple structure made from a single piece of cut leather sewn together at just one point. Unlike ordinary slippers, it has no stiff inner core, so the more you wear it, the more it conforms to the shape of your foot. It also retains one of leather’s natural advantages: even when worn barefoot, it is less likely to feel stuffy. In addition, the slipper is sewn so that the smooth outer surface of the leather faces the inside, where it touches the foot, while the reverse side faces the outside, where it touches the floor. This gives it a pleasant feel against the skin and better grip underfoot.

Soft, Free-Form Designs That Defy Expectations of Leather Goods

The accessories created by the owner have a free and supple quality that can make you forget they are made of leather at all. They have an easygoing feel that suits everyday use, making them ideal for people who want to live with comfortable objects in daily life. Their simple construction also reflects her desire not to waste the leather used as raw material. Fewer parts and fewer seams mean fewer points of failure, allowing carefully selected durable leather to last even longer. It also makes it easier to keep leftover offcuts to a minimum after cutting.

The shop accepts consultations for repairs to its own products only. the owner says she also wants to accommodate custom requests, such as adding parts or adjusting size and length, whenever possible. This attentive service, made possible by the fact that the shop is also a workshop, is another major part of its appeal.