🥂 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022! / CHÚC MỪNG NĂM MỚI 2022! 🥂

Hope you all had a lovely NY celebration wherever you were. I usually spend some last days of the year away from social media for self reflection, that’s why my new year post came out a little late.

Not many people know, I bought the Swing Love domain name on the last day of 2018, just for fun because I thought leather shoemaking would just be my side hustle project. I remember I was on bed with my laptop waiting for the NYE fireworks in a few hours, thinking what I wanted to do for 2019. And I knew I wanted to give my side hustle project a name, then Swing Love was born (it’s the love for Swing dancing 😅). With zero IT experience and with the help of my boyfriend (who is now my husband, yay!), I bought the domain name, set up the email, created Facebook & Instagram accounts, and finished all that just before midnight for New Year’s Eve.

Swing Love history
| I took this screenshot after successfully buying my very first domain name.
That was December 31st, 2018.

 

Fast forward 3 years later, I am now very proud of the process and the progress we make each year, to bring comfortable yet stylish vintage leather shoes for Swing dancing or street walking. Our website also expanded a bit with “Accessories” category to introduce more high-quality handmade products from our local talented craftsmen & craftswomen. Big thanks to @episode.9b and @LiMe (whose linen clothing will be soon on the website) for contributing your skill to Swing Love customers 🎉

| episode.9b's card wallet on our website

 

One of the happiest & most proud moments of 2021 was when Sĩ (our one-and-only shoe master) successfully combined leather and fabric on the shoes. It’s even more special when the fabric comes from Hoa Tien, one of the most famous brocade weaving cradles of Thai people in Nghe An province for more than 100 years. They have been keeping and passing down the tradition of hand-woven brocade and hand-dyed beewax-painted fabric for many traditions. And we were so thrilled to see the positive feedbacks of Chiêng, which has motivated us a lot to continue working on other contemporary designs, where Vietnamese symbols and motifs are represented together with Western shoe making techniques. Also a big shoutout to Hà My who’s been doing an excellent job at quality control and wonderful shoe packaging the last month!

Swing Love phieu and chieng handmade shoes
| Chiêng, which has the perfect combination between leather
and hand-woven brocade fabric.

 

Of course, a big thank-you to all the customers who also value traditional craftsmanship and our slow fashion concept. Thank you for inspiring me / us every day, either with a brand-new color combination on the Doo-bee-da or a totally challenging yet beautiful shoe design. Our shoemaking workshop is happy to be busy handcrafting the perfect shoes for your happy feet 👣.

Last but not least, my thanks go to my dance friends and our Swing dance community, you’ve all been so supportive to a young humble business. There isn’t a better occasion for me to announce our Lindy Circle Program, where Swing dancers / Lindy Hoppers with less means may apply for a pair of proper dance shoes for their happy feet. Check it out here 👉 https://bit.ly/lindycircleprogram. If you know anyone who would be happy to see this offer, please feel free to share!

Swing Love Lindy Circle Program
| Announcing Lindy Circle Program,
our give-back gesture to the Swing dance community.

 

2021 wasn’t “easy greasy” for us all but we made it! 2022 will be a brighter and more fruitful year, where hopefully we’ll get to hug and dance with each other very soon.

With lots of swingouts,

Châu & The Swing Love Team.

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