Radical News
Read articles, watch videos, learn more about our products past and present.
Yes! Journal
Who are the people behind Radical Yes?
In conversation with Elfy Scott. We invited journalist, writer and podcaster Elfy Scott to help us answer some of the questions we get asked most frequently about our brand. At Radical Yes, we’re not shy about our dedication to creating flat shoes for women. We’re a brand that expresses the values of contemporary women so they can navigate ‘in real life’ (I.R.L) situations with both style and functionality. This female-first focus has a lot to do with our founder Kerryn Moscicki. In fact, more than a lot. In this interview with journalist, presenter, and producer, Elfy Scott, Kerryn answers one of Elfy’s burning questions: who are the people behind Radical Yes bringing us the best sustainably minded flat shoes? Spoiler alert - you might be pleasantly surprised by her answers! Watch the interview... < “We're 90% women and that definitely drives the brand along.” Kerryn Moscicki Founder, Radical Yes See new arrivals here.
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Where are Radical Yes shoes made?
In conversation with Elfy Scott. We invited journalist, writer and podcaster Elfy Scott to help us answer some of the questions we get asked most frequently about our brand. It's the question everyone wants the answer to and we’re super proud of our flat shoe origins. We’ll admit, we’ve got pretty high standards - not just when it comes to shoes. That’s why we chose the award-winning journalist, presenter and producer, Elfy Scott, to talk all things, well Radical Yes, with our founder Kerryn Moscicki. In this video, the duo hone in on where exactly our shoes are made, why we produce there and what we look out for when choosing our makers. Since our flat shoes are made in small quantities with a focus on quality, it’s so important that we find makers with the same values. That’s not so easy today with the focus geared towards large-scale production, but we stay committed to our vision. Watch the interview... “All of our factories are small family-owned businesses.” Kerryn Moscicki Founder, Radical Yes See new arrivals here.
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Why do we make shoes in small batches?
In conversation with Elfy Scott. We invited journalist, writer and podcaster Elfy Scott to help us answer some of the questions we get asked most frequently about our brand. There are so many reasons why we choose to make our flat shoes in small quantities. It’s not just about sustainability, our community is also at the heart of this decision. But that’s not all. When Elfy Scott (journalist, producer and host of ‘Left Right Out’ and ‘The Green Canary’ podcasts) posed the question to our founder Kerryn Moscicki, there were several factors behind the decision. In this video, Kerryn talks about the significance of making women’s sandals and sneakers in small batches, why it’s important to Radical Yes and the “secret club” that exists. Are you in it? Watch the interview... “I love the idea of little and often both in my life and also in manufacturing.” Kerryn Moscicki Founder, Radical Yes See new arrivals here.
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Why flat shoes?
In conversation with Elfy Scott. We invited journalist, writer and podcaster Elfy Scott to help us answer some of the questions we get asked most frequently about our brand. Flat shoe liberation is what Radical Yes is all about. Ever wondered why? It piqued the interest of the wonderful Elfy Scott, one of our favourite journalists, producers and hosts on this side of the world. So, when she caught up with our founder Kerryn Moscicki, it was one of the first questions on her lips. In this video Kerryn reveals what the deal is with flat shoes. While the origins may be that bit alternative, you’ll thank us in the end - really. And no, it’s got nothing to do with age. Here’s what Kerryn and Elfy had to say on the matter… Watch the interview... “Literally, like who wants to wear heels - you’ve got to get your sh*t done!” Kerryn Moscicki Founder, Radical Yes See new arrivals here.
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Radical Yes: the meaning behind ‘radical’
In conversation with Elfy Scott. We invited journalist, writer and podcaster Elfy Scott to help us answer some of the questions we get asked most frequently about our brand. Radical Yes is a female-founded brand that celebrates women and creativity. In fact, we created flat shoe liberation especially for women (thank us later). So when we had the opportunity to catch up with Elfy Scott, the incredible (award-winning, might we add) journalist, we couldn’t contain our excitement. In this video, the woman behind it all, Kerryn Moscicki, spills the tea on what the ‘radical’ in Radical Yes really means. It’s one of the most frequently asked questions about our shoes and the answer is really, quite radical, so we’re delighted to finally share it with you. To find out more, check out the video. Watch the interview... "Producing things much slower, working with less urgency, working in a more considered way." Kerryn Moscicki Founder, Radical Yes See new arrivals here.
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5 Minutes with the Radical Yes Eyewear Designer
Meet Our Eyewear Designer, Alana Van Ewyk. A long time friend of our brand, Alana has worked in eyewear for over 20 years, including more than 10 spent as the head designer for Karen Walker Eyewear after starting her early career honing her skills on Disney branded product. A long time friend of our brand, Alana has worked in eyewear for over 20 years, including more than 10 spent as the head designer for Karen Walker Eyewear after starting her early career honing her skills on Disney branded product. “It was very intense for a junior designer. I recall possibly shedding some tears when the angle of Winnie’s honey pot was off. Everything after Disney felt much easier, but it really instilled in me that the devil is in the detail, and I love that comes so naturally to me today but may annoy others!” Many of our long time customers will remember we released a small range of eyewear back in 2016. But with only a limited product development budget we decided to take a break from this category to fully focus our efforts into our footwear R&D. Then Alana became available to help us create an entirely new level and direction for our eyewear. A collaboration which would mean we could execute our eyewear with the same approach and quality level as the shoes - working with best-practice manufacturers and exploring new and innovative materials. We spent some time chatting to Alana about her thinking behind her first collection for Radical Yes. Alana, We asked you to respond to Radical Yes 'the brand' in an eyewear capsule - what were some of the immediate considerations / values that came to mind when thinking about how to translate the brand into this category? The best part of working with brands is when they have a very precise customer, focus, and brand DNA. For me, Radical Yes already had all the parts ready to make the machine. Your philosophies around the end use, how the customer is going to wear it, its practicality, comfortability all these things really help any designer think about how best we can wear this, even down to how useful we can make the sunglass case, all these questions had to be answered in the product. The existing branding was so easy for me to pull from and create concepts for hardware, it has an element of fun and joy but must be sharp and considered. I loved those important key points about the brand, it helped really nail down on a concise collection. And the last part of the magic is colour, RY is known for its incredible use of clashing colour. Pallets that aren’t necessarily the ‘norm’ but RY has a way of pulling them together and making them a must. This was fun, working with some colours and finishes I’d personally not worked with in eyewear in the past like a solid lavender and a milky lime, this feels totally on brand but so fresh to the sunglass world. A selection of coloured frame samples from our factory. Let's talk about the collection itself. Tell us about the shapes you have picked for the launch range and how they relate to our customers IRL end use? We never really started this collection with a final range plan in terms of size. We just designed and created and then worked out who and how each shape would be worn. Radical Yes has an incredible customer mix so we were able to be really specific with our shapes and sizes, and even our branding detail. For example, we have a spinning disc we created for the temple, we were torn on colour and how it would be worn. Do we go black and keep tonal to the frame, so it’s very classic or do we have fun and go for our brand colour yellow? We decided we could do both, let the customer choose how they want to wear it, feeling classic keep it on the black side, want to stand out and have some contrast, just spin to the yellow side. All very fun, but still from an end use POV had to be smooth and really clean. "We also had the opportunity to do gender neutral styles, we have some beautiful cat-eye shapes, but then some classic rounds that are so perfect for so many faces" A universal range, with each pair feeling (hopefully) like it’s made specifically for you. Fits, materials, componentry are all very important to the durability and comfortability on your face when wearing for long periods of time, so we made sure to focus on those points in design. We do hope that our customers find the perfect fitting frame for their face and their personality. Like the shoes, we have approached the new collection with lots of colour pops. What advice would you give to our customers about picking the best palette for their face? Any advice on how to wear a statement shade? Eyewear is so great to completely change your mood and your outfit. Just like shoes and bags, so approaching this collection with the Radical Yes colour DNA was fun and easy. I’m totally of the mindset that you can really pull off any shape and colour. There are a few rules for me I believe should never be broken, one of those is fit. It must fit, your nose bridge, cheekbones, and temple lengths. If it isn’t comfortable, it doesn’t fit and you’ll never love wearing them. That’s my first, and my second when it comes to colour always wear something that makes your skin tone pop. Ensure you’re not being washed out, that usually means wearing a frame colour that is too close to your natural skin colour. And have fun! Eyewear can make an outfit and is always front and centre when you’re taking photos! As a brand obsessed with function as much as form - can you share with us which frames are the best choice for our customers who want high level sun glare protection. And what about the old favourite 'are these polarised?' myth. Ahhhhh yes form and function, one of the reasons I initially choose eyewear to work on was because of this crossover. All our frames pass the mandatory and strict Australian/NZ standards. So, feel secure that whenever you purchase a pair of Radical Yes frames, they will never harm your eyes. Our lenses do have different categories that relate to how much glare reduction and protection they provide you with. Category 3 which offers the highest, is used in 95% of the range. We do have a CAT 2 lens as well; this just offers a lower form of sun glare reduction but still completely protective for your eyes. In the future we may try some lighter tinted lenses, but they too will always cover mandatory standards and reduce overall sun glare. “And polarised is kind of a buzz word. Super helpful if your sailing, fishing or always near or on the water but not so great for everyday IRL use.” We recognised that our customer didn’t want a performance lens, but they still require the maximum amount of protection so CAT 3 lenses meant our customers could wear near the water and while driving, so provided that multi use option opposed to changing glasses depending on what you were doing. Polarised lenses are not suitable for driving or looking at specific colours, so we decided to stay away from that as an option. “Polarised lenses are not suitable for driving or looking at specific colours, so we decided to stay away from that as an option.” One of the key driving forces on our decision to move back into eyewear category was the improved traceability we could have on the supply chain. Can you tell us more about the materials that have been used in the new collection and share more on the make process itself. How long does it take to make a pair of handmade frames? Yes! Sustainability and traceability is finally happening in eyewear. It’s not as progressive as some of the other categories in fashion but it’s happening, which is super exciting for the industry. In the Radical Yes range we use acetate, which is a handmade material, meaning each pair is cut, filed, and fit to a template design. Each part of the frame is filed down, tumbled, and polished with each of the artisans in eyewear working on one part of the frame. This means over 100 pairs of hands touch each frame, while they all work to the same design template, they are handmade so sometimes there will be some slight differences. The timeline for production is around 6 months, sampling 3-4 months so we take around 12 months to complete one range. We use acetate because of some of its special properties that include being hypoallergenic, malleable, and lightweight. This makes it comfortable and wearable for all day use. We now also have a bio-acetate that we’re using in the range which is essentially plant based, compared to the petroleum-based option, much better for the environment. Our cases are made from recycled nylon and our plastic pouches that protect our cases and eyewear are all 100% recycled materials. It was important to us that we keep this as a focus in the range, limiting our single use plastics where we can and hopefully improving on each range. See the entire eyewear collection here. “Each part of the frame is filed down, tumbled, and polished with each of the artisans in eyewear working on one part of the frame. This means over 100 pairs of hands touch each frame.” See more eyewear... sun-hero-sunglasses-in-tangerine, sun-hero-sunglasses-in-ice-blue, sun-hero-sunglasses-in-black, solar-queen-sunglasses-in-vanilla-bone, solar-queen-sunglasses-in-milky-emerald, light-lover-sunglasses-in-crystal-olive, light-lover-sunglasses-in-black, sun-worship-sunglasses-in-black, illuminate-sunglasses-in-black, sun-worship-sunglasses-in-milky-lime, illuminate-sunglasses-in-solid-lavender, sun-worship-sunglasses-in-milky-ocean,
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Getting Better, Not Bigger. Introducing Radical Yes Eyewear.
Our pursuit has always been about creating products that are everyday ‘I.R.L’ useful. That serve a function as much as they deliver an aesthetic punch. In Australia, sunglasses could be considered essential virtually 300 days of the year - our customers ‘end use’ needs felt clear in our minds. If you have been following our brand for a while you will know it was a vision we’ve had before. Previous iterations were produced using a different manufacturing process - known in the industry as ‘injected’ make. Whilst beautiful, the make and material we previously had access to were polycarbonate styles that naturally sit in a lower end of the quality spectrum. "We knew we could do better and we were determined to do so." Five years later, long-time friend of our brand, Eyewear Designer Alana Van Ewyk became available to help us create an entirely new level and direction with our eyewear pursuits. A collaboration which would mean we could execute our eyewear working with best-practice manufacturers and materials to produce beautiful handmade eyewear. Alana has worked in eyewear for almost 20 years, including more than 10 spent as the head designer for Karen Walker Eyewear. Aside from an esteemed background in eyewear, Alana and I also began our Design journeys working together many years ago. We have an understanding and aesthetic shorthand that I think has come through in our first collection. We hope you love our Radical Vision. Kerryn xx Sun Hero in black BIO-ACETATE WITH SMOKE GREEN LENS "Our Radical Vision to create beautiful, functional eyewear for your I.R.L. use has come true. Hand crafted from highest quality acetates and bio-acetates in colours and shapes to bring you joy." SOLAR QUEEN IN VANILLA BONE (LEFT) SOLAR QUEEN IN MILKY EMERALD (RIGHT) See The Full Radical Yes Eyewear Collection Here. Related Products light-lover-sunglasses-in-black, sun-worship-sunglasses-in-milky-lime, illuminate-sunglasses-in-solid-lavender, light-lover-sunglasses-in-crystal-olive, solar-queen-sunglasses-in-milky-emerald, sun-worship-sunglasses-in-milky-ocean,
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Earth Day 2022: Is Radical Yes A Sustainable Brand?
If you have been following our brand for a while you might know - our position is that we do not identify as a ‘sustainable’ brand. What we aim to be is conscious and responsible. Most importantly – what we are not - is a ‘fast fashion’ brand. Here are some of the things we have purposefully built into our business model from the start in the pursuit of being a responsible, community minded brand; From the beginning, we have designed our products with the idea of long term ‘every (other) day’* use in mind. We aim to make shoes that are highly wearable, useful items – in silhouettes that we believe can guarantee a minimum of 30 wears. This figure is not about durability (of course you can expect at least 10 times the amount of wear from our shoes), but prioritising function over fads. This figure is given even greater context in contrast with the built in obsolesces of fast fashion – where products “are actually designed to be worn less than 7 times.” (The Age, Monday 18th April) The 30 wears philosophy is central to our process and was inspired by a figure that 'True Cost' Film Producer Livia Firth demonstrated to be a tipping point in reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing in terms of water consumption, material waste and resource management. This is one of the many reasons we choose to only make flat shoes because of their every-other-day* usefulness and wearability. *Rotating your shoes is another important factor we advocate in increasing the lifespan of your products - which you can read more about here. We continually invest in research and development to improve the quality of our shoes. To date, the largest focus of this investment has been in opening our own proprietary designed outsole molds that we subject to the highest international abrasion testing standards (Intertek Certification). Opening our own outsole molds also means we have greater transparency on the raw materials used to pour the soles. We never ‘spec down’ our products and we never ‘barter’ prices with our makers. We maintain long standing relationships with our factory partners and do not move our production to find ‘the cheapest deal’ available. This is counter to my previous experience developing product for high street brands seeking the lowest price for the highest volume at the expense of the quality outcome. We manufacturer in small quantities and in quantities we feel confident we will sell everything we make. In contrast to a fast fashion 6 week sales cycle, we work off a 26 week seasonal cycle to try to keep discounting, end of line products and excess stock to a minimum. This approach creates less material wastage and reduces shipping, freight and transport emissions. These ideas form part of our ‘Hasten Slowly’ philosophy. We passionately advocate for care and repair of all products. In contrast to a fast fashion 6 week sales cycle, we work off a 26 week seasonal cycle to try to keep discounting, end of line products and excess stock to a minimum. This approach creates less material wastage and reduces shipping, freight and transport emissions. These ideas form part of our ‘Hasten Slowly’ philosophy. We offer ways for our customers to keep their worn products out of landfill. One of the ways we assist our customers with this process is through our ‘Toe Tapper’ trade initiative passing pre-loved shoes on to our Not-For-Profit partner Ready Set to either sell at their famous fundraising sales or to help dress long-term unemployed women looking to re-enter the workforce. We believe making better product that can be worn more often means more sustainable outcomes for both people and planet. We acknowledge that we are not perfect. That our brand exists on a passage of continual innovation and change and Radical Yes has a long way to go in being a truly sustainable brand. Styles for every (other) day wear radical-yes-neptune-athletic-sandal-2-0-black-leather,cloud-2-0-retro-trainers-in-navy, radical-yes-always-elevated-slip-on-black-leather, radical-yes-everything-chelsea-boot-aw21-black-leather-australian-merino-wool-lining, radical-yes-journey-3-0-trainer-gold-leather, radical-yes-movement-buckle-shoe-black, north-star-clutch-kayak-pu, north-star-clutch-black-pu,
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Why Did We Make A Bag Shaped Like A Croissant?
Why Did We Make A Bag Shaped Like A Croissant? The reason has nothing to do with our shop being next door to Breadclub (well maybe just a little)... Join us as we introduce our newest 'big bag' the Rainbow Tote. Made from recycled nylon and shaped like our favourite French pastry, we talk about three great 'end-uses' for this versatile new bag! Click below to watch the video... "With only one bag, you can change your outfit." Sonia Rykiel See more bags here hold-on-leather-clutch, rainbow-tote-multi, radiance-camera-bag, north-star-nylon-clutch-peacock, baby-vessel-recycled-nylon-clutch-in-rose, radical-yes-north-star-nylon-clutch-mini-black, hold-on-leather-clutch-in-black, rainbow-tote-black, north-star-nylon-clutch-collective-closet-x-radical-yes
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