Meet the Groundbreakers

Can cause-and-effect explain why you feel like your feet are suddenly down the rickety stairs of a chintzy little shop towards the jacket you’ve been looking for since before you were born? Or why, sometimes, you feel like walking in perfect harmony with a loved one, each syncopated step suddenly aligning? Or, on a crisp March morning, your boots feel that little bit lighter?
 
Often, it’s not about the shoe—but who’s wearing it. Everyone’s sole bounces to a different beat. What makes you tick is, in life, what really counts.  

Finding it is what makes you feel like you’re walking on air. Doc’s wearers Marta Del Grandi, Sophia Wilson, Enfant Precoce and LedByHer all have their own things going on. The trick is, that’s what makes them so similar.  

MARTI DEL GRANDI

Music found Marta Del Grandi at a young age. “It wasn’t a rational decision, but rather an instinctive pull I felt deep inside, guiding me in that direction,” the Italian-born singer-songwriter says. That pull has led her to a string of acclaimed releases on Fire Records—fusing her ethereal, jazzy vocals and lush, cinematic orchestration—and performances across the globe.  
 
Moving to Ghent and becoming part of the city’s tight-knit music scene, she experienced moments of doubt, but that sense of purpose got her through. She conjures resilience through grounding exercises—listening to her vinyl collection or losing herself in her journal. “It reminds me that nothing will ever beat the joy that making music brings to my soul.” 

WHAT MAKES YOUR SOLE BOUNCE?

THE EARTH’S MAGMA 
“I remember feeling so clearly, like it was a message coming straight from the magma of the Earth, the sensation that I would do anything to make music my life, whatever sacrifice it would take.”

A CROWD
“When I step onto a stage I give every part of myself to the people in front of me.” 

MY DOG 
“Spending time with my dog.”

@martadelgrandi 

SOPHIA WILSON

Sophia Wilson, the precocious, New-York-City-based photographer, is most content “doing things that probably don’t make a lot of sense to anyone else.” Dressing up, running around the city, surrounding herself with colour all leads to the same pot of gold. Just 26, she’s already contributed to The New York Times, Vogue and Vanity Fair and worked with talent including Addison Rae and FKA twigs. 

Her photography, which captures the tenderness of youth via the naive beauty of analog, has taught her to appreciate the small things. “Never lose that part of yourself that believes life can still surprise you,” she says. “I’ll never grow out of that.” 

WHAT MAKES YOUR SOLE BOUNCE?

GETTING OLDER
“The older I get, the more I realize joy isn’t something that just happens. It’s something you choose every single day.”

NEW YORK STREETS
“Running around my city.”

SIMPLE THINGS
“I find excitement in ordinary moments. Life is too beautiful not to enjoy it.”

@phiawilson

LEDBYHER

When Rachel Aisayah Diack went wild camping with friends in the Brecons last year, she felt more grounded than ever. “I remember having blisters and bites all over and looking completely bedraggled, but we slept above the clouds with a cuppa and woke up feeling so alive and somehow lighter,” the Scottish-Indonesian multihyphenate says.  

Raised between Germany, Indonesia and the Norfolk countryside, it was a return to her rural roots. Now, she lives in London and performs as LedByHer, dropping buzzy, underground mixtapes and gritty visuals. This evolution has seen her “shed some skins along the way.” But she’s still only led by herself.  

WHAT MAKES YOUR SOLE BOUNCE?

SWIMMING
“I used to swim a lot as a kid, but recently picked it back up again. I’m always humming something under the water as I go, and it feels like I’m washing off anything that clouds my day..”

MY DOCS 
“I feel like they’re made for strutting, skipping, and standing on business all at the same time. They’re the perfect all rounder for a girl like me.” 

CONNECTING THE DOTS 
“I recently found a jumper with the exact shade as Doc’s signature yellow stitching. It really scratches my brain!” 
 
@babyrachy

ENFANT PRECOCE

Enfant Precoce has always painted in stories. The Cameroon-born artist was originally inspired by the African fairytales his grandmother told. "They were kind of mysterious. She was talking about people who were glowing like a light. It inspired me a lot," he says. It still informs the warm, illuminating colours he applies to mystical, highly-saturated canvases that hum with an indescribable energy. 

Before he began carving out a new career as a visual artist, he made a name for himself as a hip-hop dancer under the tag Mr. Jones. The alias was lent to his first painting, marking the connection between the two disciplines. His new moniker—meaning Precocious Child—represented his playful past. “We have a saying in French—if you want the genuine truth, you always get it from a child.” He wanted his paintings to have this inner charm.  

WHAT MAKES YOUR SOLE BOUNCE? 
PINK & BLUE 
“I try to find the good in everything and I do that through warm colours. The colours that express the most to me are blue and pink.”

MY UNCLE 
inspiration today. His artist name is Malam. In Africa this is what we call a doctor. It’s a palindrome.”

THE STREETS OF PARIS  
“I love to watch people and how they dress.” 
 
@enfant_precoce