Born in Bali

CRÜZØR started the way a lot of good things do :: somebody got laid off. My best friend Andrew got let go, my own head was underwater, and we did the only reasonable thing two queers can do when the ground gives out: we went to Bali. I talked my way into working remote, dragged my job halfway around the world, and we went to reset and recharge.

Andrew was the first person I met at my corporate job in New York. I was a young trans woman still figuring out who I was :: coming into myself, coming into corporate America, all of it :: and he took me under his wing. A big brother. He shaped me, for better or for worse, into the person I am today. So when his life started falling apart, I wasn't about to let him fall apart alone.

We were trying to eat-pray-love our way through it :: plant medicine, a hike up to a waterfall, the whole ritual. I'm from Alabama; I was ready to go barefoot through the river like I did as a kid. Andrew? Andrew was terrified about his feet. Grabbed a pair of ten-dollar grippy little water shoes and would not be talked out of them. This man needed protective footwear for a waterfall like his life depended on it.

And somewhere up that mountain, cackling about it, it hit us :: what are the two things the gays love most? Party and travel. And how do we do it best? We cruise. We go cruising. Cruising with your cruiser. It started as an inside joke between two friends high on a hill in Bali, and by the time we came back down it was a footwear house: CRÜZØR.

Queer footwear :: for the gays, by the gays. For the dolls, the lesbians, the whole community. And real talk: it's damn near impossible to find good shoes past a size 10. My girlfriend Taylor is a doll and a size 12. I told her straight up :: “I'm gonna fucking make you some boots, babe.” So we build big. We build for the feet the industry pretends don't exist.

I'd been emailing a maker named Anthony in Bali for over a year :: obsessed with his work, never pulled the trigger. Turns out the same Anthony ran music production at the studio I'd booked for lessons. Same guy. The bootmaker was the music teacher. It really is a flat circle. I fell off my scooter twice in the rainy season getting to him :: almost died, survived :: and CRÜZØR finally got made. Every pair is handmade in Bali, by hand, with Anthony.

So that's it. Born out of a hard year, a best friend, a waterfall, and a joke that refused to die. The gays love to travel :: and they're going to cruise while they do it. Welcome to CRÜZØR.