Five Plus One, raw fearlessness

Five Plus One's aesthetics are unmistakable. The industrial, minimalist designs have a distinct raw vibe, undressed of any unnecessary embellishments, evoking a certain fearlessness.

Five Plus One is the project of two brothers, whose misbehaving as children was punished with working at their family's shoe factory. The punishment soon turned into a passion, as the brothers developed their own ideas about footwear which culminated in their brand, whose products are made in that same factory.

The name they chose for the brand is very representative of what they are trying to achieve. Their designs are reduced to the 5 essential elements of a shoe: Outsole. Insole. Upper. Lining. And the Last. No extra flourishes. The final element, the +1, is the wearer, the individual whose personality and whose steps convey a completely individual meaning to the shoes, creating that equation that is an eternal enigma. Five Plus One.

The duo based itself in Berlin, which is the city where they found the lack of boundaries to freely explored and which ultimately inspired their designs. The concrete, the urban scene, the heavy industrial aesthetics. There is a clear Berliner influence on the shoes, with chunky shapes in robust materials such as leather and rubber.

The FW16 collection, called "structural research" features very distinct lines. An assortment of boots with block soles, with elastic, cut-out shapes or laces.