Meet the Parisian Shoe Brand That Landed on Kim Kardashian Before It Hit the Retail Floor
By the time most brands see their designs on A-listers, the product is already on shelves.
Not so for Paris-based shoe brand Jude.
When the likes of Nicole Kidman and Tracee Ellis Ross were spotted in its heels during the fashion weeks last fall, its website was still a month from launching.
Cofounders Jurgita Dileviciute and Denitsa Bumbarova had been hard at work putting their then-six month-old label on the map with stylists and a handful of retailers.
It’s a strategy that paid off.
Interest was certainly piqued about this brand that only had around 2,000 Instagram followers to its name and a website under construction, but still saw its heels on Kylie Jenner.
And then of course, there’s their “Fame” pump, worn by Kim Kardashian for a cover story in the Financial Times’ “How To Spend It.”
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Getting their shoes on the right feet is also key to a nascent footwear business. “Having quite amazing women wear us, like Nicole Kidman and Kim Kardashian — with the shoes very visible — really helped create that little bit of buzz,” said Bumbarova. “It [made] retailers pay attention to us.”
Another style maven who drove traffic to the website was Tracee Ellis Ross, who also wore their Date mule and tagged the brand on her social posts. “On the launch date [of the site], that shoe performed very, very well,” said Dileviciute. “And even before we had a working website, we had requests so it sold even before launch.”
By the time Jude’s ecommerce launched in November, that style had become its star product, a position it continues to have with customers and retailers alike. And famous feet, including those of Chloé Sévigny and Kelly Rutherford kept coming.
For Dileviciute and Bumbarova, launching a footwear brand is the culmination of over a decade’s worth of experiences in footwear and accessories.
Although interested in fashion from the get-go, Lithuania-born Dileviciute always felt womenswear design overwhelming, preferring the form factor of footwear, “an object you can hold in the hand,” she said.
At 18, she left her hometown of Kaunas to study at the University of the Arts London, then headed to Paris where she cut her teeth at a roster of brands that spanned major houses and successful trendy labels.
It was during this time that she first crossed paths with Bulgaria-born Bumbarova, an art history graduate who cofounded By Far and was its creative director until 2022.
The pair clicked from the beginning becoming fast friends. “For both of us, when we wake up, [our goal] is to just start improving the world around us,” said Bumbarova. “We just want to do it in our house, other people’s houses – change, makeover and create all the time.”
Eventually, the duo decided to launch footwear together, calling the line Jude, after the first syllable of their first names. “It also felt like our taste is very mature now,” said Dileviciute. “When anyone launches a brand, they think there’s a lack in the market for what they want.”
On top of the descriptors such as intelligent, successful and responsible in her purchasing decisions, the Jude woman is informed and savvy to greenwashing, according to the founders.
And don’t say Jude footwear empowers its consumer. “To be honest, that idea of some shoe brand empowering me makes me so, so angry,” said Bumbarova. “I think women empower themselves, they don’t need someone to empower them.”
The angle Dileviciute and Bumbarova took for Jude? Staples that don’t look like basics.
“Our point of view is to have a brand that is very reliable for women [with] detailing, not be repetitive,” said Bumbarova. “In other brands you see how very similar these staples become.”
Particular attention is therefore paid to toe shapes and heels, all custom designed for Jude. These pared back, yet striking designs are further highlighted by custom furniture dotted around the Jude showroom and most recently, in their pop-up at The Webster in Palm Beach. These come from Project 213A, a design business Dileviciute started as a side gig during the COVID-19 pandemic with two other friends.
In the duo’s opinion, the key to long-term success is ensuring it is “not a big deal to make a decision to buy our shoes” as Bumbarova put it, by offering a trifecta of design, quality materials and believable pricing.
While the brand averages around 590 euros for its heeled styles, prices start around 300 euros for simpler models and flats. That said, they aren’t capping the upper limit of their range, which currently sits just above 850 euros.
“We would like to satisfy our creativity and have something special, allowing ourselves to reach for [higher] prices for something more interesting,” said Bumbarova.
That said, they’re hitting all the right notes in their lineup. After mules and sandals, boots did well during pre-fall 2025 showroom appointments.
In its first season, Jude was picked up by The Webster and half a dozen concept stores across the U.S. and Japan. Spring 2025 saw its debut on FRWD and Moda Operandi for seasonal trunk shows, while Antonia in Milan, Luisa Via Roma and Selfridges will start stocking the brand from pre-fall 2025.
For fall 2025, Jude will introduce a variety of “perfect neutral shades,” offered in a lush palette of nubuck, suede, snake and buttery nappy leather.
Going forward, Dileviciute and Bumbarova are dead set on keeping a reasonable development pace, despite the temptation to capitalize quickly on exposure.
“We have a lot of bitter experience with this kind of stuff, such as overproducing, with our previous jobs,” said Bumbarova.
Now on its second collection, Jude offers some 40 styles. For their first full year of operation, they’re targeting “maybe 5,000 pairs, not more,” according to Bumbarova.
“It’s tempting to sell but it can also be a big trap,” she continued. “We want our customer to find us little by little, not just have our [shoes] hanging everywhere, so we’re not rushing – we’re not greedy.”
