About Us

Footloose Shoes is an independent brick and mortar boutique located in downtown Victoria, BC. We have been family owned and operated since our establishment in 1983. Our boutique identifies as a woman-owned and women-ran small business. We are known for a thoughtful curation of women's quality leather footwear, handmade slippers, and unique accessories. Our footwear collection focuses on fashion forward designs and speciality imports. Our premium selection is complimented by our experienced and knowledgable staff who can guarantee you fabulous customer service on top of a fabulous new pair of shoes. Footloose Shoes is your first stop for quality footwear and accessories in Victoria.

HISTORY

We celebrated an incredible forty years of business in 2023. Footloose Shoes’ first incarnation was the Renaissance Shop, started by Keith Gage-Cole, on Johnson Street in downtown Victoria in the 1970s. The store was definitely a reflection of the era and of Vancouver Island’s laid back spirit. It was a one-stop shop for hippy wares like handmade leather goods, silk shirts, and even crystals. It was also the first place many Victorians discovered the now beloved brand Birkenstock. Kerstin Greiner and Keith met during this time, and eventually The Renaissance Shop evolved into Footloose Shoes with the introduction of more footwear brands, which the pair cofounded together in 1983.

We’ve been known by a few names throughout the last four decades: Footloose Leathers, Footloose on Fort, simply Footloose, and of course Footloose Shoes. We began as a tiny shop in downtown Victoria’s Market Square with a little workshop in the back. We moved from Market Square to the old Victoria Eaton Centre in 1990, and finally across the street in 2000 to our current location at 637 Fort Street.

In over forty years of business, we’ve seen so many changes in our own boutique and in the world. Footloose Shoes came up rooted in hippy fashions with comfort brands and eclectically earthy footwear as our original focus for both women’s and men’s shoes. Over the decades we’ve broadened and then refocused into a contemporary fashion womenswear boutique.

We’ve watched fashion trends come and go and come back again. We’ve watched the birth and boom of the internet, the creation of social media, and the shift to e-commerce. We’ve watched our customers grow and have children and even grandchildren. And, we’ve survived the consumer shift from mom-and-pop shops to shopping malls then to online shopping, multiple recessions, a global pandemic, and an always changing downtown landscape.

Today Footloose Shoes’ sole owner is Kerstin, and she runs the boutique with her daughter and a small but tight knit core team of staff. We are so proud to still be thriving here as a member of the downtown Victoria community and as a locally owned and operated small family business. Thank you to our wonderful costumers for four decades