Meet the Femme Footwear Brand Bringing High Heels to People of All Genders

In fashion, questions surrounding gender swirl around the industry: Who gets to wear which clothing items? Do we still need siphoned-off menswear and womenswear runway shows? What really comprises a gender-neutral garment or fashion line? Amid those conversations, Syro emerged. Founded just three short years ago, the shoe brand's goals are not to break the rules so much as to create a new paradigm for an oft-underserved consumer demographic in the market: men and gender-nonconforming people who want to wear high heels.

When you head to the "About" section of the brand’s website, its self-description is equal parts concise and intentional. “Syro is a queer POC business based in New York City,” it reads.

“It’s simply the truth,” co-founder Henry Bae tells me. “And I think we want that really to be known because we had a fear early on that gender-nonconforming style would be eaten up by a larger mainstream in upcoming years. And we wanted to protect what was genuine about our identity and our femininity — our identity as minorities, really.”

This purposefulness, and the ease with which they articulate it, is central here. For instance, the brand does not call itself “gender-neutral” (as is the preferred term for many companies these days), but “gender-nonconforming“ instead, which is to strip the gendered modifier of its power over the clothing itself. Sure, anyone of any gender can technically wear anything — same goes for makeup, skin care, and nearly any subsection of beauty and fashion — but it is one thing for a brand to say its products are for all customers and an entirely different thing to create it with emphases on size inclusivity and gender-inclusive marketing right from the start.

Bae, who is 28 and identifies as a gender-nonconforming queer/gay man, and co-founder Shaobo Han, who is 28 and also identifies as gender-nonconforming and queer, first met in New York City in 2012 via Facebook. “Henry knew me as this loud, Asian city kid in NYC, while I revered his writing on his now-hidden blog,” Han recalls.

Bae chimes in, “It wasn't until I met Shaobo that I had a friend who reflected such polarizing parts of my identity — being feminine, gender-nonconforming, and yellow-American — back at me. It was a thrilling and liberating chemistry from the very beginning.”

The idea for the brand came out of necessity for Bae, who first formed the idea for Syro before bringing Han on board. “I've always needed high heels to fit my look, but I could only fit into the absolute largest women's shoes I could find,“ Bae remembers. “Even then, they would be narrow as eff and it would hurt, but I still did it.”

One day, it dawned on Bae, who had been working in the shoe industry for years as a buyer, seller, and marketer, that he could create this himself — though not on his own. That’s when Han, who had been working in graphic design, came into the business. The brand officially launched in 2016.

“At the time, I was going through a lot of gender-related problems that I was facing, and doing Syro with Henry truly informed my own personal gender journey,” Han tells me. “It has really shaped who I am now and my own sense of self.”

They also saw it as an opportunity to cater to an underserved and even unacknowledged demographic of consumer. “Society doesn't want to acknowledge, let alone cater to, femme-presenting gender-nonconforming folx,” Han says. “It's so important for Syro not only to sell heels, but also to carve out space where femme folx can celebrate and empower each other — where we can focus our attention on creating joy, and reclaiming the moments of triumph in our narratives.“

So, who is the average Syro customer? “Anyone who wears a U.S. men’s size 8 to 14 shoe,” according to Bae, who adds that the brand is particularly excellent for those in search of “something to give them a more cunty experience on the street.”

The founders agree that the biggest hurdle in the brands early days was the lack of assurance around an audience for larger-sized high-heeled shoes. While they did not necessarily create Syro’s shoes for the stage (”Syro is shoes for the street,” Bae proudly declares), one of their biggest clients to date is none other than the mother of mainstream drag, RuPaul. “Shaobo and I screamed when we had sold a pair to her highness, RuPaul,” Bae recalls. The feeling of seeing a pair of Bruce Red Syro heels on RuPaul’s Drag Race was extremely validating, says Bae.

The founder admit that, at times, balancing friendship and business can be tricky. “It’s like we had a baby, so suddenly, we are more than just friends,” Han tells me. “And sometimes we have different styles of parenting, of what we think is best for the baby.” It’s a story not unfamiliar to anyone who has experienced the pangs of working alongside somebody you're close to, particularly when attempting to bring new ideas into an industry.

Alongside the rise of the brand has been a slowly percolating trend toward greater gender-deviant expression on red carpets, runways, and society writ large from men and male-presenting public figures. This cannot be credited wholly to brands like Syro, Paloma Spain, Eckhaus Latta, and Telfar, but that there are now non-custom options for folks of varying gender expressions is crucial. And one needs only to glance through the brand's extensive lookbook to get a feel for its powerful messaging, including gorgeous shots like the ones throughout this story, which were taken by photographer Hao Nguyen and feature models Cory Walkers and Serena Tea.

Of course, there is the issue of safety — a pervasive and anxiety-inducing concern for transgender and gender-nonconforming people. “I [had] a friend who got punched in the ear on the train for just dressing like a [complete] Bratz doll, so this place is still not as safe as you would expect from a neighborhood you call gentrified,” Bae shares. “But it's one of the safest places in the world where you can get a get away with being yourself...and, as this business does well, I guess I can't help but hope for more and hope for better for all of us.”

On paper, Syro is a footwear brand. However, in talking to both of its founders, the most prominent theme is the idea of what its footwear represents: a deliberate ethos to offer people — particularly those untethered to the constructs of the gender binary — the tools and validation to fully express themselves. Many companies do not care for their customers after their credit card transactions are accepted, but to Bae and Han, it is important to push compassion far beyond that.

Syro wants to support folks who experience violence and harassment for merely expressing their authentic selves — or even batted eyelashes and raised eyebrows — by letting them know that they are not alone, and that they are part of a larger community who not only hold space for them but is willing to fight for them, too.

To pick up shoes from Syro for yourself (or for a loved one who deserves an extra-special gift), head to Shopsyro.com, or follow the brand's Instagram page to stay up-to-date on what they're rolling out next.

Read more stories about gender and inclusivity in beauty:

• Why My License Says "F" Even Though I Don't Identify as Female

• Fluide Is the New Makeup Brand Valuing Inclusion Over Tokenism

• The Spa Isn't a Relaxing Place for Gender-Nonconforming People

Now see what this genderqueer person love most about how they look:

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