Mark McNairy caught the footwear bug back in the mid-70s. To be specific, he caught the bug whilst working at his after school job at a sporting goods shop. He eventually got involved in distribution, working freelance for several companies throughout the years. His next big role was with J.Press, when he was named creative director in 2005. It was his time at J. Press that convinced McNairy to go solo. His first fully corporate job, it was this role that spurned him on to create his own shoes after realising the trade world wasn't for him. He eventually left J. Press to work on a line called McNairy Brothers (which, unsurprisingly was with his brother). He then left that to launch his own line in January 2009.
Working with the same factory he used for a J. Press capsule collection, he made the sort of shoe that's now become a trademark - even if it was too ahead of its time for his then clientele. "We showed them to traditional stores. There wasn’t a quality buck out there at the time. It was a disaster! Good things came from it, but… At the time I was in a very traditional mode–J. Press, Southwick, rather than Très Bien."
McNairy's shoes take the subversiveness from streetwear and mix it with the traditional elements of menswear, creating an often imitated, never duplicated shoe. It was probably why those traditional stores were so scared to take it on. Making small amounts for each store ensures that everyone will have something you can't get elsewhere, McNairy's strength is that he's captured the man who's moving from streetwear to formal footwear. He sees this as a progression rather than a trend. After all, he went through the same progression himself.
So, why shoes? In the words of McNairy, "no matter how well dressed a guy is, if the shoes are wrong, it’s ALL wrong."