Two tickets to New York
At 17, the brothers took their life savings and came to New York to build a footwear business of their own.
The Spring Step Shoes Story
Built from craft. Carried by optimism.
For more than three decades, Spring Step Shoes has brought together European-inspired design, thoughtful comfort, and a family knowledge of shoemaking that began generations ago.
Where it began
A family education in footwear.
David and Avi Ben-Zikry grew up around shoes. As children outside Tel Aviv, they worked alongside their family in their father’s footwear factory — lacing, packing, cutting, stitching, finishing, and learning the details of the craft from the inside out.
By their early teens, shoemaking was already second nature. The lesson was bigger than construction: work hard, stay consistent, understand the customer, and never lose sight of quality.
Make. Sell. Repeat.
They lived behind their first small shop, made shoes in the middle, and sold them out front — an echo of their father’s model.
A flea-market breakthrough
When the first shop struggled, a weekend flea market at Aqueduct Racetrack introduced them directly to the customer — and demand took off.
Spring Step takes shape
After completing military service in Israel, they returned to the U.S. and built the company around European comfort, craftsmanship, and dependable fit.
A principle we still carry
“You must adjust the face but not the soul.”
That idea — evolve the style without compromising the comfort experience — still captures the way Spring Step Shoes thinks about product today.
01
Comfort with intention
Roomier European-inspired lasts, thoughtful footbeds, and materials selected to support real life.
02
Craft before shortcuts
A hands-on understanding of how footwear is made continues to shape how we judge quality and construction.
03
Style with personality
From everyday Spring Step to the hand-painted artistry of L’Artiste, our family of collections gives comfort more than one point of view.
Then, now, next
Still moving forward — one step at a time.
What started as a family craft became an American dream and, eventually, a global footwear business. The scale has changed. The core idea has not: make a good product, treat people fairly, keep learning, and create shoes customers are genuinely happy to wear.