In 1959, an 11-year-old Malaysian boy named Jimmy Choo crafted his first pair of shoes.

He’d been training for months under his shoemaker father, who wouldn’t let him stop until he made a perfect pair.

From working as a roadside cobbler to cleaning shoe factories in Malaysia, Choo took on any job he could.

Eventually, he made enough to study shoemaking in London at 34.

He started selling his famous Jimmy Choos in 1986.

But little did he know, he was laying the foundation for an iconic global fashion brand and would one day sell his shares for $30M.

This is the story of Jimmy Choo, the luxury shoe brand you see tons of celebrities wearing at any red carpet event.  

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👠 Humble beginnings

Jimmy Choo was born to a shoemaker father in Penang, Malaysia.

“When I first started, my father wouldn’t let me make a shoe,” he recalls fondly. “Instead, he said: ‘Sit and watch, sit and watch.’ For months and months, I did that.”

He was only 11 when he gifted his mother with a pair of handmade sandals.

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🌍 A whole new world

He continued working as a cobbler and cleaner to support his family.

Finally, his parents encouraged him to study at Cordwainers Technical College in Hackney, London.

But it was not so easy for this Malaysian immigrant. He had to learn a new culture along with his shoe-making skills.

“I didn’t come from a rich family, so I had to do everything myself,” he said.

“London is so expensive, when you start a business you have to do what you can, that can include making cheaper shoes, or selling on the markets. I’m strong and I never give up. If I didn’t carry on then you wouldn’t see me here today.”

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🍀 Getting a foot in the door

After working at two design companies, Jimmy Choo opened up his shoe business, Lucky Shoes, at a small stall in a local market.

After graduating with honors in 1986, he renamed his business to Jimmy Choo.

He then opened his shop in the only place he could afford: an old hospital building.

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👑 Royalty comes calling

Early on, Jimmy Choo got popular for recreating Manolo Blahnik shoes in different colors.

Vogue even started using his shoes in their fashion shoots.

This put him on the radar of Princess Diana of Wales, who wore purple Jimmy Choos at a Chicago gala in 1996.

Since then, Jimmy Choo was often spotted at Kensington Palace, talking shoe designs!

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🌟 Nowhere to go but up

Jimmy Choo started off making shoes by hand.

But as his popularity grew, former Vogue editor Tamara Mellon saw great potential.

Instead of only making 20 pairs of shoes a week, why not make a ready-to-wear shoe line?

She convinced him to outsource the labor to Italian factories.

Jimmy Choo still wanted to make shoes by hand, so they compromised. On the side, Jimmy Choo would design unique pairs for VIP clients.

Tamara Mellon convinced her father, Tom Yeardye, to invest in Jimmy Choo.

With the new funding, stores popped up in LA and New York. Celebrities like Julia Roberts and Renée Zellweger couldn’t get enough of their Jimmy Choos!

But the brand really reached cult status when Carrie Bradshaw mentioned it on the hit show Sex and the City!  

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🫤 Bumps in the road

As time went on, Jimmy Choo worried about the shoes’ quality. After all, his father taught him to make shoes by hand so he could judge the quality for himself.

There were many other luxury shoe brands out there.

Choo wanted to keep the level of craftsmanship that set his brand apart, focusing on perfecting smaller batches of shoes. Mellon wanted to keep high production levels going.

Eventually this caused the partnership between Jimmy Choo and Tamara Mellon to end. In 2001, Choo sold his shares to Equinox Luxury Holdings for $30M.

He spent the next 5 years perfecting a line of couture shoes, which he launched in 2006.

Mellon stayed at the company until 2011 with a $135M payout.

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💐 Here and now

Jimmy Choo was the first luxury shoe company to go public in 2014. Today, the company has 237 stores worldwide.

They’re most popular in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with this region making up over 40% of their $633M revenue in 2023.

In 2017, Jimmy Choo became the creative & design director of The Atelier.

Now, Choo and his team sell bridal and ready-to-wear couture collections, paired with custom-made shoes he designed.

And in 2021, Jimmy Choo launched JCA London Fashion Academy to share what he’s learned with up-and-coming designers.

Jimmy Choo has definitely come a long way.

But when people encouraged him to retire, he refused! Even decades into his successful career, he stays on the lookout for new inspiration.