Daniel Charkow is a seventeen year old shoe designer and shoe maker.  His appreciation for hand tooling and sustainability has a strong presence in his designs.  After four years of designing shoes and two years of studying traditional and modern shoemaking techniques, Daniel is now hand making shoes for purchase. 

Inspired by Lady Gaga’s fierce fashion and bold choices, at age twelve Daniel created his first shoe. Falling in love with the art, Daniel pursued shoemaking at the Art and Sole Academy in Toronto under the guidance of master instructor Jennifer Alison, taking his shoemaking skills to the next level and learning how to make shoes from scratch. In 2016, Daniel completed the Summer Design Intensive program at Parsons School of Design in New York City and worked with the Brooklyn Shoe Space creating a comfortable men’s sneaker. 
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Daniel has met with the head designer at John Fluevog and further honed his skills by working for the design team at Steve Madden. While working for Steve Madden during the summers of 2015 and 2016, Daniel was able to bring his designs to fruition at the Steve Madden Sample Factory in New York.  Last summer Daniel learned and interned at ALDO shoes with their design team in Montreal working closely with their designers and factory owners.

​These experiences have helped him learn the ins and outs of the shoe industry.

​Daniel is currently working on his first commercially available collection, combining high fashion and recycled materials.

GABRIEL SHUBAT PHOTO