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Uncomfortable with today’s clothing choices? Un/tied Shoes invites us to step into a future with more options, fewer labels, and shoes that come in all sizes, for all people.

Growing up, Evie Ruddy didn’t quite feel like a girl, or a boy, and resisted gendered expectations. Only recently, with the growing awareness of non-binary identities, did Evie move toward a more androgynous gender performance and begin using they/them pronouns. Un/tied Shoes tells the story of how gender conventions have impacted Evie’s life, with footwear as markers along the way.

Un/tied is presented as an online shoe company, but visitors expecting to browse the latest styles will instead find a first-person account of self-actualization and contesting categorization. Thanks to gendered fashion industry conventions, buying shoes and clothes that reflect their identity has been a lifelong challenge for Evie. Framing their story as an online shopping experience underscores the hardship many non-binary and transgender people face trying to reflect their gender identity in their outward appearance. It’s an everyday illustration of the deep-rooted mores and social codes that determine who can wear what, and in which circumstances.

With Evie as our guide, Un/tied invites us to step into a future with more options, fewer labels, and shoes that come in all sizes, for all people.

Written by Evie Ruddy and designed by Tracey Lebedovich, Un/tied Shoes takes viewers on a mock lifestyle-driven online shopping experience. The kind in which the customer journey ends in those-ultimate-pair-of-shoes-that-will-finally-make-my-life-complete. Shoes, of course, being a metaphor for the much meatier matter of how mainstream fashion empowers – or denies – our ability to comfortably express our true identity. Then again, it’s also very much about shoes.

This story began with the idea of me laying out my shoes from over the years to illustrate the progression of my gender identity. We all say something about ourselves through our fashion choices and outward expression, but this is particularly true for genderqueer people like me. And while my options in this regard have improved since I was a child, I’ve always had difficulty finding shoes and clothes that “fit.”

Though society has grown more accepting of trans and non-binary people, the issues we face are still neglected or misunderstood. Everyone, however, can relate to wanting a pair of shoes or a piece of clothing, and how that informs identity.

I hope my story provides a relatable, personal demonstration of the negative effects that result from a fashion industry based on forced choices. I hope clothing-store owners see this story and question how and why they market certain clothes to women and others to men. I hope servers and restaurant owners see it and think twice about assuming the gender of their customers. And I hope that people who identify as trans and non-binary see their experiences reflected.