Eye on Style: Native Shoes
Comfortable and durable, with simple, modern designs that suit all ages, Native Shoes have become a favorite footwear for summers on Nantucket. Ideal for island life—boating, fishing, going to the beach, and outfitting kids for summer camp—these shoes are constructed with materials that are lightweight, soft, and flexible, and the shoes don’t absorb water or odors. They are hand-washable and come in a wide range of sizes, colors, and styles, including walking shoes, sandals, slip-on mules, and even a hiking-style shoe with great grip for slushy weather. The Native shop at 40 Straight Wharf even has an exclusive Nantucket Collection: designs that are available nowhere else.
This Sunday morning, August 18 from 9 to 10 am, Retail Manager Beth Lloyd- Thomas and her staff from Native will be on the beach at Brant Point during the Rainbow Parade and the Opera House Cup’s Harbor Start. From their set-up there, they will hold a raffle for Native Shoe prizes. This last festive day of Nantucket’s annual Race Week is the ideal place for Native to host this event: Native Shoes is a sponsor of Nantucket Community Sailing (NCS), the beneficiary of Nantucket Race Week and the Opera House Cup. Their various involvements help support NCS and the organization’s scholarship efforts, as well as highlight the perfect shoe for sailing and water activities. NCS, since their founding in 1994, has taught 20,000 children to sail and granted over $1M in sailing scholarships.
“Every year we create a new Nantucket print to commemorate everything we love about our special island…a design that expresses the joy and uniqueness of the island,” Beth explained. “I had expressed to our design team that the Rainbow Fleet and sailing holds a very special place in our island’s DNA. To me, the Rainbow Fleet and sailing here in general has always held a special place in my heart— sunny, warm summer days, sand in your feet, sailing in the harbor around Brant Point and Coatue, hearing the ferry horn, cool winds against your face, and spending time with friends and family. We’ll be at the Rainbow Fleet Regatta Sunday and will raffle off Native Shoes for Race Week for the community,” she added.
For 2024, Native’s special shoe is the Nantucket Sail Print. This collectible shoe is exclusively available at Native’s store on Straight Wharf; it is not available at nativeshoes.com. Every Nantucket Collection shoe has a special “license plate’ on the back of the shoe that says ACK!
“As they are unique and special to Nantucket, we produce only a limited quantity of each pattern each season (designing something new each year) so once they are sold out, they are gone. We have families that come back year after year and make it a tradition to purchase new pairs to add to their collections (as the shoe lasts forever). Often, they hop straight off the Hy-Line ferry at the start of their vacation and come into the shop.”
Like all shoes made by Native, the Nantucket Collection shoes are lightweight, waterproof, great for an active lifestyle, and can be worn year-round. “They’re comfortable for adults and kids: a surgeon just came in yesterday with his whole crew to get him and his family new pairs. He’s been collecting since we opened in 2018, and he wears them on the surgical floor.”
Past designs in Native Shoes’ Nantucket Collection include a nautical flag spelling ACK, The Nantucket Whale in regatta blue, and the Nantucket Whale Tails in Ocean Waves. Though these shoes have become a very exclusive mark of someone who lives on or has visited Nantucket Island, there are a very few pairs from some past year’s designs in the shop on Straight Wharf. Once they sell out, the special designs are retired, so don’t delay in getting your Nantucket Collection Native Shoes!
Native Shoes
40 Straight Wharf • 508-221-7223
Open daily in-season from 9 am to 7 pm
