Atoms is a privately held footwear brand, based in Brooklyn, New York, that designs, develops and sells footwear.[1] Atoms offers quarter size shoes and allows customers to buy pairs of shoes in two different sizes.[2]
History
Atoms was founded by husband and wife Waqas Ali and Sidra Qasim in San Francisco.[3] In 2012, they started their first footwear company as students at Forman Christian College University, Lahore[4] named 'Markhor' (originally Hometown) in Pakistan, while working with craftsmen in their hometown of Basirpur in Okara, Pakistan.[5] In 2015, the couple moved to Mountain View as part of Y Combinator's accelerator program.[6] They were inspired by the challenges that most people still wear shoes that do not fit properly.[7] The founders wanted to design a shoe that people would use every day. Atoms started selling via invite-only access on its website and built a waitlist of over 40,000 people before publicly launching on June 3, 2019.[8]
References
- Janelle Okwodu. Meet the Sneaker Brand Set to Disrupt the Fashion Industry Vogue, 3 June 2019, retrieved 28 June 2019^
- Jonathan Evans. Startup Sneaker Brand Atoms Just Fixed One of the Biggest Problems With Shopping for Shoes Esquire, 10 June 2019, retrieved 28 June 2019^
- Simone Stolzoff. Will the Next Great Tech Company Come From the Developing World? The Atlantic, 26 November 2018, retrieved 28 June 2019^
- Nosherwan Khan. The Markhor – Sidra Qasim & Waqas Ali The Rozee Blog, 2016-06-15, retrieved 2023-03-12^
- Khizr Tajammul. Shoes with a story: Markhor is a start-up you should know about Dawn.com, 10 July 2015, retrieved 28 June 2019^
- Christine Magee. Markhor Takes The Middleman Out Of Designer Shoemaking TechCrunch, 11 August 2015, retrieved 28 June 2019^
- Elizabeth Holmes. Feet Are Getting Bigger, and Many People Wear Shoes That Don't Fit Right Wall Street Journal, 15 June 2014, retrieved 28 June 2019^
- Kaleigh Moore. Why Online Fashion Retailers Are Experimenting With Invite-Only Access Forbes, 16 May 2019, retrieved 28 June 2019^