Zonkeys, the animals, are crossbreeds between wildly beautiful zebras and hardwearing donkeys. They are rare, because Mother Nature doesn’t create them without human intervention. Zonkey Boot, the brand, was founded in 2010, by the couple Alexandra Diaconu and Michael Rollig, and has its headquarters in their hometown, Vienna, Austria.

The designers’ first collection for Spring-Summer 2011 was launched in June 2010. Zonkey Boot shows a minimum of decoration and the maximum of shape and form. The utmost attention is paid to the lasts and materials. The recipe may seem simple but, nevertheless, these ingredients need expert craftsmanship to give an outstanding shoe.

Only high – tech shoes from synthetic materials can be designed by computers and made by robots. We still use a pencil to draw the model on the last. Our artisan products need skilled craftsmen to accomplish hundreds of single operations to finalise a pair. The Zonkey Boot shoes are passing through the hands of more than 60 workers. Some of them are with the industry for 40-50 years now. Others are younger. Their experience combined sums up to quite a few hundreds of years of shoemaking. And this is our heritage.