About Narrow Minded Shoes

Dawn Lively-Owen

Founder of the Narrow Minded SHoe Company

As far back as I can remember I had trouble finding narrow women's shoes that appealed to me. My feet are narrow and my shoe choices were very limited. There were only a few brands that offered narrow women's shoe sizes, but the styles didn’t appeal to me.

Often I found myself wondering “why can't someone make casual shoes that were narrow?” After some years of frustration and revisiting the same question, I realized the answer to my quandary was "why can't I make shoes that I like, that meet my needs and are super attractive—and don’t cost a fortune!”

I’m independent, strong-willed and determined. And I realized that with help from some special friends, particularly Blue Door Studios in Asheville, N.C., I could build a high-quality, customer-service driven boutique shoe company - - - a company that focused on a specific need and filled a void in the marketplace. Not only that, but if I had to make the shoes myself then I would certainly have more choices available!

The Narrow Minded Shoes Mission / Vision

Do Not Conform - Don't settle for the standard shoe.

Our Goal: Create a stylish & comfortable women's shoe that has a slimmer, more-narrow fit.

At Narrow Minded Shoes the driving principle is to go against the flow of the typical shoe. As a boutique company, we don't accept the world of shoes around us which focuses on the average woman’s foot. We strive to be better than average in everything we do, whether it's our shoes or in our everyday lives. The greatest things in society have come from those select few who were determined to change the world.

We see ourselves as changing the world one pair of shoes at a time.

About Me & My Family

I wear an AA- size shoe. So I really do appreciate the struggle women with narrow feet face when shopping for shoes. That’s why I founded Narrow Minded Shoe Company.

My family (husband, two daughters, and our spoiled rotten dog) and I live in northwest Georgia, about 35 miles from Atlanta. I have lived in Georgia most of my life and graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2005. I can't live without coffee and chocolate. I enjoy going to antique stores with my mom and sister, going to the beach, and spending time with my big family!

Perhaps best of all, as far as my boutique shoe company is concerned, my family totally supports me and my venture to design stylish slip-on shoes for women with narrow feet.

You might wonder why I’m sharing all of this family information. It’s important to me for you, as my customer, to know something about me and understand my desire to be your “go to” for narrow width shoes. I want you to feel like you know me, that I understand your needs, and you’re comfortable buying shoes online from me.

Currently the narrow shoes I’ve designed are produced in Vietnam. That wasn’t my first choice, but every U.S. manufacturer I talked with either were not taking project work, or had an extended waiting list to get production time, one of which was as much as two years. For the type of boutique, personalized customer service I envisioned, those timelines were not satisfactory. Thus, my decision to go off shore.

However, I normally can fill orders for my flats within three-to-five days since I warehouse a stock level in the U.S.