The Sole of an Aarchitect

For walking, Rafi Balouzian sees himself in a nice Greene and Greene Craftsman. Or a Frank Lloyd Wright--although, perhaps not in the architect’s concrete block period.

“He was one of the greatest,” says Balouzian, a 42-year-old shoe designer who specializes in the intimate landscape of insoles and toes. From his studio in Burbank, Balouzian makes hand-sculpted shoes from vegetable-dyed leather that look as though they could go from zero to 60 in nothing flat.

He named his company Cydwoq (pronounced “sidewalk”) because the letters “cy” and Q resonate with futuristic intensity. “Think cyberspace. Or Compaq,” says Balouzian, who earned a degree in interior architecture and environmental design at UCLA.

Indeed, Cydwoq footwear wouldn’t be confused with retro knockoffs from decades past. Balouzian refuses to bow to the latest fashion dictum; instead, he soaks up ideas from elegantly designed buildings, streamlined automobiles and the 3,000-year-old ruins in Lebanon where he played hide-and-seek as a boy.

“It’s natural to be influenced by other ideas,” he says. “But copying? No. That’s worse than stealing money.”

So how do the shoes, which cost from $100 to $300 and are available at Barneys New York and Minkvox/Henry Duarte, feel? “I like to walk,” Balouzian begins enthusiastically. “And walking is a circular motion. You have to consider the whole sole. They have to work with that circular motion.”

Which leaves little room for concrete blocks.