Alumnae

What Alumnae does

Alumnae is a privately held, direct-to-consumer luxury footwear brand founded in spring 2016 by designer Kari Sigerson and headquartered in New York City. Sigerson is also the founding partner of the CFDA award-winning heritage label Sigerson Morrison, and Alumnae is positioned as a distinct, separately operated brand offering a curated, low-key luxury alternative to trend-driven footwear. The company's sole product line is a well-edited selection of Italian-crafted shoes — including flats, boots, and related silhouettes — sold exclusively through its own e-commerce storefront at alumnae.nyc.

The business model is straightforward one-time retail: individual shoes are sold at full retail price via the DTC site to fashion-conscious end consumers, with no wholesale, marketplace, or app-based distribution. The website is a standard e-commerce storefront hosted on Squarespace infrastructure, with no proprietary technology platform, no native mobile app, no public API, and no disclosed AI/ML capabilities. Marketing is limited to organic social, centered on the #wearyourvalues hashtag campaign, which frames the brand around sustainability, craftsmanship, and timeless style rather than seasonal trends.

Ownership and capitalization are founder-controlled: there are no disclosed external investors, no funding rounds, no parent company, no subsidiaries, and no M&A activity in the data. The leadership team consists of a single named principal, Kari Sigerson, who functions as Founder/Designer. Given the absence of headcount, revenue, hiring, or transactional data over the roughly nine years since launch, Alumnae appears to operate at small scale on founder cash flow, with no observable signals of expansion in product surface, geography, channel, or organization.

Name

Alumnae

Legal name

Alumnae

Website

https://alumnae.nyc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Alumnae is a New York-based, direct-to-consumer luxury footwear brand founded in 2016 by designer Kari Sigerson, selling Italian-crafted, low-key luxury shoes exclusively through its own e-commerce site alumnae.nyc to fashion-conscious consumers seeking timeless, understated design.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Luxury Footwear

NAICS

Shoe Retailers (45821)

SIC

Retail-Shoe Stores (5661)

akta.pro primary industry

Luxury & Designer Footwear Retail (CRAAADAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Luxury & Designer Footwear (CRAAACAI), Luxury Footwear (CRAAAFAC), Luxury Footwear (CRAKAFAD)

Keywords

• Luxury footwear
• Italian-made shoes
• Direct-to-consumer fashion
• Premium women's shoes
• Understated luxury footwear

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Direct footwear sales: Alumnae generates revenue through direct-to-consumer sales of Italian-crafted footwear via its e-commerce platform. Products are sold as individual items at retail price points, consistent with luxury fashion retail.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Alumnae designs and sells a curated collection of low-key luxury women's footwear crafted in Italy, offering clean, understated styles intended to transcend seasonal fashion trends. The full assortment is sold directly to consumers through the brand's own e-commerce site at alumnae.nyc, with no wholesale or third-party retail distribution.

Product overview

Alumnae is a footwear brand offering a single unified collection of luxury shoes. Founded by Kari Sigerson (founding partner of CFDA award-winning Sigerson Morrison), Alumnae launched in spring 2016 and provides a well-edited selection of clean, understated footwear crafted in Italy. The brand rejects fast-fashion in favor of enduring quality, targeting consumers who value style that transcends fashion trends.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Alumnae Footwear Collection A well-edited collection of low-key luxury women's footwear designed by Kari Sigerson and crafted in Italy, featuring clean, understated silhouettes intended to endure beyond seasonal fashion trends. Sold direct-to-consumer through the brand's e-commerce site to fashion-conscious individual shoppers.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves2 records

Broad incumbents

• Stuart Weitzman: Established luxury women's footwear brand with broad global retail and wholesale distribution, overlapping with Alumnae in luxury price tier and women's footwear category.
• Manolo Blahnik: Iconic luxury footwear house with global wholesale and DTC presence; comparable to Alumnae on price positioning and Italian/European craftsmanship but vastly larger scale.
• Jimmy Choo: Global luxury footwear and accessories house operating at scale across wholesale, DTC, and department stores; competes with Alumnae for the same luxury footwear consumer.

Emerging players

• Schutz: Brazilian-origin contemporary luxury footwear brand with growing DTC and wholesale footprint, competing in a similar accessible-luxury price tier to Alumnae.
• Brother Vellies: Founder-led luxury footwear and accessories brand with a strong values-based and artisanal positioning, comparable to Alumnae's #wearyourvalues ethos and DTC model.

Direct peers

• Loeffler Randall: New York-based luxury women's footwear and accessories brand selling via its own DTC site, with a comparable understated-luxury aesthetic and founder-led positioning.
• By Far: Luxury footwear and accessories brand with a strong DTC and social-media-led model, comparable to Alumnae in target customer, price positioning, and channel mix.
• Aeyde: Berlin-based luxury footwear brand built on a DTC-first model with minimalist, timeless design and European production, closely mirroring Alumnae's anti-fast-fashion DTC approach.
• Dear Frances: London-based luxury women's footwear brand operating primarily DTC with Italian craftsmanship and minimalist, trend-resistant design, making it a direct comparable to Alumnae.
• Aquazzura: Florence-based luxury footwear brand with a strong DTC e-commerce presence and Italian-made positioning, directly comparable to Alumnae's luxury, Italian-crafted, DTC-led model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/Alumnae.nyc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/alumnaenyc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Alumnae