The story of Sutro began in the summer of 1981, when couple Nooshin Ansarinia and Mehran Esmaili, two teenagers attending the School of Engineering at San Francisco State University, became involved in a 600 square foot store called Shoe Biz located on the corner of Haight & Ashbury. The couple’s experience in retail first began simply as a means of supporting themselves through school, yet their success flourished and they eventually expanded to six retail stores in San Francisco including the first and only Adidas concept shop that was opened at 1420 Haight Street. Amongst the various shoe brands sold at their stores including Adidas, Puma, Converse, and New Balance just to name a few, the couple also began working on an in-house private label known as Sutro today. 

Sutro was an idea that had been developed for many years and was finally born in 2010. With its upbringings on Haight Street, it was the unique people and fashion styles roaming the streets that were the sources of inspiration for Sutro’s designs. Having a close relationship to their customer-base, the couple originally developed the brand with the aim to please the consumers of Shoe Biz. With the full participation of its staff members and customers, Sutro incorporates the ideas and suggestions of both employees and those who have shopped and supported Shoe Biz in its early beginnings.

Sutro is a brand that focuses on producing shoes for those who look for quality, simplicity, attention to detail, and high quality components. Sutro is developed and designed in San Francisco and handcut/handstitched one pair at a time in a small family owned factory in Mexico. With the use of a single sewing machine and by the hands of skilled and dedicated shoe makers with exceptional talent and passion for handcrafted shoes, every pair is then examined thoroughly to ensure quality on every stitching, coloring, and finishing of each shoe produced.  

Our goal is to offer customers the same shopping experience and product management as we maintained in our retail stores in San Francisco!