45 Years of Footwear Experience
The footwear brand “Nice” and the nice shoe company called Nice Brand Footwear were created and founded by Kevin Zunich in 2013 in Shell Beach, California. The time had come for the family’s San Luis Obispo footwear company manager to start the process of creating his own brand for the company. In part, due to what ethical behavior he was witnessing going on with some of the brands that the family’s business was carrying in their stores, but mostly due to the desire to design and develop a truly “nice” and comfy all day every day shoe brand. Kevin was seeing a need for a certain type of footwear product that was missing from the marketplace and witnessing that directly from the sales floor himself, time after time.
All company and shoe design and development, as the company approaches its 10th style in 2021, were established by Kevin Zunich. A new shoe designer to the footwear industry somewhat, but now in his 8th year of designing shoes as of 2021. He has been in the shoe industry since he was 8 years old while hanging out in the Birkenstock store on the creek in The Creamery in San Luis Obispo, CA with his mother, Roxanne. Roxanne Zunich herself has a following in the shoe industry with close industry colleagues such as Margot Fraser; the founder of Birkenstock Footprints Sandals, Inc. based in the Bay Area, as far back as 1962.
There is a lot of passion behind the brand “Nice.” Kevin entered into the footwear industry when he was 8 years old, as his parents bought the San Luis Obispo, CA Birkenstock store. His footwear background is saturated in health, comfort, and foot function, as well as style and design. “Hey Kevin, when you finish your lunch come find me, I have something I need to show you called the repair shop…..,” yelled his father from down the hall in his office of the Fresno Roxanne’s Birkenstock store in 1991. The shoe repair person on staff for the store quit and so Kevin (the store manager, after finishing a marketing degree from SDSU) had to start repairing Birkenstocks, and lots of them! After ripping apart and repairing hundreds of pairs of shoes, he started customizing Birkenstocks for in-store customers by letting them choose some different colored leather “bumpers” (as they were called) to cover the cork on the front and back of the Birkenstock footbed. Customers were excited to be able to create their “custom” Birkenstock sandals.
The Central Coast can have a wide range of temperatures in a single day and allows for the Nice brand to be worn all year round. With the changes in climate on some days, the vineyards have frost on the ground in the morning and have hot temperatures in the 80s and 90s by noon. The Central Coast is covered in beaches, vineyards, mountains (including the iconic Seven Sisters), and a handful of California missions. “It’s where we live and wear our nice shoes,” says Kevin.
Like every small company that starts from a small apartment/garage there becomes the need for capital to grow the business. One hope that Kevin Zunich has at this point is that someone out there who obtains the ability to invest into growing this business will do so because it is a goal of theirs to give back and improve the quality of everyone who buys a pair of one of these delectable shoes. Whomever invests must also be someone that believes in the Gifts From The Sky (GFTS) program that has been a big part of Nice Brand Footwear’s goal since inception of the brand. The GFTS was created by founder Kevin Zunich in 2003 while developing their family’s internet business with successful websites like BirkenstockBeach.com, ShoeSurfing.com, and SheepskinShoes.com.
We wear the product we manufacture and sell our product as we work to align the test fitting process with customer preferences! If it’s not “nice and comfy all day every day,” then we don’t make it. Our mission is simple: to enhance the quality of people’s lives all day every day, and improve their health at the same time. To ensure our customers Enjoy the Nice Life!
