Thesis Couture

Thesis Couture was a Los Angeles-based fashion-tech company that aimed to re-engineer the high-heeled shoe for comfort without sacrificing style. The company was founded in 2013 by Dolly Singh, a former talent acquisition executive at SpaceX and Oculus VR. Singh's experience at SpaceX, witnessing the innovation in the rocket industry, inspired her to question why women's footwear hadn't evolved in decades. This realization, combined with her own discomfort from wearing heels while walking miles on industrial floors at SpaceX, sparked the idea for the company.

To tackle the engineering challenge, Singh assembled a multidisciplinary team that included an orthopedic surgeon, a NASA astronaut, and fashion scientists. The company's core product was a stiletto built around a patent-pending internal architecture called the Thesis LIFT™ (Load-Balancing Interlocking Footwear Technology). This structure, designed using structural engineering principles and advanced polymers, was intended to redistribute the wearer's weight more evenly across the foot, reduce pressure on the balls of the feet, and improve balance, making a 4-inch stiletto feel more like a 3-inch wedge. The shoes were handcrafted in prestigious Italian factories known for their work with luxury brands.

The business operated on a direct-to-consumer, e-commerce model, initially launching with limited edition, pre-order collections to create demand. For example, their first offering in 2015 was a single style, the "Founders Edition," limited to 1,500 pairs priced at $925 each. The company planned to follow with seasonal collections. Thesis Couture raised approximately $950K to $1.8M in funding through several rounds, with investors including Backstage Capital, BBG Ventures, and the Founder Institute. Despite its ambitious goals and initial media attention, records indicate the company is now out of business as of August 2019.

Keywords: Dolly Singh, fashion technology, comfortable high heels, structural engineering footwear, Thesis LIFT, stiletto innovation, luxury footwear, direct-to-consumer shoes, Los Angeles fashion, advanced materials, footwear engineering, biomechanics, patent-pending footwear, women's footwear innovation, Italian craftsmanship, e-commerce fashion, shoe design, orthopedic surgeon designed, NASA technology shoes, out of business