ERMAGERD. WE WON. WE ACTUALLY WON TWO SHE-COM WOMEN IN ECOMMERCE AWARDS 🏆
Okay. OKAY. We need a moment.
We are sitting here, still a little emotional, possibly still in a bit of shock (the good kind!) and we just need to say it one more time for the people in the back:
PaperKrane won Fashion Brand of the Year AND Best Everyday Apparel Piece at the 2026 SHE-com Women in Ecommerce Awards.
TWO. We won TWO. Out of three nominations. And we are absolutely, completely, unashamedly losing our minds about it 🎉
The Part Where We Get a Bit Real With You
Building PaperKrane is the greatest thing we've ever done. It is also, without question, the hardest.
The late nights hunched over a desk, tweaking a silhouette by 2mm because it's just not quite right yet. The early mornings answering emails before the rest of the world is awake. The moments of self-doubt where you wonder if anyone actually gets what you're trying to do, if foot-shaped shoes will ever just click for people the way they've clicked for you.
The blood. The sweat. The tears (so many tears). The sacrifices that only the people closest to you ever really see.
We have poured every single piece of ourselves into this brand for thirteen years. And last Wednesday night at The Island Hotel in Surfers Paradise, in a room full of extraordinary women who have done the same, our name was called. Twice.
If you need us, we'll be ugly crying into our Vintage Boots 😭👢
The She-Com Women in ECommerce Awards 2026
🏆 Fashion Brand of the Year
This one is for the whole wild, wonderful, barefoot journey. For everyone who ever told us "but don't feet need arch support?" and we smiled politely and kept doing what we believed in anyway. For every style we've designed, scrapped, redesigned, and finally got right. For thirteen years of refusing to make shoes that hurt.
Fashion Brand of the Year. We still can't say it without grinning like crazy.
🏆 Best Everyday Apparel Piece — PaperKrane Vintage Boots
Oh, this one. THIS ONE.
The Best Everyday Apparel Piece award went to our Vintage Boots, and if you know the Vintage Boots, you know exactly why we're screaming.
These boots are our love letter to an Aussie icon. Think that beloved brown boot that's been a wardrobe staple for generations, the kind you reach for on a cold morning without even thinking, but reimagined entirely for your feet's natural shape. Roomy toe box, zero drop, all the freedom. None of the compromise.
The Vintage Boot isn't just a barefoot boot. It's the boot that bridges the gap between fashion and function, between looking incredible and actually feeling incredible. It's proof that you don't have to choose between a shoe that looks like it belongs in a wardrobe and a shoe that lets your feet move the way they were designed to.
The judges saw that. And we could not be more proud.
And apparently, so did all of you, because the Vintage Boots have sold out. Twice. We made them, you snapped them up. We made them again, you snapped them up again. So here we are, back at the workbench making them for the third time, because clearly the world needs more of these boots in it and we are not going to argue with that.
They're out of stock right now while we work our magic, but you can jump on the waitlist so you're first to know the moment they're back. Trust us, you don't want to miss round three.
What This Means for Us...and for You
We didn't build PaperKrane on our own. We built it with you.
Every review you left, every photo you sent, every time you bought a pair for your kid or your mum or your best friend who "would never go barefoot" (and then absolutely did), you are part of this. These awards are as much yours as they are ours.
To everyone who voted, who shared, who cheered us on from the sidelines: thank you. You fuel us on the days when the late nights feel too long and the self-doubt gets a little too loud. You are why we keep going.
We went to the SHE-com Awards as a small barefoot shoe brand from Melbourne with a big belief that feet deserve better.
We came home as the 2026 Fashion Brand of the Year.
Now if you'll excuse us, we've got boots to make and feet to free 👟💛
PaperKrane won Fashion Brand of the Year and Best Everyday Apparel Piece (Vintage Boots) at the 2026 SHE-com Women in Ecommerce Awards Gala, The Island Hotel, Surfers Paradise, 25 June 2026.