Skip to content
There is a detail most people never think about until summer arrives, or until they've been wearing the same pair for three hours straight: the upper. Not the sole, not the silhouette. The material that sits against your foot, breathes with it, or doesn't.
In barefoot footwear, this detail carries more weight than usual. Because a barefoot shoe works differently from a conventional one, the foot is more active, more engaged, generating more heat and movement. What surrounds it matters.
At Fleeters, most of our sneakers are made from plant-based leather, and our formal styles, the Plum loafers and Avocado derbies, in genuine leather. But within our sneaker line, we also work with three textile uppers that each have their own character: knit, canvas, and mesh. They are not interchangeable. Each one has a different feel underfoot, a different season it belongs to.
Knit: the one that moves with you
Knit fabric is made in a single continuous process, with yarn looped into itself rather than cut and sewn from flat pieces. That construction is what gives it its defining quality: it stretches in multiple directions, adapts to the shape of the foot, and recovers without deforming.
For barefoot shoes specifically, this is significant. Because the toe box is wide and the foot is free to splay, the upper needs to accommodate movement rather than constrain it. Knit does this naturally. It follows the foot instead of containing it.
It also breathes well, though differently from mesh. The breathability is more diffused, the insulation slightly higher, which makes knit a reasonable year-round material. Warm enough for spring and autumn, cool enough for summer when worn with thin socks or barefoot.
The Peach Knit carries that quality. The same silhouette the Peach is known for, in a textile that feels closer to wearing nothing at all.
Canvas: structure with a light hand
Canvas is a woven textile, tighter and less elastic than knit. It holds its shape. That's not a limitation; it's a different kind of comfort.
Where knit adapts, canvas supports. It offers a clean, crisp silhouette and ages in a way that feels intentional: the material softens with wear, molds gently to the foot, develops a quiet patina. Canvas shoes have a history. You can feel it.
In terms of breathability, canvas sits between knit and leather. It's not as airy as mesh, but it handles heat better than synthetic textiles that don't breathe at all. It's a material for walking cities, for travelling light, for the kind of days that start indoors and end outside.
The Peach Canvas carry that spirit. Low-profile, unhurried, the kind of shoe that doesn't ask for attention.
Mesh: when airflow is the point
Mesh is the most openly breathable textile we use. Its open-weave construction allows air to circulate freely, and moisture to escape almost as fast as it forms. In high heat or during long walks, that makes a noticeable difference.
The trade-off is insulation. Mesh is a summer material. When temperatures drop, it works against you rather than with you. But in season, there's nothing better for keeping your feet comfortable through hours of movement.
A few earlier Mesh and Canvas models can still be found in The Archive, end-of-series pieces for those who want them before they're gone.
A note on the rest of the range
Knit, canvas, and mesh are not the whole story at Fleeters. Our plant-based leather sneakers and leather formal styles approach material differently. Leather has its own logic: durability, structure, the way it builds a relationship with the person wearing it. Those materials don't need to breathe in the same way, because they're used differently and in different contexts.
No hierarchy here. Just different answers to different questions.
The question worth asking
When you pick up a pair of shoes, the upper is often the last thing you consider. The color, the sole, the shape come first. But if you spend real time in your shoes, if you walk in them, if they go everywhere with you, the material is where you'll feel the difference.
Barefoot footwear strips away enough that what remains matters more. A knit that moves. A canvas that holds. A mesh that breathes. Each one is a different way of being close to the ground.
