Founded in 2025 in Mirano, in the province of Venice, based on an idea by Giacomo Gallina – a fashion and footwear designer with nearly twenty years’ experience in the world of luxury fashion – the brand is rooted in an ancient Zen philosophy: ‘Monk’ stands for monk, and ‘Mu’ means emptiness or non-action, considered the true origin of every creative process. The Monk (bare) Foot project offers a lightweight, high-quality shoe designed to simulate walking barefoot (another ancient method of Zen meditation), where every step must be taken very slowly and mindfully. The Vibram FF Cup sole is a simple rubber shell just a few millimetres thick with a zero drop (no heel height), highly flexible and perfect for a ‘barefoot’ shoe. The shoes are entirely handcrafted by a small Venetian shoemaker using top-quality materials, such as the genuine leather insole. The rubber sole is stitched to the full-grain leather upper, creating almost direct contact between the ground and the sole of the foot.