ABOUT

Steps document the pulse of society.

WXY is a Taiwan-based footwear label and design practice founded by designer Xin-Yu (Joi) Weng.

For over a decade, WXY has examined the conditions of its time through footwear.
Each collection centers on a phenomenon, tension, or emerging condition—from climate and technology to identity, violence, consumption, waste, regeneration, and the shifting realities of human life. These subjects are translated through familiar, everyday materials and unexpected constructions, giving physical form to forces that are otherwise difficult to see.

WXY attends to what these subjects reveal: how they shape behavior, alter relationships, expose contradictions, and influence what comes next. The practice does not reduce complex subjects to a prescribed position or conclusion. It observes, interprets, and considers multiple perspectives, while remaining grounded in the value of life.

Footwear is the medium through which this takes place. Designed to move through the world, a shoe exists in direct contact with bodies, environments, and everyday life. Each collection therefore becomes a material trace of its moment—a way of recording how it was perceived and experienced.

The name WXY originated from the XX/XY chromosome system and was also shaped by the designer's own name. It began with a question about a familiar system of classification and what lies beyond it. Over time, that premise has extended beyond gender: WXY treats established definitions as starting points rather than fixed conclusions.

At the foundation of the practice is Reverence for Life—an awareness of the value of life and of the resources, systems, and conditions that sustain it. This informs both what WXY chooses to examine and how it makes: it considers materials in relation to their origin, use, transformation, and consequence.

WXY observes its time and translates what it sees into objects.