The RIFRUF® Caesar 1 is the first design-driven dog shoe made from the same materials as your favorite human sneakers.
The world’s first real sneaker made for dogs. The Caesar 1, named after our Chief Dog Officer, is made from the same materials as your favorite, premium human sneakers. It features a breathable RUFKNIT™ mesh upper, a wide hook and loop strap that is adjustable to accommodate a range of dog leg sizes, and a natural 100% rubber midsole and outsole to protect paws against rough surfaces and terrain.
After looking on the market and realizing that most dog shoes were just cheap materials stitched together that looked silly or tasteless, we knew that our dogs deserved something better. That is why we came up with RIFRUF®: a design-forward dog sneaker that not only draws influence from today’s most modern fashion houses but comes with the same high quality and functional materials found in leading sneaker brands that guard your dog’s paws against daily #doglife obstacles.
Dogs and humans have been companions for over 16,000 years, yet to this day not a single person has thought of creating a quality set of dog shoes that function and actually look good. That’s where we come in.
While dog paw pads are tough, they are not indestructible, especially in the modern environments that we subject our pups to. Your dog may not have needed shoes in 2,000 B.C. when roads were unpaved and technology was limited to bows and arrows, but we live in a different world these days:
- Asphalt burns >40° F hotter than how it feels outside. Sweat-drenched from walking in 80° weather? Well, your dog has it worse by having to walk bare-paw on 120°+ concrete.
- Icy and snowed-on surfaces, or even worse, salted-ice surfaces, can lead to severely cracked paw pads, frost burns, and slipping.
- Sharp metal and glass littered across the ground can lead to cuts and infections.
- Various chemicals and germs found in public places can be brought into your house bare-paw.
If you would not walk on these surfaces barefoot, why should your dog?
Dogs are family, and we want to treat our family right. That is why no shortcuts were taken with RIFRUF®. While other dog shoe brands utilize inexpensive and low-quality elements (e.g., synthetic outsoles that slip, rough upper textiles that hurt your dog’s paws, etc.), RIFRUF® is a holistic paw-wear product that integrates high-quality materials with modern design and functionality into one fresh set of kicks for your pup.
As mentioned before, our dog sneakers boast a breathable mesh upper and a natural 100% rubber midsole and outsole to protect paws against rough surfaces and terrain. The shoe is made from a custom last to fit dog paws effortlessly, and its wide hook and loop strap is adjustable to accommodate the thickness of your dog’s legs.
We knew that in order to make a dog shoe, however, we needed more than just a cool design or nice materials. That is why we enlisted the help of our veterinarian partner Dr. Andy Chiang, DVM, Relief Veterinarian and founder of pet wellness brand KovitaPets, to evaluate and test our shoes for safety and quality throughout the entire design phase. From start to finish, each detail of our shoe was tested with Andy to ensure that it was optimally created for your dog’s paws. If you visit our website, you will see that we proudly mention our dog shoes being vet-endorsed.
To hear more from Andy, watch our YouTube series of Andy teaching his dog how to wear RIFRUFs like a pro here.
Oh, and did we mention that we’ll send our dog shoes in an actual shoebox? Unlike other dog shoe brands, we thoughtfully packaged the shoe experience from end-to-end: we want your pup to feel like these shoes were made just for them. Instead of cheap plastic or webbed bags, your dog gets their shoes in a custom printed shoe box.
While this is our first Kickstarter, this isn’t our first rodeo. We launched our brand at the beginning of 2021 with the original Caesar 1 in 3 colors and 4 sizes and were met with overwhelmingly positive feedback and love from the dog community (keep scrolling down to see our customer reviews, or on our official website). But our launch was bootstrapped, and as with any bootstrapped arrangement, our product did not provide the full assortment of colors, styles, and sizes we had hoped for due to initial financial limitations.
This is where you, the Kickstarter community, come in. We have dreams of serving the entire dog community, from the Chihuahuas to the Golden Retrievers and every mutt in between. No matter the size, color, or style preference of your canine companion, we want to be there for your dog every step of the way.
For our next installment of dog shoes, we’ve planned for enhancements to the existing Caesar 1 model that include a padded lining to keep the paw even more secure, a softened rubber outsole to improve grip and flexibility, and an updated last to accommodate a wider range of dog paw shapes. We’re also planning to launch the Caesar 1S, a remix of the Caesar 1, that swaps out for a soft waffle mesh upper and an updated tongue pattern that is plush and snug. Across both the Caesar 1 and Caesar 1S, we’ll be launching multiple new colorways and expanding into smaller AND bigger sizes to fit all dog breeds.
As you can tell, we have lots of new dog shoes in the works, but only with your support can we release these new products. Your backing through Kickstarter will help us launch these new, never-before-seen dog shoes, and you’ll have first access to them.
We have included concept colorways in both the Caesar 1 and brand new Caesar 1S below to give you an idea of how we hope to take our dog shoes to the next level. Help us help you in elevating your dog’s life with RIFRUFs, whether they’re for daily walks or the runway.
Not sure which shoe(s) you want? No worries, buddy. We came up with a comprehensive set of rewards packages, aka treats, to meet every dog’s budding sneakerhead collection and budget.
Your support from Kickstarter will enable us to launch brand new colorways, styles, and sizes never released before. That’s why, for your reward package, we’ll give you first access to these brand-new colorways, styles, and sizes. We’ll throw in some brand new, unreleased dog socks as well to show our gratitude!
If you would still prefer to order one of our released colorways in our existing sizes, that works too. Each reward package is good for your choice of dog sneakers and socks, in any size, style, or colorway.
Shipping will be free for customers in the contiguous United States. Shipping to Canada is a flat $15, and shipping to the rest of the world is a flat $20.
In the event that your RIFRUFs do not work out for your pup for any reason, we’ll accept any and all returned shoes in re-sellable condition. We are happy to exchange sizes as well. Shipping for returns and exchanges will be made 100% free for US customers.
Perhaps the most frustrating process with buying dog shoes is the anxiety in determining the right shoe size for your pup. It doesn’t help that the dog shoe industry doesn’t have consistency in sizing either. That’s why we’ve made it a point to make sizing as seamless as possible for you with two sizing methods to choose from: our recommended size guide by breed, or an actual measuring process if you want to double-check!
With your support from Kickstarter, we’ll be able to create bigger (and smaller) shoe sizes to fit every dog: from the Chihuahuas to the German Shepherds and every mutt in between. If you would like one of our existing colorways and/or sizes, however, we’re more than happy to provide you your preference of dog shoe colorway/size at the end of the campaign.
Oh, and did we mention that we accommodate split sizes for dogs with different measurements? If your dog has different front and back paw sizes, no worries. Just let us know and we’ll send you a split combo once we’ve completed production. The last thing we want for our dog owners is to worry about the size they need to get.
IT STARTED WITH CAESAR, OUR CHIEF DOG OFFICER
As mentioned above, the idea for RIFRUF® all started with improving the life of Caesar, our Chief Dog Officer, with a set of sneakers that enabled him to walk worry-free and fashionably through the streets of New York.
But while the idea for RIFRUF® started on a whim, laying the foundation for our company did not. The RIFRUF® Caesar 1 was created through a two-year process of diligent testing, learning, and refining. We started with raw sketches, moved on to computer-aided design (CAD), and then reiterated with real shoes and materials with our factory until we finally got it right.
We could have taken an existing dog shoe, slapped on a logo, and called it a day, but we knew that our dogs deserved better than that. We knew that we wanted the RIFRUF® experience to be a true invitation and connection to what we value as a brand and as a pack: modern design, sneaker culture, and most importantly, dogs.
