What Happened to Matt Bernson? Celebs Wearing His Shoes & Boots

Scroll down to see how celebrities styled boots, flats, sandals, and shoes by Matt Bernson. The footwear label ceased operations in September 2018.

Originally from New York, the footwear designer launched his eponymous label in 2005 after buying a sandal in a marketplace in India for his then-girlfriend, now wife and mother of his two children.

Footwear designer Matt Bernson and Olivia Palermo at his shoe store in Tribeca in 2012 (Credit: Matt Bernson Facebook)

All shoes were made in high-quality small-batch production facilities in Portugal, Spain, and China.

In 2017, Matt Bernson closed down his retail stores and issued the following statement.

Matt Bernson has made the decision to join the list of brands and retailers who’ve chosen to shut down brick-and-mortar retail shops in order to put more focus and dollars behind its expanding e-commerce channel as well as support their amazing retailers who buy at wholesale and carry the collections year after year. Matt Bernson will be closing both its Tribeca and Westport locations during the month of May 2017.

The designer launched his first collection of handmade sandals 10 years ago in his Tribeca studio. Since then, Matt Bernson has expanded its product offerings to include sandals, heels, flats, sneakers, boots and booties, as well as an array of small leather goods and jewelry. Over the past decade, the brand has opened two retail stores, collaborated with a variety of brands and models on various collections, had successes in both department stores and online retailers, and gained a loyal fan base of high profile celebrities including Gisele Bündchen, Ashley Greene, Naomi Watts, Jessica Alba, Taylor Swift and many others. Matt Bernson will continue to operate and design from a studio located in Tribeca.

The strategic decision to move away from brick and mortar retail was emboldened by the strength and growth of mattbernson.com and key flourishing retail partnerships. The brand can now further increase wholesale opportunities and keep up with the increasing and quickly shifting demands of digital shopping habits. This was the most vital element in the decision making process. The full Matt Bernson collection will continue to be available on its site, with select styles sold at Shopbop, Anthropologie and many other top retailers across the country.

In 2018, Matt Bernson also closed down his footwear label’s website. After consulting a year for Steve Madden, in 2019 he joined Kate Spade as a consultant to re-launch footwear in-house within Tapestry.