Love-It-or-Hate-It? Boldly Beautiful Iron Fist Shoes Walk the Line Between Sweet & Gruesome

Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates from Your Next Shoes. This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure for more details.

Iron Fist is one of those love-it-or-hate-it shoe brands here on Your Next Shoes. The shoes themselves are simple pumps, classic t-straps, and regular boots, but the artwork designs on them are bold, spunky, and in-your-face (or, as one YNS reader described, they’re “Avril Lavigne-ish.”)

Iron Fist has existed since 2001 (2005 for the women’s line). However, the zombie pumps you can find on Amazon earned them internet fame and put them in mainstream consciousness.

You all know how much the internet, TV, and all of the media, for that matter, are obsessed with anything zombie apocalypse-related. If we recall correctly, these also came with a matching zombie bikini:

Iron Fist 'Zombie Stomper' Pump: These vibrant pumps capture the zeitgeist of the zombie apocalypse trend with their bold and striking zombie-themed artwork, echoing Avril Lavigne's pop-punk styleIron Fist ‘Zombie Stomper’ Pump: These vibrant pumps capture the zeitgeist of the zombie apocalypse trend with their bold and striking zombie-themed artwork, echoing Avril Lavigne’s pop-punk style

They started with other gory, gruesome designs, including this tiki-inspired pump with inexplicably bloody teeth:

Iron Fist 'Tiki Toes' Pump: Merging the bizarre with the exotic, the Tiki Toes pump features a unique tiki-inspired design complete with startlingly vivid bloody teethIron Fist ‘Tiki Toes’ Pump: Merging the bizarre with the exotic, the Tiki Toes pump features a unique tiki-inspired design complete with startlingly vivid bloody teeth

It was only natural for Iron Fist to move on to tattoo-inspired prints. The usual hearts, daggers, and arrows in saturated colors are there, but they’ve also come out with surprisingly refined gems such as this ‘Gated Soul’ pump:

Iron Fist 'Gated Soul' Pump: This pump showcases Iron Fist's unique flair for combining the edgy with the elegant, featuring an intricately artistic design that makes a bold fashion statementIron Fist ‘Gated Soul’ Pump: This pump showcases Iron Fist’s unique flair for combining the edgy with the elegant, featuring an intricately artistic design that makes a bold fashion statement

They then commissioned tattoo artists to create designs for their shoes. It was such a good marketing move on their part — we can’t even begin to describe how much we love this ‘Sweets My Sweet’ pump, aka the sweetest shoes we’ve ever seen:

Designed in collaboration with tattoo artists, the Sweets My Sweet pump dazzles with its playful and vibrant candy-themed designDesigned in collaboration with tattoo artists, the Sweets My Sweet pump dazzles with its playful and vibrant candy-themed design

We’re obsessing over this “unicorn in space” pump with a spaceman-like silver glitter finish. The 8-year-olds in us would die over this!:

The Unicornopia pump is a whimsical creation, featuring a magical unicorn in space design with a glittering silver finish, appealing to the inner child in all of usThe Unicornopia pump is a whimsical creation featuring a magical unicorn in space design with a glittering silver finish, appealing to the inner child in all of us

Iron Fist knows that artwork prints are their strength, and they’ve really invested in it!