Who Love Women’s Shoes

The world of women’s shoes just took another step forward, with Shoes of Prey securing $3 million in fresh venture funding.

The Australian-based site lets users design their own shoes using everything from patent leather and cotton to animal hair and fish scales with its 3-D rendering system that, the company says, offers “over 4 trillion possibilities.”

Investors backing Shoes Of Prey include Mike Arrington’s CrunchFund, Bill Tai of Charles River Ventures and Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Australia-based software company Atlassian.

The venture backing is the first since the company’s inception and reflects an ongoing attraction of venture firms for women’s shoes and applications of mass customization.

During the past two years, a host of sites, including ShoeDazzle, JustFab and Beachmint, have all attracted venture funding. According to VentureWire records, those three alone have secured nearly $200 million.

All three of those sites operate as personal shoe-shopping clubs, delivering selections each month that have been curated by Kim Kardashian, Kimora Lee Simmons, Rachel Bilson and other celebrities. They all leverage mass customization to deliver shoes between $40 -$80 and collect revenue as a monthly subscription, similar to the CD-of-the-month clubs back in the 80s.

Shoes Of Prey is a little different. It puts fashionistas into the design seat, inviting them to create their own shoes and either save, share or order them. The shoes typically cost between $100 and $200.

The fresh cash will be used to increase the social aspect of the site, improve the user experience and broaden the site’s retail presence.

According to the company, more than 10 million shoes have been designed on Shoes Of Prey, and users have logged more than 20 million minutes designing products on the site.