Online retail startup Shoes of Prey has removed ordering options from its website and announced that it will be "pausing to consider its options" as the company's finances fall even further into strife.
The company made a bid for three million dollars in funding earlier this year, but that was not enough to offset its $6 million loss last year, off seven million in revenue.
In an Instagram post, co-founder Jodie Fox said that while things had continued to run on the surface, there had been serious struggles behind the scenes.
“While all the indicators and data were positive, we were not able to truly crack mass-market adoption.”
Shoes of Prey was launched in 2009 by Fox, Mike Knapp and Michael Fox as a customisable footwear brand, allowing customers to design and customise their own shoes according to their exact size and taste.
The brand, who had received massive cash injections from David Jones and U.S. department store Nordstrom, closed all of its physical stores in 2016 but had managed to survive on digital sales up to this point.
A statement on the site's homepage reads:
"When we started Shoes of Prey back in 2009, we couldn’t have dreamed that we would have the opportunity to share in such an incredible adventure. And you were the most wonderful people to have that adventure with.
"Today we’re pausing to consider our options for the future of our business, and we have stopped taking orders. We have reviewed all of our orders and if we see that we are unable to make your shoes, you will be fully refunded."