Popins Named Best Shoe Trees for Women: How Its Founder Quietly Redefined an Age-Old Wardrobe Rule

Melis Kuris has spent more than a decade shaping how some of the industry's most photographed women think about packing, protecting, and preserving their shoes, and her most influential contribution might be the one still gaining ground right now.

As Popins are named among the best women's shoe trees of 2026, Kuris's influence on how modern women care for their shoes feels more relevant than ever.

From her early days dressing clients for red carpets and press tours to her current position building a product now used across the industry, Kuris has spent her career solving a problem fashion had quietly overlooked: there was never a shoe tree designed for a woman's shoe. For the stylist and founder of Popins, the issue was never about aesthetics. It was about practicality, needing something that actually worked for the shoes she was packing, when nothing on the market did.

From Stylist's Kit to Industry Standard

In her early years on set, Kuris relied on the same shoe trees everyone else did: solid wood, sized for a man's oxford, heavy enough to make every suitcase groan. Every option on the market assumed a man's foot and a closet that wasn't going anywhere, and none of it worked for the shoes she was actually packing for clients.

That gap sat with her for years before it became Popins, a patent-protected design built specifically around the size and shape of women's shoes.

The Redesign That Solved an Old Problem

Where traditional shoe trees, wood or cedar, lean on a spring-loaded hinge to stretch into a shoe, Kuris's design does something narrower, and arguably smarter: it focuses only on the toe area, the part of a shoe most likely to crease and lose its shape once it's empty.

Cedar has its place. It absorbs moisture and manages odor, which is genuinely useful for a man's dress shoe left in a closet all week. But it was never built for a woman's shoe, and it was never built to travel. Kuris's approach called for something lightweight enough to pack and precise enough to actually protect the shape.

The result is lightweight, one size fits most, and quietly chic, minimal enough to sit out on an open shelf rather than hidden in a drawer.

Why Her Approach Still Works

The product's staying power comes down to a few decisions Kuris never compromised on:

• Focusing on the toe area instead of the whole shoe

• Keeping one size fits most (across sizes 6.5 to 10)

• Designing something chic enough to be seen, not just used

• Refusing to add bulk in the name of durability

None of it is complicated. It simply had to work, every time, for the shoes women already own.

The Bigger Lesson

The product's growing following, built almost entirely on word of mouth and, notably, zero returns to date, comes down to restraint rather than reinvention.

Kuris didn't set out to build something flashy. She set out to build something that did its job so quietly, you'd forget it was there until you noticed your shoes still looked new.

At a moment when so much of the shoe care market still leans on old, heavier ideas, Kuris's approach stands out for a simpler reason: it was built by someone who actually needed it.

She isn't just building a product. She's quietly rewriting an old rule about whose shoes get taken care of, and how.