Collection: SunJellies

How jelly shoes began

Sun Jellies online store was founded in 2012 by couple Kelly and Nick while living with their young kids on the pebbly south coast of England. Looking for some summery shoes for her and the kids to wear on the rocky beaches Kelly stumbled upon Méduse, the French brand of jelly shoes originally created in 1946 during a worldwide leather shortage post WWII. Falling in love with the Méduse back story and the rainbow of colours available in the full range of sizes, Kelly and Nick set up the Sun Jellies online store to bring these iconic French jelly shoes to the UK shores and beyond. Since then Kelly and Nick have discovered an ever-growing fan base of jelly shoe lovers of all ages from every corner of the globe.

Inspired by nostalgia

Inspired by the wave of nostalgia for their jelly shoes Kelly and Nick saw an opportunity to revive similarly iconic jelly bags to sell alongside the shoes. They launched the Sun Jellies Retro Basket, which was so popular they started receiving enquiries from other shops wanting to sell them and so their wholesale business was born. Recognising the love for their vintage style jelly bags they began adding new styles to the collection including their much loved Atomic Tote, which is a design based on the American ‘Shamrock Neatway’ shopper, circa 1950s. With a passion for nostalgia Kelly loves the product development process scouring the internet, vintage and charity stores for original “jelly jems” that could inspire the next Sun Jellies bag design. You’ll also find little personal references throughout the collection – the Betty Basket is named after her grandmother and the colour Latte is so named after Kelly’s favourite coffee drink. There are now five unique jelly bag designs in the collection and over 1000 stockists worldwide sharing the jelly love with their customers.

A family business

Working as a team to design and develop each new jelly bag collection, Kelly also manages the online store as well as sales and marketing for both sides of the business while Nick heads up the overall finance and operations. With Nick’s father and sister also working for the business and their daughter Rosie appearing in all the photoshoots, Sun Jellies really is a family affair. And when they’re not running Sun Jellies or fighting their way past piles of bags and shoes in the home office, Kelly and Nick love downtime with their family, friends and puppy. Movie nights, country walks, takeaway coffees, trips to the seaside, running and bike riding are among their favourite activities.