Why This Olympian Started Azza, a New Fencing Shoe Brand

Starting a shoe brand wasn’t always the goal for Azza Besbes. But when the Tunisian Olympic fencer decided to leave the sport in 2020, she wondered how her experience might be useful in improving the game for the next generation of athletes.

“My body was quite destroyed because of the bad fencing shoes that we had,” Besbes, a three-time Olympian and silver medalist, told FN in an interview, explaining how she never felt that the fencing shoes on the market offered enough durability, cushioning or balance to withstand intense practice and competition. By the end of her athletic career, Besbes was wearing tennis and badminton shoes instead, which were also not ideal.

“Why do marathon people run with proper running shoes, or sprinters or basketball [players]?,” Besbes said. “Everyone has the proper shoes for their sports. We should have the same for fencing.”

In 2020, that realization led Besbes and her husband, who works in oil and gas construction, to start the research and development phase of what would become Azza, a new by-fencers-for-fencers footwear brand. The shoe’s design centered on four key technical elements: cushioning, balance, grip and durability. These features were necessary to create a shoe that could withstand the unique movements in fencing, like sudden lunges, as well as the abrasive metallic strip on which the sport is played.

After two and half years of development — and consistent feedback and wear-testing from professional fencers — Azza launched its first prototype in 2022: a fencing shoe with a thicker sole designed for two of the sport’s three weapon classes, foil and épée. Azza is currently developing a thinner soled shoe for sabre (Besbes’ weapon), though the athlete herself prefers the thicker original model for her own needs.

“It was bold for us to try to compete and enter the market,” Besbes said. “But a good product can only come from someone who really was in the field and who knows what they need exactly and who knows the fencers to go to talk to.”

This mindset has historically powered entrepreneurs in the footwear market. When Jean-Luc Diard and Nico Mermoud founded Hoka in 2009, they were looking for an easier way to run on uneven terrains. More recently in 2023, shoe industry veterans Rick Anguilla and Mark Oleson launched Avoli, a shoe for female volleyball players, after observing their owns daughters’ experiences as volleyball athletes.

Since launch, Azza has become the official fencing shoe for the French and Italian national fencing teams and the shoe of choice for multiple top athletes in the sport, including Olympians who competed in Paris this past summer. Azza has also expanded its distribution from two countries at the start of 2023 to 18 countries, with a plan to hit 20 by early 2025 at the latest.

And just last month, Azza signed a deal with U.S.A. Fencing to be the official shoe for their teams, replacing Nike, the organization’s prior partner. Under the deal, Azza and U.S.A Fencing will work together to develop a unique shoe for U.S.A Fencing players.

“I think it’s a really powerful statement that what you’re wearing wasn’t designed by somebody whose primary knowledge is shoe design,” U.S.A Fencing chief executive officer Phil Andrews said about Azza. “It was designed by somebody whose primary knowledge is the thing you’re trying to do with that shoe.”

Azza, which currently sells via its website and in fencing gear retailers, is on track to end the year with six figures in revenue and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50 percent. In September, Azza launched a kid’s collection for people who start the sport at a young age and is partnering with U.S.A Fencing to offer a pair of Azza shoes for young members who win their domestic fencing tournaments. Those who place but don’t win will get 20 percent off an Azza shoe purchase.

Looking ahead to 2025, Azza is planning to launch different shoes for both right and left handed fencers and is discussing creating a recovery slide for athletes to wear off the strip. The Azza team, which has gone from two to six full time workers, is also discussing partnerships with other federations and is planning to start looking for investors.

After establishing itself in fencing, Azza plans to start making shoes for other indoor racket sports, like padel, squash and badminton, all of which require similar construction needs to accommodate lateral footwork. In 2023, Azza helped design a tennis shoe from scratch for former Swedish tennis player Robin Soderling’s brand, RS Sports.

“We want to become number one in performance shoes,” Besbes said. “We started with fencing, but we we aim one day to go into other sports, similar to fencing.”