Welcome to San Francisco
Renegade Craft in San Francisco doesn’t feel like a typical market; it feels like stepping into the heart of the city’s creative community. Set inside the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion, right on the Bay, the fair gathers hundreds of artists and makers under one airy, light-filled roof, with views of the water and the Golden Gate Bridge just outside the doors. For Espíritu, being invited into that space felt like arriving at a creative crossroads, where our huaraches could meet a new audience that deeply values how things are made.
The Fair Experience
Inside the pavilion, every aisle told a different story. Our booth sat among ceramics, textiles, jewelry, prints, natural skincare, paper goods and sculptural pieces. Everywhere we looked, there were makers who had spent years refining their craft: potters who fire in small kilns, jewelers who hand-saw every detail, printmakers mixing inks by hand. The energy felt less like a trade show and more like a recurring reunion of people who share the same language of process, patience and attention to detail.
From the first hour, it was clear that visitors weren’t just browsing; they were looking for connection. People moved slowly through the aisles, asking questions, touching materials and wanting to know who made each piece and why. When they reached our booth, they ran their hands along the leather, asked where our huaraches are made, and often shared their own memories of Mexico—childhood summers, markets, family trips or stories passed down through generations.
The Espíritu Booth
We arrived with a focused selection of Espiritus, bringing our signature silhouettes and colors that could live comfortably in San Francisco’s everyday style. Our booth quickly turned into a tiny corner of home inside a historic waterfront building. Some visitors were discovering huaraches for the first time; others walked in and immediately smiled, saying they had grown up seeing similar styles in Mexico or in their family’s stories. For both groups, trying on a pair felt like a bridge—between places, between past and present, between memory and daily life.
One of our favorite parts of the weekend was fitting people and watching their posture change the moment they stood up: a mix of comfort, recognition and a small spark of joy. We spoke about how the shoes are made, who makes them and why we care so much about preserving traditional techniques while refining them for modern use. Those conversations turned a simple purchase into something more like an exchange of stories.
Meeting Other Vendors
In between waves of visitors, we got to know the makers around us. We traded stories, compared booth setups, shared snacks and swapped cards “for after the fair.” Many vendors talk about Renegade as an event that never disappoints, not just because of sales, but because of the people you meet on both sides of the table. Standing there as fellow small business owners, there was an unspoken understanding: everyone in that room has spent years experimenting, failing, improving and learning to trust their own eye and hands.
Being surrounded by that level of dedication was energizing. It reminded us that Espíritu is part of a much larger movement of brands and makers who believe in slow creation, transparency and thoughtful design. The sense of camaraderie made the fair feel less like a competition and more like a shared celebration of independent craftsmanship.
The Views and the Bay
One of the quiet joys of Renegade in San Francisco is stepping outside for a moment. Just beyond the pavilion doors, the Bay opens up: ferries cutting across the water, fog rolling around the Golden Gate, gulls circling in the wind. Fort Mason is known as a hub for craft and design events in the city, and you can feel why—the building holds the hum of conversation and music, but the horizon outside gives you space to breathe between it all.
Coming back in after a quick break, coffee in hand, we would look at our huaraches displayed against the backdrop of that industrial, light-filled hall and the memory of the water just outside. They felt exactly like what they are meant to be: shoes designed to walk between worlds—between Mexico and the Bay, between tradition and contemporary city life.
Community and What We Take With Us
What we will remember most from Renegade Craft is not a single sale or moment, but a feeling: being surrounded by people who care deeply about how things are made. Over the weekend, we met customers who came back a second time to bring a friend, vendors who offered encouragement and advice, and countless people who stopped to listen to the story behind Espíritu and the huarache.
Renegade’s motto is all about creative community gathering, and at Fort Mason we felt that fully—from the first handshake with a neighboring vendor to the last visitor who said, “I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time.” For Espíritu, San Francisco wasn’t just another market; it was a reminder that our work travels, that Mexican craftsmanship resonates far from home, and that a single pair of huaraches can carry a whole story across a pavilion, across a city and across an ocean.
