Yifan Li

Building Footle — footwear for standing desks.

Zürich Metropolitan Area

About

I'm building Footle — footwear designed for working at a standing desk. The standing mat you can wear. Beta is live in Zürich, fittings at Westhive Hardturm. Most shoes are built for moving: raised heel, narrow toe box, a sole that helps you roll forward. When you stand for hours, those choices work against you. Footle's sole is zero-drop, foot-shaped, and sized left and right individually. Simple aesthetics, deep fit engineering. Before Footle I spent three years on Yede Shoes and Project Folg — a lot of what I learned there shaped what Footle is and isn't. I'm a full-stack developer by background (6+ years, React / Node / iOS / Android), and still write most of the code myself. Zürich-based. If you work standing and want to try a pair, DM me. Languages: Chinese (native), English (fluent), German (B1, B2 in study), Japanese (N3).

Experience

  • Founder at Footle GmbH
    Apr 2026 - Present · 3 mos

    Building Footle — footwear designed for standing desk work. Office hardware you wear, closer to ergonomic gear than to a sneaker. Zero-drop sole, foot-shaped toe box, 10 mm cushion, sizes 36–49, left/right mix-match (each foot sized individually). Beta is live in Zürich with in-person fittings at Westhive Hardturm. V1.0 ships December 2026. Still writing most of the code, doing most of the design, and measuring most of the feet.

  • Full-stack Developer at Clever.Care AG
    Dec 2018 - Present · 7 yrs 7 mos

    Build Coordinator app with Angular / .NET core. Build iOS and Android Coordinator App with Cordova and ionic. Build Admin interface with react / .NET core

  • Founder at Folg AG
    Sep 2024 - Mar 2026 · 1 yr 7 mos

  • Founder at yede shoes
    Jan 2022 - Jun 2024 · 2 yrs 6 mos

  • Senior Frontend Developer at Bundesamt für Informatik und Telekommunikation BIT
    Mar 2020 - Feb 2022 · 2 yrs

    Build and maintain a frontend UI component library. Build and maintain several shared frontend services (auth / translation / error handling, etc) . Support multiple project team developing web application.