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One shoe, three sizes: Raphaël Kazbik’s entrepreneurial leap
A graduate of SKEMA Business School’s MSc Financial Markets & Investments, Raphaël Kazbik (SKEMA 2006) spent nearly twenty years in international finance, mainly within UBS’s investment bank in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2025, he left the bank to focus on Nanoush Eversole, a start-up he co-founded with his sister, Yasaman. The company is developing an expandable children’s shoe designed to accommodate foot growth across three sizes. The innovation has already earned a silver medal at the 2026 Concours Lépine.
To say that Raphaël Kazbik built a strong career in finance before moving into entrepreneurship would be an understatement. In a world where speed of analysis, precision and decision-making are part of everyday life, the graduate has an impressive CV.
With a background in electronic engineering and information systems, he joined SKEMA Business School in 2005 to study the MSc Financial Markets & Investments in Sophia Antipolis. At the time, his objective was clear: to join an investment bank and work in an international environment. “My goal was to work on a trading floor, preferably abroad. I wanted to travel and work in a far more international environment,” he explains.
The plan paid off. After initial roles at Dexia and Credit Suisse, Raphaël Kazbik joined UBS in Zurich in 2007. He spent eighteen years there, working first in equity derivatives and then in interest rate derivatives within the financing department. He went on to become Head of Trading for these activities, before serving as Head of Sales & Trading within UBS’s investment bank.
I had a very good position, with a great deal of responsibility and a fantastic team, but I enjoy challenges.
He remembers this period as both demanding and formative. “Investment banking was an excellent school for me. It is an international, multilingual and multicultural environment, where you have to act fast and find solutions.” In these professions, he adds, “it is not seniority that settles a debate, but the strength of the idea.”
Choosing a second life as an entrepreneur
In 2025, after almost two decades at UBS, Raphaël Kazbik decided to take his career in a new direction. At that point, he held a secure position at the head of a globally recognised team that had won industry awards for ten consecutive years, and worked in a sector he knew inside out and enjoyed. Yet his desire to become an entrepreneur returned with force. “Being an entrepreneur had always been my dream. I told myself that, if I was going to do it, it was now or never.”
The decision was far from straightforward. Leaving an established career, a comfortable salary and an intellectually stimulating environment required a decisive break. The entrepreneur has no regrets about making it. “I had a very good position, with a great deal of responsibility and a fantastic team, but I enjoy challenges. For me, the next step was to launch my own company.”
He did not embark on this new venture alone. It took shape with his sister, as a family project centred on a problem experienced by many parents: children grow fast, their feet even faster, and their shoes have to be replaced several times a year.
The idea for Nanoush Eversole emerged from this simple, almost domestic, but concrete observation. As is often the case, innovation began with an everyday frustration, proving that even shoe cupboards can produce something other than clutter...
A shoe designed to grow with children
Nanoush Eversole is designed for children wearing European sizes 22 to 32, from around 18 months to six years old, a period during which their feet grow fast. On average, a child can move up several shoe sizes in a single year. The start-up has therefore designed a shoe capable of covering three sizes with a single pair. The concept is based on an expandable structure and a system of interchangeable insoles. Parents buy one pair supplied with three insoles corresponding to three different sizes. A single pair can therefore cover, for example, sizes 22, 23 and 24, before a new pair takes over for the next set of sizes.
“We wanted to create a pair of shoes that could offer three sizes in one,” Raphaël Kazbik explains. The objective is not only financial. It is also about reducing waste in a market where children’s shoes are often replaced before they are worn out.
The shoe has been designed according to a barefoot approach, helping to support natural foot movement and healthy development. “The child feels as though they are walking barefoot. That is what orthopaedic specialists recommend,” the entrepreneur explains. For Nanoush Eversole, the challenge was to incorporate this approach to physiology into a shoe that could grow with the child while remaining durable and attractive.
Two years of research and European manufacturing
The product took two years to develop. According to information provided by Nanoush SA, the team surveyed 300 parents and consulted 50 experts, including specialists in footwear, design, sport, biomechanics and orthopaedics. The technology is based on a patented system called eversole.
Production takes place in Portugal, a choice aligned with the project’s focus on quality. This is a decisive point for a product intended for young children, who are rarely known for treating their shoes like Ming porcelain. “We know that children will ride scooters, play hopscotch, kick footballs, run, fall over and damage their shoes. We took all of that into account and put our designs through rigorous testing,” says Raphaël Kazbik.
An innovation recognised at the Concours Lépine and on TF1’s 8 pm news
In May 2026, Nanoush Eversole reached an important milestone when it received a silver medal at the 125th Concours Lépine International Paris. For the young company, the distinction represented major recognition. “For us, taking part was already an achievement in itself. The silver medal was the icing on the cake,” Raphaël Kazbik says. Beyond the award, the event gave the team an opportunity to test its concept with the public and gather feedback from parents, healthcare professionals and industry representatives.
Media exposure followed. Nanoush Eversole was featured on France 2’s Télématin, on TF1’s 8 pm news, and in several specialist publications covering children and family life. On LinkedIn, the start-up sums up its promise in one direct formula: “One shoe. Three sizes. One solution.”
Pre-orders set to begin
Nanoush Eversole is now preparing for its commercial launch. Registration for pre-orders is available on this website. Pre-orders will open in 2026 alongside a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The aim is to validate market demand before scaling up industrial production in 2027.
Pop-up stores
The brand is also considering pop-up stores, allowing parents to see, touch and try on the shoes. In this sector, the product must prove its value through use as much as through words… For Raphaël Kazbik, this new stage marks the beginning of the second part of his career. “I remain a finance professional at heart, with all the standards that entails. Today, however, my sister and I are at the helm of the company. Building something from the ground up, as a family, is a dream taking shape.”
