Victor Bastié and Thomas de Bascher, two shoe enthusiasts, founded Malfroid in Paris in 2018, naming the label after a forgotten Parisian shoemaker from an earlier era as a deliberate homage. Shoes are made in Porto using leathers sourced from French and English tanneries, cut in a style the brand describes as Anglo-Italian. The pairing (French materials, Portuguese manufacturing) has stayed consistent since the label's first collection.