Hi friends!
As we get closer to getting a wearable prototype for footwear designed especially for women with lipedema, I thought I’d share a brief bit of how shoes are made. Footwear is an industry that seemed like a gigantic mystery to me a year ago. I knew I wanted to make shoes because I was literally fed up with not finding anything to fit my (or my mother’s) feet and ankles.
How did I even start? I went to YouTube and first watched a video of a footwear factory and I almost quit on the spot. Then found a video of someone interviewing Susannah Davda from The Shoe Consultant. She talked about how to start up a shoe business. The next day I emailed Susannah and asked her to join me while explaining the unique challenge I wanted to fix in the shoe industry.
From day one Susannah has had to take time to explain terms, acronyms, and parts of the shoe that people who didn’t go to fashion school aren’t aware of, and she’s been so patient. She walked me through doing competitor analysis, writing up the background and challenges we have, and finding shoes that I liked to begin to form my brand. Then she connected me with several designers she thought might be good for the project.
I sent briefing packages to designers, and they replied, and I immediately felt drawn to the one we have, Jess Good, who is a brilliant freelancer with a huge footwear resume. Jess and I worked together for some time to interview ladies and come up with a good list of what to bring into the shoes and what to avoid and then Jess went to work. While she did this, I did my own work in securing funding to get the company off the ground. (Working with the Small Business Association was not fun and not successful, despite my being GREAT at doing paperwork after working for the government for 28 years, but I found another way).
Jess drew up the technical specs and she and Jess found some companies that might be good manufacturers. We selected one in Vietnam and worked with them for a while until we decided we needed something closer to the designer and also that was more into customizing fit instead of mass producing for the first rounds. Jess also met with a last maker to discuss custom molds for our shoes and got that started. She has been shopping for materials and soles and ornaments and zippers for the footwear. We brought on a footwear technologist to aid in getting a best-fit last and fit for the shoe design, given our unique needs. And we did rounds and rounds of measurements of lipedema ladies.
I hired a marketing company to help me clean up all my social media, starting with legslikemine.com, and the designer and technologist continue to work now with a new manufacturer in Portugal to set up prototypes. Once we get prototypes, we’ll do some wearing of the shoes to see what needs to be changed and do another round until we get it right. Then we’ll produce! And I’ll by then have the ability to order set up on my site, logistics for packaging and shipping set up and a process to accept and learn from returns.
It is a TON. But with any project, when broken down into manageable chunks, is not impossible. And also with any project, there will be course corrections and challenges to face. I’m up for those challenges. And once we have the lasts done, we will keep the process rolling. I have visions of bridal wear, sandals, summer shoes, a ballerina flat that looks right on our feet and so on. This is JUST the beginning!
We represent 11% of women in the world. We deserve shoes that fit and that look great.
Take care!
Susan
