WEBVTT - Cold Calling with Natalie White 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:03.119 Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're booking 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.680 ophthalmologist appointments asap. Hopping from screen to screen and sports 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:11.320 game to sports game is definitely frying our eyeballs, but 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:14.760 we won't be quitting anytime soon. It's Wednesday, March twelfth, 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:16.560 and on today's show, we'll be diving right into my 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.680 conversation with Moulach Kicks founder and CEO Natalie White. We 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.800 dished about how she started a footwear brand from scratch 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.800 in her twenties while other brands aren't really making basketball 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.600 shoes for women's feet, getting players like Courtney Williams to 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.040 Rock Moolahs and cold emailing Mark Cuban. It's all coming 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:46.400 up right after this joining us now. She's the founder 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.159 and CEO of Moolah Kicks, the only brand exclusively committed 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.360 to creating performance footwear for the women's hoops game. She's 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.680 a former Forbes thirty Under thirty, ONOREE Sports Business Journals, 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.640 thirty Voices Under thirty and twenty twenty four Front Offices, 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.440 Rise twenty five Class of twenty twenty three, and one 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.760 of Adwek's twenty twenty three Champions of Change. She is 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.520 still a child. It's Natalie White. What's up. Natalie. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.440 Hi, Sarah, nice to be here. Thank you for that intro. 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:13.360 I appreciate it. 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.680 I'm seriously shook because I just mentioned that you are 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:19.920 still capable of making thirty under thirty lists as of 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.480 you know, last year. You're very young. You're very young, 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.920 and you're already doing such amazing, incredible things. So first 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:28.720 of all, I'm going to try not to get intimidated 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.920 by somehow you putting together this massive company at such 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.600 a young age. And more importantly, I want to really 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.640 get into how it started, how this mulach Kicks journey started. 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.760 So let's go way back to your growing up and hooping, 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.360 I assume, and that being the impetus for you realizing 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:45.720 that there was a space in the industry. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.280 Absolutely so. I grew up in New York City and 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.280 I played on almost every team you can imagine. I've 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.920 played for New Heights, i played for Team Prints, which 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.240 is now Exodus, I played for my high school, and 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.680 I still play in Dykeman and Rucker and all of 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.840 the women's street ball leagues. And I played in almost 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.280 every sneaker that you can imagine as well. And when 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.880 I went to college. I went to Boston College where 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.720 I studied finance. I played on the club team, and 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.600 I managed the varsity team, so I can I can 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.760 rebound okay and get water and watch jerseys like Noah. 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:23.640 Set and Drill. 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.960 Absolutely watched them off the floor. And when I was 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.359 picking out my shoes for my senior season, I saw 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:35.920 an ad that had four WNBA players holding out and 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.280 promoting the sneakers that they were on court, which were 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:44.400 all named after someone else, so it said Super Kyrie four, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:50.440 Diana Torossi, Lebron twelve, and two other players. And I 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.560 remember seeing that ad and thinking, what is the message 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.480 for the next generation. It's that you can be the 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:03.160 absolute best in this game, best in the WNBA, and 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.600 you will still be wearing and promoting sneakers named after 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.359 someone else. And when you look into the issue, it's 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.840 clear that not only does it have a social implication, 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.600 but a performance one as well, because the female footform 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.800 differs in four key places in the male foot form five, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.119 including the ankle, and when we, as female hoopers are 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:29.520 wearing men's children's unisex sneakers, we're actually more at risk 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.840 for the knee, ankle and leg injuries that are so 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.000 common in women's basketball, and so I saw that one 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:39.800 to punch and really, without any hesitation, created Moolah to 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:44.440 be the first and only brand that is focused specifically 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.560 on women's basketball where every single thing we do is 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:53.040 to elevate, see and celebrate female hoopers. And it starts 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.240 with premium performance equipment, footwear fit for her. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.360 Okay, there is so much in there. I want to 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.160 get back to that moment where you see a need 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.840 and you obviously you have a finance background, you went 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.480 to a great college, You're a smart person, so you 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:10.600 recognize the need and that there's a space to fill. 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.840 You still have to create something from scratch. That means funding, 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:21.800 That means design, that means marketing, that means brand creation, trademarks, copyright, 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.080 advertising awareness. Like it is a massive deal to try 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.280 to break into a market that has really established top 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.520 performers like Nike, Rebok, Adidas as it's all these brands 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.839 that we already know, right, So where do you start? 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:37.719 Do you start with the funding? Do you start with 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:38.839 a pitch and an idea? 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.440 I would say, Sarah, that idea, what I just shared 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:43.920 with you is the easiest part. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.760 You know right, knowing that we're missing something is easy. 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.400 Fixing it is what we've been working on for literally 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:50.680 decades in the women's sportspace. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.200 Yeah, but the easy part is the idea, is the 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.560 founding story. The hard part is making it happen. What 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.640 you've said and so you I thought, But when I 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.400 started it, I knew nothing about footwear, right, I didn't 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.159 have I mean, it's crazy, I'd have no background, you know, 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.599 that was my intro. It's like, I'm still very young. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.120 So we are absolutely figuring everything out as we go. 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.120 And the beauty of that is that we get to 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.800 have our core consumer, the women's basketball player, the girls' 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:23.080 basketball players, drive all of our decisions. And the first, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.840 the very first step in the process, I thought it 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.800 was funding. When I was a senior in college, I 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.800 went out for funding. Every single person told me no, 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.880 fifty one hundred. I can't even tell you the number 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.479 of accelerators I applied to people I pitched who said, 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.320 if this was a real market brand, Nike would have 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.480 already been doing it on German would have already been 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.680 doing it, because at the time, no one was. And 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:54.479 so that fueled me, Like I said, you know what, 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.040 we're going to do it with nothing, and we ended 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.239 up doing just that, bootstrapped it for two years. Who's 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.200 we at that time it was me. I was a 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.599 solo founder for two years, and now we've brought on 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.159 a great team that has transformed for the business. But 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.440 when I first started, it was just me, and I 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.400 do say we because I had so much help from 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.120 the women's team at Boston College and a lot of 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.560 the players in the ACC and all the players who 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.680 I grew up playing with. They helped. They worked on 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.000 Moolah with me for free, just because they believed in 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.039 what we're doing. And the first step in the process 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.159 was creating that inner form, which is called the last 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.640 and is responsible for the fit of the shoe. So 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.640 when we say fit for female ballers, it doesn't really 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.640 mean anything to the consumer. What means something is when 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:45.880 you say these shoes take no time to break in. 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.840 They're ready right out of the box. And what's responsible 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.839 for that is the inner fit. And what's responsible for 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.240 the inner fit is a form called the last spelled LASP, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:01.320 and it's essentially a mold of way which all materials 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.760 are pulled around in the sneaker creation process and then 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.640 the very final step is that mold is removed, whether 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.680 it's a high heel, a boot, or a sneaker. And 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.560 so our mold was the first thing we needed to 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:18.960 create with pediatrists, orthopedic surgeons, and the top last company 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.200 in the world, Jones and Vining, And so essentially the 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.720 way we created that form was I called and interviewed 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.600 as many experts as I could find, podiatrist, whoever else 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:37.080 I just mentioned. I surveyed every girls basketball player I 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.880 could get a hold of, varsity players in the ACC, 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.920 the entire club circuit, walked around with a Google survey, 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.679 I mean just really vootscap standing outside of CONTI Forum 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:50.880 and pulling all the high school girls that walked in. 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.040 What do you like, what don't you like? What fits, 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:57.040 what doesn't. And then compiled all that research and made 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.800 that first form, sampled against it and start testing it 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:03.520 with the Boston College team where they had one of 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:07.880 their old sneakers on and one of our new Mulah prototypes, 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:11.840 and we ran them through practices and drills where they 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.720 would comment on the fit. And so in time we 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:20.120 just started small changes improvements to that form, until finally 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.480 we had a form that when folks put our shoes on, 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:26.840 they had they're ready right out of the box with 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.320 no break in time. And that was the first step 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:30.440 you mentioned. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.480 You know, less than ten percent of the basketball shoes 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.800 that are offered, including some W signature shoes, are designed 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:37.600 for the female foot form. It seems like a no 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.400 brainer to make women's shoes for women. And if the 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.080 process for all shoes is to have a last and 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.520 a mold, why doesn't it Why isn't it more common 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.240 to use the women's foot form for women's shoes? 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:56.400 Cost it's the tooling costs are really expensive, and the 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.959 big brands save money when they make everything for men 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:01.920 and market men's stuff for women. 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.920 So if you went to any of the major brands 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:11.160 and you bought a women's shoe, it's women's in sense 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.679 of more the exterior shape than the interior form. 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:15.440 For a lot of them. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.720 Yes, okay, interesting, So okay, I got to go back 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.000 still because you're acting like it's a normal thing for 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.280 a college senior to know about, you know, trying to 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.760 get into accelerator labs or trying to get Bundy. Like 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.240 obviously you have this entrepreneurial spirit and this business sense 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:33.160 where does that come from? 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.320 I don't know. I think you know. When I was 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.120 a real young kid, I used to always be thinking 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.600 about ways to make money. And I grew up in 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:44.719 New York and there used to even when I was 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.160 in fifth grade, there used to be a popular toy 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:49.199 called a miyachi. I don't know if you've ever heard 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:53.040 of it. It's like a hackey sack on your hands. 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.440 And I remember my family went to the beach one 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:01.800 summer and I bought wholesale one hundred the achis and 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.480 I tried to I went outside of a toy store 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.440 on the boardwalk and I played with them, trying to 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.160 bring that toy into trying to sell it to kids 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.880 like on the boardwalk. And so I think a part 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.760 of it I've always had and I a hustler, yeah, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.080 and be an entrepreneur. I think is a lot like 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.520 being a manager for the basketball team, because it means 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.079 you want to be a support player and you care 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.240 more about the mission than what you're doing. I'm fine 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.000 getting the water. I want to support the players and 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.200 be a service person to our greater mission, which is 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:41.640 to elevate women's basketball. 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.920 But you still need funding to do the things like 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.080 creating prototypes to put on players and have them test 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.480 them out and tell you what, yeah they like, what 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.400 they don't like. Before you're going to make a whole 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.360 bunch of shoes and try to get them in stores 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.679 and sell them, you still need a certain amount of 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.640 funding to get started. Where did that come from? 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.720 I did investment banking internship at HSBC and made twenty 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.199 five thousand dollars in one summer. 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.880 Work paid internship, paid internship. We love those. 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.480 And then also for COVID, because I was in the 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.680 class of twenty twenty, we got a housing reimbursement from 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.400 when we got kicked out of the dorms and that 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.120 was about It was a food and housing reimbursement for 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.760 about eight thousand dollars. So I took the twenty five 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:27.720 thousand I made over the summer and the eight thousand 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.920 reimbursement and I used that thirty three thousand dollars and 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.640 invested every penny of that, which was all I had, 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.839 into those things that you do need to pay for, 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.000 right like the actual mold and the designs and the 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.400 sampling expenses. And then when we were ready, we came 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.840 out with a pre sale campaign in May of twenty 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.400 twenty one. So it took all you know, over a 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.600 year of sampling and working on this one hundred hours 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:01.560 a week full time with really no reward. And I 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.760 was blessed enough to live with my parents during that 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.360 time and they supported me with food and a bed, 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:10.480 and I was able to come out with a pre 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.679 sale campaign in twenty twenty one where we sold thirty 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.560 thousand dollars worth of products in only a few weeks. 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.400 And that's not like a Kickstarter style, but it is 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.000 in the sense of they will order it before you'll 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.040 make it, and you'll know that that order is in 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.760 before you produce, so that you don't have stock laying 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:29.000 around that you then have to unload. 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.080 Exactly. It was basically a Kickstarter, except for we didn't 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.719 do it on the Kickstarter platform because they take ten 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.559 percent of yourself, right right, right right. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.080 I have to ask when you were playing AAU and 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:40.800 growing up, did you have a go to shoe or 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:42.679 did you just play with like did you bounce around? 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:43.640 I bounced around? 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.280 Yeah, yeah. Interesting. I had to always get the kind 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:49.280 with like the highest possible ankle, and then I had 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.840 to wear full like air cast ankle braces, which nobody 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.240 wears anymore. I feel like they've updated the technology, but 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.000 I had such bad ankles that I was like constantly 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.400 like all the way halfway up my frickin' My producer 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.640 is just writing in the script air cast. Ha ha 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.720 ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, mesh, I'm oldest we've 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.000 been over this. I have no idea what the folks 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:11.079 are wearing now. I'm sure it's a million times better, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:12.960 but that's literally what I had to suit up with 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.720 every freakid game. We got to take a quick break 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:30.840 more with Natalie White when we come back. You've got 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.559 this idea, You've sold the first batch of them. Now 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.920 you start being sort of strategic. When did you go 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.280 to Mark Cuban? Was that before or after the Dicks 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:40.640 Sporting Goods relationship? 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.800 This is a crazy tidnit that needs to be shared. 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:48.520 So thirty thousand dollars of sales is a drop in 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.160 the bucket for what you need to produce commercial footwear. 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.120 Because to get into a top factory where our sneakers 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:59.559 were produced the first run, you need thousands of sneakers, 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:04.319 and thirty thousand dollars is hundreds, right, not thousands? So 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:06.360 including tooling costs and everything. 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:07.840 Else, explain tooling costs. 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:13.960 Tooling costs are essentially the cost to cut steel molds 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.760 for every half size of a mid soul and an outsol, 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:18.800 got it, And those run a couple of hundreds of 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:19.640 thousands of dollars. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.680 Okay, all right, so take us to the factory. How 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:24.840 do you get these hundreds made when they're not thousands. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:29.880 Yeah. At the same time as that pre sale was happening, 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.440 there was a Good Morning America segment where the CEO 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.560 of Dick's Sporting Goods was talking about the commitment that 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.160 Dix has not only to women's sports, but in particular 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:45.280 to women's basketball. And I remember seeing that segment and thinking, 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:50.600 oh my god, they have everything except for sneakers fit 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.880 for her. They would love this. And I saw that segment, 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:58.920 and at the same time we had had a pr blast. 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:04.560 We were in the Boston Globe Sneaker Freaker overtime. A 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.880 ton of people were promoting our pre launch, essentially because 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.480 they knew me and knew Mulan what we're doing. We're 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.400 excited by it. And in the Boston Globe, a man 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.720 an industry expert named Matt Powell was quoted, and I 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.200 saw on LinkedIn that he was connected to Lauren Hobart, 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.600 the CEO of Dick's Boarding Goods, and so I reached 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.440 out to Matt after seeing the Good Morning America segment 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:31.840 and said, Hi, Matt, here's the segment I saw about 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.680 Dix and their commitment to women's basketball. Here's the Mulah brand. 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:39.160 Would you please connect me with her. Here's the exact 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.920 email ad right, here's the presentation I'm ready to give. 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.680 I'm ready to give that in two minutes or six 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.280 hours if I need to drive to Pittsburgh. 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.160 Amazing, And he. 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.680 Said, oh my gosh, you know, if you're gutsy enough 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.000 to ask me for that, then yes. And so I 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.480 connected with her and immediately she got right back to me, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.760 and she connected me with their head of soft lines 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.240 and they're head of footwear, and I pitched in during 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.120 June of twenty twenty one. They loved it and they 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.160 said how soon can you get it here? And, of course, 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.960 not knowing much, I said, well, I can get it 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.400 there for basketball season and they said, okay, basketball season. Wow, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:20.720 you'd be the fastest company. 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.400 Uh oh, not a great sign to ever deliver. 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.440 To us and the smallest in size, meaning like I 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:29.800 was only one person at the time, and I said, yup, 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:34.440 we can do it. And they said, okay, we're going 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.920 to put it into one hundred and forty stores and 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:41.560 make the first ever women's basketball section with this. Then amazing, 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.080 and I said, let's do it. And at that time 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:48.600 I negotiated payment terms so that we had healthy receivable 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.960 terms with Dicks. Then went out and pitched to a 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.760 ton of the top factories overseas who I knew through 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.800 a few footwear connections that I had made through the 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.640 of the year and a half, and eventually pitched to 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:07.800 a group out in Dongnai, Vietnam, Wa Sung who created 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.960 sixty million pair of year for Adidas, Hoka, All Birds 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:17.840 and big big performance brands. I pitched to them. They 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:23.600 loved it, and they took us immediately and expedited all 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:24.360 of our production. 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:25.200 Wow. 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.640 They had even the management team was carting around our 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:31.840 uppers which is like the sewn in part two different 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.560 factory lines to make sure that they got done in time. 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.360 We made sure that our receivables covered our payables, and 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:43.159 then at that point went out and pitched investors just 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.480 to get the funds to get the goods through the border. 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.399 That was the only funds we needed to raise was 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:53.119 to cover the air freight and the customs. And so 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:58.320 went out and cold emailed Mark Cuban, because yeah, when 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.639 you don't know what you're what, who to go to? 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:01.080 Right? 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.560 And so I reached out to him with a cold email. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.679 It's in his bio on LinkedIn, and he ended up 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.360 investing along with the consortium of a few other investors, 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.800 and we were able to get all of our goods 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.480 across in a safe way to exporting goods on time, 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.000 and we created the first ever women's basketball section in 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:23.320 one hundred and forty stores. 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.439 That's incredible. Mark Cuban is. I don't want to encourage 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.240 a whole bunch of people to bug the hell out 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.560 of him, but I cold emailed him via Facebook about 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.480 the Cubs once and now we're friends as the results 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.320 of that, So he does get back to folks. He's 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.560 more accessible than you'd imagine for a multi billionaire. Okay, 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.320 so now you're in Dick's Sporting Goods, you're a one 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.320 hundred and forty stores. Now you've got a partnership with 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.040 them where they financially backed the brand through their DSG 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.960 Ventures investment fund. I still need to understand why they believed. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:58.080 You're obviously very compelling, very smart. The idea is a 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.000 good one, but footwear is so specific and people I 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.119 would imagine if you did the research on it, it 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.080 is one of the items that people are most likely 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.119 to buy the brands they already know, and least likely 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.200 to go outside of existing brands. That's just a guess 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.240 for me. So how do you convince people that they're 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:19.639 good shoes, that they're not going to get injured, that 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.040 they're gonna make them play well, that they look good 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.280 in them, that they want to wear? Like, how are 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.280 you convincing Mark Cuban or Dix or even your partnership 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:30.480 with Stanley Mugs, which we'll get to later. How do 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:35.440 you convince them that it's a viable product that will work, 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:37.600 that won't have the wear and tear that people will 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:39.080 be mad about all that stuff. 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.119 The first step is putting them on. I mean, if 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.120 I were with you today, Sarah, I would have brought 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:45.879 a couple of pairs to make sure you put a 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.560 pair on, because the second you actually put our shoes on, 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.680 all those questions go away. You can tell it's a 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.560 quality product, and the second you stand up and take 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.240 a couple steps, you say, oh my god, I understand 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:01.240 what it means to not have any break in time. 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:03.919 So that's the first thing, is your product has to 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:04.520 be there. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.080 And is the break in time? So I remember I 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.440 was watching the videos. Courtney Williams, one of your players, 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.399 talked about how she loves the idea that she can 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:14.119 put on a new pair every game and doesn't have 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.399 to break them in. Why is that? Is that because 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.280 the form is made for her foot? Or is that 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.919 because of some proprietary technology that like other shoe companies 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:23.040 aren't doing for whatever reason. 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:27.359 That's both are true. It is our female foot form 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.560 that we developed and it's that no other company has done. 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:32.439 Why not? 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.320 Is it cost Again, that's the same, is what we 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:37.880 went back to. It's the tooling costs. It's just been 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.880 historically cheaper for them to make men's male fit products 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:42.800 and market it to women. 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.000 But the same with the break in because the break 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.760 in is not specific to gender, right, that's just the 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:49.840 way the shoe is made. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.400 That's something that we as female basketball players experience ten 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.000 fold because the equipment isn't made for us. 0:20:57.400 --> 0:20:58.320 It's like during a. 0:20:58.320 --> 0:20:59.960 Mouthguard, so they're related. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:01.919 It's the fact that it's made for you already, so 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:03.680 you don't have to break it in to match your 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:05.040 form because it was already built for you. 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.160 Exactly got it okay, all right? 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.280 So people can tell by looking at the shoe, the 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.560 product putting it on, they understand the value. What's your 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:15.440 pitch to them about why someone would want to get 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.000 Moulah Kicks instead of going with the Sabrina and Escuz 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.000 or the other ones that they've heard about that they've 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:22.120 seen on the players they love. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:28.800 Okay, first performance, our performance, the feeling is like no other. 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:33.600