Helping an inventive founder find her brand and voice
Rebranding a footwear brand invented by a neuroscientist // when marketing speak means nothing // why we still need to celebrate female founders
When I first met Dr Steffie Tomson, she was exhausted, frustrated and nearing the end of her rope. She had invented proprietary density sneaker foam heels and wanted to share them with other women making impact. So, without any experience in branding or marketing, she hired who she thought would help her dream come to life. Some helped, some didn’t. Some listened, some dismissed.
Some thought that this was styling a shoot. I asked Steffie about this photo and she agreed it gave her anxiety seeing such a messy pile of shoes, but she didn’t know how to speak up and communicate what her vision for the shoot truly was.
With enthusiastic customers keeping her going, proving that she was building something different & needed, Steffie was eager to find someone who got it. Who listened. Who brought the necessary skills and vision and network to make this come to life.
Sometimes the internet works in magical ways and we were connected. And while I love all of my clients, I’m especially proud of this work.
It has been such an absolute joy to rebrand STEFFIE’S, formerly known as Getaway Sticks, and help Steffie’s dream come to life. Starting with a new name, a new website - below!, a new brand campaign & shoot, and new styles - launching this month!
So let’s start with the name. I’ve told Steffie I almost didn’t take our first meeting just because of the name. I didn’t get it. And then when we met, she explained her sweet intention behind the name - it was an old timey phrase for women’s legs.
But all I heard was male gaze. Which, in most fashion industries, is so embedded you don’t even realize it.
And it makes sense. Think of the named brands of shoes that we all know and love: Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Giuseppe Zanotti and Stuart Weitzman.
A group of people designing a product that many of them will never wear themselves.
This isn’t a man hating post.
It’s acknowledging how powerful it is when a founder or designer has a similar lived experience - and therefore knows what true innovation is.
Because what Steffie has created with STEFFIE’S and her proprietary RoamFoam is true innovation. It is not going to the shoe factories of China and picking out piecemeal elements of a shoe and calling it new. (NOTE - that is how most shoes are made / designed. And why as much as I would love the idea of American made shoes, we just simply don’t have the infrastructure, factories or capabilities here).
This is the picture Steffie took at a sourcing market in China. The modern way shoes are made is that you shop the markets for elements, then create a frankenstein of a shoe. This existing heel shape with this on-trend material and color in this signature shape. Slap a logo on it and it’s a brand.
But, because Steffie is a scientist first, she challenged the way we do things and did it differently.
To back up - she never set out to be a footwear designer. As a neuroscientist, she studied thought. And as a woman working in the medical research world, she was expected to dress a certain way. That certain way included “professional” heels.
But here’s the thing about heels - they don’t actually help you get places. So working on a large campus in Texas, she spent more time than she wanted thinking about her shoes. Will she be in one place today - and can therefore wear a more stylish (higher?) heel? Or will she have a meeting in this building, and then a lunch off site and then a workshop in that other building - and now her kids need medicine from the pharmacy on the way home? If she didn’t have the right footwear, her day would be painful. And pain is one of the biggest distractions from complete thoughts.
And - this blew my mind - even the anticipation of pain can derail everything, making your brain unable to focus on anything but that pain. Because that’s how our brains are wired - to protect us and keep us moving. But we literally can’t when we have pain sensations stopping every thought in its tracks.
And this is when the men in the room raise their hands and say “so stop wearing heels!”
Oh! We didn’t think of that!
The reality is that society has a long way to go to have a more balanced view of professional dress. If men can now get away with sneakers and jeans and hoodies - shouldn’t women be able to as well? The answer is sadly not really.
But as Steffie will often say, she’s not here to fix societal expectations but rather to create a better solution in the interim.
When I met Steffie, I told her one of my many shoe horror stories as seen in this photo below. I was in the diamond industry and therefore it was required to dress like my potential clientele - despite being paid only $40,000, commuting to LIC from NJ, and not having a trust fund to float me as I built my career…
This event, in 2006 at Chelsea Market, was excruciating for many reasons - but mostly that I wore my Cole Haan x Nike 2” pumps and thought I would be fine standing on old, factory hardwood floors talking about cuts and carats and clarity. After two hours, I was sweating with pain. So I called my then boyfriend, now husband, and begged him to drive in to pick me up. From NJ. On a Tuesday night. He begrudgingly drove in and was understandably annoyed. I remember him snidely suggesting “Don’t wear those fucking heels, then” while scores of women walked by in 5” stilettos. It was 2006.
I remember internalizing the stress, shame and pain. Clearly heels worked for everyone else but me. My feet were weird. I wasn’t tough enough. I wasn’t woman enough (ha). Cole Haan partnered with Nike and they showed me the cushion technology, so what was I doing wrong?
But let’s look at this:
TELL ME YOU WERE INVENTED BY A MAN WITHOUT TELLING ME
Because yes, all women want is Construction & Seduction. Yes, (male) shoe designers - thank you for “getting” us and knowing our deepest inner desires.
So this is how Steffie started.
She took a bandsaw to her heels to first understand what they were made of.
Plastic. Metal Screws. Cardboard. The tiniest smear of foam that does nothing. Certainly doesn’t absorb the shock of a woman walking with determination, towards something.
So what happens when you have pain? You can’t think about anything else. The pain shoots back up into your body because that energy has to go somewhere. And this is why so many women have lower back, knee, joint and hip pain.
But we all know the joy of wearing a good pair of sneakers. And, with such a commitment to health and movement, there’s been TONS of innovation in the athletic footwear industry.
I went to buy new shoes recently (pre-tariff panic shopping) for my new obsession with Alpha Fit Club circuit training and was overwhelmed with the options. But then I look at women’s shoes options - and the countless ads I’m served on my business / Finsta account - and I’m so disappointed. No actual innovation.
This was one of the hardest parts with the STEFFIE’S rebrand.
Women have been lied to. We’ve been sold innovation, where none actually exists.
We’ve been sold Comfort AND Style! To justify frequent turnover based on sales cycles and quarterly projections. But how do you communicate that you are ACTUALLY doing something different while also catching search terms?!
To crack this, I brought in two trusted creatives:
Robyn Dutra, who I reconnected with through the always inspiring THE BOARD. And Lauren Darling, my dear friend, neighbor and unrealized past collaborator to help with the new visual identity and rebrand. Fun fact that the world is TINY - Lauren married a friend of mine from high school and then moved down the block from me during the pandemic. In doing the “getting to know you / career comparison”, we realized she was the art director on a Farrow & Ball advertorial I ran through Hearst. Teeny, tiny world.
After several virtual meetings, we realized in order to get it right we needed to get together. So we fulfilled my dream of doing a creative off-site at Bobbi Brown’s hotel The George in Montclair, NJ. And it was even better than I could have imagined.
But when we started to write our brand messaging - we really hit a wall. Women say they want Comfort AND Style! But all these other brands are using those words. Because that’s what women search for. And the results - are anything but. To be fair, the “style” is often there. But why does comfort mean orthopedic shoes?! Forever grateful for Robyn and her wisdom for guiding us through this process.
The other word we kept debating was Empowered. What was meant to be a rally cry has now turned into another eye roll.
Of course Melinda French Gates said it best below.
But we are seriously trying to empower women! So instead of using the word, Steffie is just doing it.
We realized that by focusing on Steffie - the woman, the neuroscientist, the actual innovator - the impact will be clear to those listening. Hence the switch to her name. (Yes of course we considered naming the brand Dr Steffie’s but it was too similar to a different, male Dr S in this space).
Once we got the name and messaging around the brand settled, it was time to do a new brand campaign & photoshoot.
Lauren immediately got what we were building. Where other creatives and agencies had not listened to Steffie or just replicated bad tropes in modern marketing, Lauren helped us understand how to balance consumer expectations with building something truly new and beautiful.
And good lord did she deliver.
Again, good people actually make the world go round: Lauren did the visual identity and brand guidelines, then assembled the dream team for our first true brand campaign.
In early March, we all met up in Brooklyn at SK Studio - owned and run by the fabulous life & business partners Aspen Green and Spencer Kohn - for a truly magical day. I’ve been to a lot of shoots in my day and most (def not all) of them have been fun and inspiring. But there was something about the energy this day that was different.
This was one of the many songs that played in my head throughout our creative workshop and photo shoot. Who remembers this?
Why don’t we have more feminist, crossover collabs?
Maybe Doechii and Lambrini Girls should get together?
But I digress.
Everyone here was brought on for their sharp talent, their distinct perspectives, and their ease of collaboration. And it was better than any of us could have imagined.
Shot by Viki Forshee with digitech support from Julia Bahlsen, Anna Campbell and lighting perfection from Henry Lopez. And videographer Andrea Kinnerk. And wardrobe stylist Connie Berg who pulled all the perfect looks, topped off with Hair & Makeup Artist Yukiko Tajima. Everyone came for the job, but each left their mark in such beautiful ways.
I have to give so much credit to Lauren, who brought a happy lightness to the day, giving gentle direction to the teams and models while making us all burst with laughter. The models, Gabby & Larrysssa, GOT US - especially after we had to help them overcome the past direction they’d received from shoe brands. Instead of walking delicately, we told them to walk with pride, purpose, and strength. To jump. To laugh, to move.
And have you ever seen a more hands on founder?!
This led to this:
Now, we can finally step back and look at the new brand and see the potential, learn from Dr Steffie, and become aware that there are better footwear options.
Note on this pic of radiant Steffie: not only is she beaming, which made me SO happy to see - and such a contrast from the woman I met last summer. But - I snuck in two Easter eggs: my favorite Gloria Steinem book, My Life On The Road, and Bonnie Wan’s The Life Brief.
I brought my copy with me on a solo trip to Belfast & around Northern Ireland in May of 2018. Another post for another day, but one of my favorite adventures. Seen here at the Giant’s Causeway.
My time with Steffie’s has been so informative and inspiring and validating.
And truly the epitome of good people doing good things.
I’m wrapping up with Steffie now but will continue to be a support - and customer!
Which means I have time for another female founder truly innovating and dreaming of improving the experience of living. Let’s talk!
Very brilliant Molly - now how do I get my British hands of some of those shoes?