Becca Brown  & Monica Murphy

I was introduced to Becca Brown at the FFANY Shoes on Sale event (more on that tomorrow) by my friend Nicole Rivers at FFANY. Becca along with her partner, Monica Murphy is the founder of SoleMates which is a product that protects the heels of ladies shoes. Becca was full of energy and I could tell right away that we had a lot in common. I spent some time on the phone with her yesterday and can not help but be excited to support her and her dream. Her and her partner had an idea, put together a plan and then made it happen….You gotta love that.   I asked Becca to write me a little bit about the origin of SoleMates so please enjoy below and if you are a retailer or wholesaler who sells a lot of heels, you should totally hit her up and have a little chat!  I know there are a lot of women out there who will love this product.

Never Sink into the Grass Again:  the Origins of SoleMates!

It all started at my high school prom – that sinking feeling!  I was with several of my friends trying to take photos in front of the limos…we were all dressed up, many of us wearing high heels for the first time…and as we tried to hold graceful poses on my parents lawn, our heels were helplessly sinking into the grass (and so was our grace!!).  The frustration from that experience never went away, and was only aggravated by ruining my heels every time I attended an outdoor wedding, graduation, or just walked around New York City (from the bricks and grates on Wall St., to the cobblestones in the West Village).  I wanted to create a solution for this constant (not to mention expensive!) problem.  So, after years of having this idea idle in my mind, finally in late 2006 while I was attending Columbia Business School, I along with my classmate and now business partner Monica Murphy decided to take the crucial “steps” to creating a solution, and we invented our product, the SoleMates High Heeler^TM.   It was during our 2^nd year at Columbia Business School that we laid the foundation for what is now SoleMates, LLC.   And, after 2 years of a lot of hard work, extensive research and development (from engineering the design of the product, generating prototypes, securing our patents, building a website, developing our branding and packaging, etc.), Monica and I launched SoleMates in late 2008.   As we approach the 1 year anniversary of our launch, we are so thrilled to now have SoleMates carried in over 500 stores within the U.S. and abroad as well as on our website (www.thesolemates.com), and we have garnered significant press for our product including features in O, The Oprah Magazine, The Today Show, The New York Times Style Section, Glamour, People Style Watch, Modern Bride, Forbes, and more!  We are so excited to build off of this early momentum, and in the coming months we look forward to expanding our distribution, increasing awareness for our product, and establishing our brand further.

We created SoleMates to finally put an end to the ever-frustrating and universal problem of ruining high heels caused by sinking into grass and getting stuck in cracks. Interestingly enough, the high heel was originally designed to make a woman feel more confident and capable, and yet ironically, most women who find themselves sinking into the grass at an outdoor event or getting their heel caught in a sidewalk crack feel anything but confident.  Our goal at SoleMates is to provide practical and clever solutions to everyday problems which in turn allow women everywhere to feel confident and empowered!

Becca Brown

SoleMates, LLC – Co-Founder

www.thesolemates.com