In Her Shoes: Creating a Brand with Vision and Authenticity

welcome to the know your ship podcast presented by ehub I’m your
host Frank Dolce welcome to the know your ship podcast I have a special guest
today Ashley Cole Cecilia New York you and I got to know each other at
Disneyland on a on a little Adventure that was that was really fun and and
then uh well we’ve just kind of followed along all the amazing things that
you’ve done so thank you for being here yeah thanks for having me uh mom of
six kids but you I just want to talk about how you’ve built such this
unbelievable company and how you got started and and all of the stuff okay
all right awesome ready to go well I’d like to start at the beginning first
of all I just have to say I love your new collaboration with ballerina theow
Bo it’s been so fun yes I’m a huge cowboy boot fan so those popped up who
knows maybe we’ll do men’s who knows well I was going to ask you that at some
point during the podcast if you’re if you’re ever going to get into men’s weo
well yeah we’ll see it might be difficult I wear a very specific men’s shoe
what’s dress shoe alen Edmonds okay I think alen Edmonds are the best quality
they are nice mens you and fit like they’re my most comfortable shoes cowboy
boots Allen Edmonds and Jordan’s are the most comfortable shoes that I wear I
don’t know if most people are Allen Edmonds and cowboy boots that’s a it’s an
interesting combo it is yeah think so I think we could do something with the
men’s shoe line but it’s tough yeah it’s tough to get the right like fashion
but still the comfort and the fit it’s all quality comfort and still make it
feel like it’s a like a wearable daily oh I know that’s what I try to do with
women’s all day every day yes you do and I noticed yours as well thanks those
are amazing okay well let’s start from the let’s start from the beginning you
grew up uh in a family of nine kids yes old oldest of nine um here in Salt
Lake City Utah oh M okay I didn’t know that you were I moved to Connecticut
and high school gotcha mhm yeah so um yeah just um it’s crazy amazing um my
dad had an airline called moris air here in Utah that sold to Southwest when
I was in fifth grade and um we were all set to move to Texas and that was the
plan we bought a house there um my parents had taken me out and registered
for school and tried to sell me on everything it would have been awesome
actually now I love Dallas so much but but um my dad called one night is
really late and we all kind of stressed about it and he was um at the
Southwest headquarters and he would fly back and forth while we were um
ending the school year and he said his mom there I said she’s asleep it’s
like 11:00 on a school night and he said well we’re not moving and I was so
happy I ran out and RI the for sale sign out of our house um in the night and
threw it down and yeah we just decided to stay there my dad was a little too
much of a mover and Shaker for Southwest okay so he was going to work for he
Southwest he was going to work for Southwest that was part of the deal when
Southwest bought Morris he was going to come on his um like a VP there and he
just he didn’t he didn’t play by the rules he was telling them all the things
and he’s going to you know all the ideas and the problems in ruffling
feathers so her Kell her sat him down and said David this is not g to work
interesting yeah is that do you think you that’s a trait that you took from
your dad um yes for sure I mean I I think I’m a little more um I don’t know a
little more aware of I that’s the side of a woman right a little more aware
of trying not to be offensive sometimes and things like that but I definitely
have that site I know when I was in high school and we all did like those
color tests like are you yellow blue white red and I was like red all the way
down like that is wrong that is so wrong I am a blue and a white that’s what
a red would say yes and my friends are like are you kidding me you’re the
most red person we know you always have all the plans and the ideas and we’re
always doing what you want I’m like and we’re always doing what you want yeah
I just totally I guess I didn’t know myself at 17 I love that well so so uh
this is this is when you’re senior in high school or around it around or
you’re in high school at this point so when I so this was when I was in sixth
grade about Southwest oh M so my dad sold Morris um when I was like 11 by 12
we were going to moves to start my seventh grade year in Highland Park um in
Texas yeah in Dallas and then didn’t work out so we stayed and then my dad
took five years he had a 5-year non-compete after he sold Morris he couldn’t
do any airlines in the United States so he went and did um WestJet um a New
Zealand he was doing things outside helping other airlines start and in five
years he was planning his perfect Airline and that was Jet Blue okay so what
I’d like to know about that time in your life as you’re watching your dad and
your parents go through this are you cultivating this entrepreneurial Spirit
yeah for sure I mean there was just always I feel like excitement there was
always stuff going on like one day my dad would um drive home in a snowstorm
and he had this crazy car with a big thick antenna straight up and this big
Contraption like what is that what are you doing this looks like some like
Back to the Future thing goes oh no we drive this on the runway and it shoots
ice particles up in the air to help the fog so I was driving it up and down
the runway today and then I just wanted to drive it home it’s so fun and I
feel like there was just always stuff going on and he was always out throwing
bags if they needed it he was everywhere so we would feel that energy hear
that conversation and then all the time when we’ go somewhere people would
come up be like oh my gosh I just started at the ticket counter and your dad
was training me and he didn’t he he just came because he wanted to like tell
us more about what was going on he developed ticketless travel he he invented
it so he was always excited about it and and you know it was just this energy
that was just um very contagious and it was fun and it became so normal that
it wasn’t something I think I recognized until I got older how unique and
special that was well I think there’s lots of parallels just knowing a little
bit about what you’ve accomplished and how your dad went about it and you’re
right in the middle of it in in these formative years so and I think there’s
a lot of parallels with what you’re doing and especially one thing I wanted
to talk about is you’re from a family of n well nine kids in the family and
and a dad who’s Consulting with Airlines and eventually starting an airline
and then several and then but still keeping this really tight family unit and
somehow you’ve been able to do that as well and is that I like that has to be
something that you just tapped into as you were growing up I think so and I
think my mom just always um would talk about you know more is more with
family and you know that’s why she had nine kids she just believed in that
what the joy that that brought and so I never wanted to choose one or the
other my family’s very religious and um you know very gospel centered family
so it’s like I kind of wanted all things but I had something like inside me I
didn’t know how to get rid of so um it was just always kind of there but I
didn’t know how I would be able to work and do all these things cuz there
were a lot of entrepreneurs in my family actually my my Grandpa’s um multiple
lines all these entrepreneurs but not a woman that I knew of like the women
did great things my grandma taught BYU she wrote books she um there were
great things but none of them necessarily had a business at that point I feel
like more now but um I hadn’t seen that gotta and so as your as as you have
this kind of burning desire to do something or or or start something or just
this idea of it uh was was it always aligned in fashion or design or is that
yeah actually so I I always love fashion so much like um someone I went to
high school with actually might know him Nate cheets um founder of ran he
we’re gonna have to cut that we can’t talk about Nate cheets you can’t oh
jeez you proud Nate no no we what are you talking about we love we love Nate
I am especially close with his brother Spencer I love Spencer by the way
Spencer does a fantastic job here locally on the radio if you ever have a
chance to listen he’s very interesting we know the whole family so well he
was like you were always drawing dresses on like your math homework and stuff
and I had forgotten about that and I like oh cuz he was at new Canan high
school with me and I I totally forgot that I’d be sketching little things um
but then when it came time to go to college and I had moved out my senior of
high school kicking and screaming like how could you take me my senior year
um and I felt absolutely in love with it iel fell in love with New York I
fell in love with the east coast and I ended up going to the Fashion
Institute of Technology in Manhattan and I love design I love fashion um but
I knew like business was like at my core and that was something so important
so that’s why fit was such an amazing fit for me because I did a business
degree in fashion um and my instructors all our professors were you know like
the CFO of Levis and all these adjunct professors it just kind of blew my
mind and it was such an amazing experience but I did have this um um kind of
feeling inside me that I could only work until I had kids like that was just
always like this underlying feeling that like that was what was you know my
path and expected of me and um so I finished my schooling in three years I
would get permission every semester to take extra credit hours I was taking
like 22 credit hours at one point I was doing every summer semester and I
wish I didn’t rush that fast because I feel like I could have enjoyed it more
I was just like plowing through and I was like I was working for Jet Blue at
the time I my job was you know helping them in a marketing position
themselves as a fashion forward Airline which was such a blast and I was just
so crazy busy because I’m like I have to graduate as fast as I can so I have
a few years to work before I don’t know when I’m going to have a baby yeah
are you married at this point um I wasn’t yet but I was married before I
graduated gotcha yeah yeah to an unbelievable guy Matt is the best is the
best I keep trying to take him to lunch but he’s so busy too I know
everyone’s we’re just crazy but yeah keep trying he’d love it well I have a
bunch of questions about that I hope I can remember all of these first of all
you said that you you were working you were in school at the Fashion
Institute and working for JetBlue and building and and trying to build this
fashion forward Airline what does that mean a fashion forward Airline yeah it
was so much fun so Stan Herman who was the president of the cfda the
certified fashion designers of America like the like main um fashion
everything like it is a big deal and he designed all of the uniforms for
JetBlue so I got to be in that process and then they would basically say we
have no budget but you can go out and barter tickets to get us into anything
fashionable that would help with that so I um one awesome thing I flew all
the models to a big runway show for Michael Kors and we had a big presence
there um we did a bunch of Fashion Week where we would put tickets like
underneath the seat and we’d have someone come out like they were or talk on
the thing like they were a pilot this is your captain speaking Yeah they like
this is your captain speaking and there’s something now when you check into
your seats and there’d be like tickets and then we would have before the show
started we would have um models walking down in the JetBlue uniforms like to
show them and like even the the baggage handling in the maintenance gu these
super cool like silver bomber jackets it was really fun so yeah a lot of
stuff like that a lot of fashion cosmetic um Partnerships and it people
wanted to be a part of it it was New York’s we coined it as New York’s
Hometown Airline and um free flying was exciting to people I mean absolutely
it was it was a good time well I get to fly fairly regularly and I do now
that you mention it I do appreciate when the staff and the flight attendance
and like like they look like they’re well put together yeah I do too you it
makes that it makes for a nice experience it does it should be professional I
mean they have yeah very strict like guidance they have to follow so and I
think that goes with what you’re presenting yourself as but you decided not
to stay with Jet Blue yeah I always knew that was a time and it was such a
fun time it was so new and I got to go um and open all the new cities and we
would go to all the big events um baseball games everything and share and it
was just like when it was new there’s no more time I would want to be there
we were launching new season I remember I’d be like have you ever heard of
Jet Blue people say know it’s a new Airline and these are the cities and it
was like Brand’s making new and I would had like you know great friends I got
to bring on with me um living in you know Manhattan and it was a blast but I
knew you know that was not my long term but and also you know be on the
inside of what my dad was creating was really awesome okay so I think the
real this really interesting is that you have this sense for fashion but you
really are have a foundation in a business this this business background and
that’s where you wanted to focus okay so what are the lessons what are the
what are the lessons that you learned in on the business side working in that
kind of startup capacity with with Jet Blue oh I mean so much it was you know
there was an amazing team of people but there was a lot of trial and error
and number crunching and figuring out what were works and what doesn’t and I
was in the marketing department so just I learned about you know sharing and
branding and the importance of that and you know when you go out there who
are you and how are you going to get this across because an airline had a
very um clear parameters at the time I feel like it was like you know the
Delta is United now how can we be cool and how can we be stylish and you know
and it worked and it was fun to watch everybody do this but it was such a
good lesson to learn on you can brand yourself on who you want to be just
because you’re an airline doesn’t mean you have to be like these Legacy
character carriers in every way to be successful MH interesting okay so what
was the transition then from Jet Blue to I know you had a couple other things
before um I graduated college I worked for uh Georgia Armani for a while in
marketing the New York office and then um I worked for Dion firstenberg and
she was a huge part of I was going to ask would would you say outside of
maybe the the growing up experience you had being in this entrepreneurial
family was working with Diane maybe uh the most influential yes absolutely
tell like my muse um so the company when I came on she had just brought back
was buying back all of her licenses and um rebuilding the company and it was
just I just look back at that like I was D dropped into that at the most
perfect time um for myself and what was going on so it was this studio in the
meat packing District um was a building but the um we call it the you know
the design studio and where I was sitting um I was actually in sales and
marketing and to the right of me I could see the whole design um across like
the open area that we look down into the showroom um was PR production and
accounting and we were all it was pretty small it just like a couple people
in each team and I just got to see how the whole thing worked but honestly
the thing that I even took the most of even though there was so much I
gathered from those years there was Diane had an apartment on the very top
floor of the building and she we would come through in her yoga clothes her
grandkids were running around her um kids would come in and be like hey
what’s up what’s going on and talk to us and they were a part of it and it just
was this eye opener I can have it all like look at her it she’s still doing
this and she’s a grandma and her kids are so integrated and her grandkids
this is so beautiful to me that’s amazing there’s a New York Times article I
haven’t been able to read the whole thing but it sounds like she is quite a
character she is she like a big personality she is she is she’s done a lot
and you know she sees things different than other people and she just gets to
the heart of the issue and she just doesn’t care she just does things her way
and it’s really cool she would you know just whatever she some of the things
she would sa you a little off the cuff or whatever but I loved it I was
pretty like taken by her and what she had created and how she had done it I mean
she was really young when she created the rap dress yes I was going to
mention that’s her iconic and she had um she was really young and then you
know she sold all these licenses and then brings it all back and this team
she’s building when she’s older and doing it all again and it was so much fun
I mean I was part of so many things from you know sales um I didn’t wasn’t
involved in the design at donon firstenberg but the I was aaz on for a while
between all the international um everything that’s going on you know saxs
Dubai to you know showrooms we had to Independent Diane on first stores all
internationally which was such a good learning experience but yeah I just
looked back so when I graduated from fit I had an offer to go into the buying
program at Blooming Dells um or go work for d v furg and everyone was like
you got into the buying program at Blooming Dells that’s amazing like why
wouldn’t you take that but when I like went to meet with Diane I was like oh
no I’m going here like she speaks my language oh that’s one of the that’s one
of the inflection points you you picked the right yes you picked the right
path not that you wouldn’t be successful going the other way great but I
don’t think I would have had those you know those aha moments there so so how
did you was was did you apply for something how did you get dropped into that
scenario into Diane yeah yeah so um I did I went and I I applied there and I
knew someone who knew her so I just said hey um I would love to you know
worked for this company and um and then it was her husband I knew someone
that had met so he said will you meet with this girl she’s really excited
about you so I got an interview with her personally which was huge and I just
remember walking into like her um office off her um private apartment and
just like my jaw was on the ground like this is the coolest thing and I had
lived in New York for a while but her world was amazing to me like I was like
this is like this is what I like this feels so good it just awesome how long
were you there I was there 3 years okay yeah and in those three years now you
worked for Armani previous it was a short stint right at then kind of like an
internship that turned into something but it didn’t feel like the long term
got for me so I really wanted to um so then I said okay what what’s this
going to be and I was looking around and that was where I went and then um
actually Matt my husband he was working at a business and he was still in
school and he was starting to take it over as a sports training facility in
Connecticut mhm and he was like oh my gosh I have all this on my plate and he
was playing college football and and I just felt this poll to leave dvf and
go and build this with him which was hard but it felt so right at the time
and there too I mean we were like 20 I don’t know we were in our early 20s
and um mid 20s and we were building this business together okay there’s two
questions that came out of that one is your your husband wasn’t just playing
college football he was playing college football at he was at forom at the
time forom University and why and well if you’re a college football fan you
know why forom is so special in college football because Vince Lombardy Vince
Lombardi yes one of the great books of all time Vince Lombardi I mean I feel
like we should we should have like a moment of silence lomard it it was a
cool cool Legacy and yeah amazing campus and Matt had played at the U a year
MH and then we just decided okay well we’re just going to be long distance
until we both graduate college and then we’ll get married CU he’s like I’m
loving what I’m doing it the you I’m like I’m not leaving New York like I was
halfway through my fashion program when he um we basically I was like like
two and a half years and we decided we were going to get married but we’re
going to wait four years apparently cuz I wasn’t leaving New York and he just
started um so he and that didn’t work out obviously to wait four years so in
six months he transferred and we were newly Woods in Manhattan and is the
coolest most fun thing ever yeah that’s amazing okay so you decide now to
leave Diane this unbelievable experience and start running this yeah with and
um and it was the first time I had ever um dealt with employees we had to you
know make payroll we had to you know do all the marketing you know learning
new systems for the business and certifications for trainers it was just a
whole new world and we were doing it together which was really cool but yeah
it was a huge learning experience and it was hard it was really hard um so we
did that out for a while until I had my first Samuel and I tried to keep
helping after that but it wasn’t working out very well so I just decided okay
Now’s the Time I’m a stay-at-home mom this is this is you had your first
child mhm this is me I was 26 and this is me I’m a stay-at home mom now and
about the time Samuel was a year old it was like my wheels were turning and
like crap I don’t think I can you know I want to just be um so content and
happy and this is my most important role which it is and but something else
was kind of like Brewing inside me so Matt mentioned Matt mentioned that that
you you rarely sit still and like you don’t want to sit and watch a movie
poor Matt it’s no he he loves movies I just need to be better listen I like I
like to watch movies too so if Matt needs a stand in bring always like so
like you should go to a movie with Jeff our brother-in-law and he’s just like
no I want to go with you and but it’s it’s just like I love doing fun things
with people but I like feel like it’s quality time like I would much rather
go to an amazing dinner with him than go to a movie because I feel like then
we’re talking I just feel like in a movie it’s for my personal entertainment
but I want to like use that time to really be with the person instead of just
in quiet silence now you make me feel bad about watching movies no everyone
but me but so selfish no it’s not that at all but it’s like I have six kids
seven to 17 to 4 and there’s always so much more I’m behind with work and
everything so my I’m just starting to itch when I’m sitting there like I have
the biggest list to do I got to go I hear you okay so have you been this
whole time that we’ve been talking about have you been thinking about fashion
apparel or have shoes just been kind of on your mind the whole whole time how
did you land in in shoes in Footwear so that’s interesting question um so Sam
was like a year old and I trying to figure out you know I’m going to do
something I want to do something and um I’m trying to you know nail that down
what sounds like you know what I’ve learned and my um skills and everything
and I’m trying to just like kind of go through a bunch of stuff and I knew it
was going to be in fashion and it was the time of like um I don’t know if
they had actually got big yet but there were companies like layers and shabby
apple and um shade shirts and and I didn’t want to be coined as like the
modest um clothing company I didn’t want that to be like my Lane but I also
didn’t want to create things that I wasn’t going to wear um and so I was kind
of grabbling with this and then I was like shoes there’s no rules for shoes I
I can do anything I want I’m like you know I’m very religious I I like was
like I’m going to be true to myself with whatever I create so I decided to
choose and I start um I had learned about Footwear in school but I didn’t
it’s it’s its own animal it is so much more in depth than I knew at the time
I started traveling and going to factories um I spent a some time in Brazil
in factories I went to a lot of shows I just started researching footwork
like crazy and um I actually came up with this concept back then that now I
see it just come out where it’s basically like a heel goes to a flat and I
worked on it for a couple of years but um I just didn’t have the funding and
the capacity really in the factory Partners to get that technology and the
molds and everything I needed to really make that great so after a couple of
years of really working on this and it was it went it was way more in depth
than just that but and I still do some of the parts of it where we you have a
piece of fur that comes on and off or a big embellishment so I still do some
of those pieces that were part of that whole concept um so I was just like
you know what I’ve just learned a ton about Footwear and I just don’t feel
confident enough in this whole New Concept and stores didn’t really want to
do it they felt like it was a little too complicated retail MH um so I’m like
you know what let’s just go I’m just going to do it so um my I had a partner
in the beginning my friend Tiffany her husband Sean Nelson of l saac oh are
really close friends yeah and sea was instrumental and introducing us to
factories and helping us find people but um he he saw me just like
researching and working and trying to figure all these things he’s like you
just need to get a container of shoes and you need to get going and I’m like
okay you’re right and that was kind of like the kick in the pants I needed so
then I just you know I’m like I’m going to just make the most fun make women
feel good beautiful highquality shoes that are luxury at an an attainable
price and that became my whole um you know mindset and I moved and I started
going okay and so did you did you design the shoe yeah all you did the whole
thing yeah so I didn’t have a designer anyone for a long time I had some
private contractors come on and off and every time I’d be like oh let me just
see it I’ll just do it myself and I would kind of redo everything um I had
someone help me um amazing with you know there’s so much to it with um kind
of the detailing and the sourcing and the technician side of it so that was
great that I had some work with me um I’ve had some great people from Kudo
group Kudo group was in Greenwich in Connecticut which was the next town over
I was in darianne and um Kudo group was Tory bur um Jessica Simpson Lucky
Brand like so many Brands so there I was able to get some people from there
that taught me a lot about like the whole technical site cuz Footwear is very
complicated actually like when I was like oh shoes they’re so fun let’s do
shoes I had no idea what I was getting into that it was a world of learning
and um I can finally say like I can work with a technician and do a great fit
and all you know I know all the different materials that are going to feel
good and not and people say to me all the time your shoes look so good I had
no idea they’ feel so good on my feet It’s like because that’s that’s a whole
another level yeah well shoes are very difficult and important and like I
kind of consider myself a shoe guy I don’t know if I’m really a shoe guy but
I kind of consider myself that I think the moment you put your foot into a
quality shoe you know it and you walk around and you know it true and the
minute you put your foot into a lower quality piece of Footwear it’s like I’m
so glad you can say that never going to wear that again a lot of people I
feel like they don’t try the quality and then they just think that other
thing is normal you know and I’m like guys that plas it doesn’t mold to your
foot it doesn’t feel good you don’t have memory foam in there it’s like
you’re wearing a plastic bag like go try this and as much as my shoes might
seem like a higher price point to somewhere about 165 to 295 mhm you actually
get what you paid for and mine no doubt if I did I know there are companies
that charge much more than me that cut a lot of corners and don’t have the
same quality well and on the other side of that there are plenty of there are
plenty of shoe brands that charge a lot but the quality is not it’s amazing
to me what a brand name they can get away with I’m like wait a minute here
that’s not fair you are selling someone I know what you’re doing so anyway so
okay so uh what was your first wait did you come out with one shoe initially
or did you come out with a line I came out with a line I came out with a line
um yeah I just started going to trade shows because I didn’t have um the you
know I couldn’t just go buy a bunch of shoes without any orders behind it I
needed some Ord um and I wanted it was really good to kind of get feedback
from buyers and things like that like there’s a lot of just directed consumer
shoe brands these days and hats off to them but um for me I needed to go the
market route and um I’m so glad I did I’m so glad I have multiple revenue
streams now and I’m not just DDC and I’m not just wholesale yeah um but I I
was able to learn a lot on that process of whale right at the beginning like
I know a lot of people start D Toc and then they consider going into whale
but I was the way around um and yeah so I just remember that first show I
just kind of put it all on the line and um I got a double Booth which was way
more than I could afford and um we had trying to like make a splash we had
this huge display we had made and it was a big window from the knees down and
we had a model walking in there with different shoes so you just walk by and
see this huge window with just like feet like doing catwalks back and forth
and it did it drew a lot of people in and they’d be like can you try this one
on in the box and um we did that for a lot of shows but I just I also
remember being super discouraged oh it was hard not being a brand name at a
show like that it was really hard while we kind of had like the fun like
flashy come see us it takes a lot of time to build um and they even now like
we go to a new show um it takes a few times for people to that’s the show
they go to and buy to see you there to talk to you it’s and now people have
heard of us they see us in other stores things like that it’s easier but um I
I remember just walking up down the hall like am I done is this it like I got
like a few stupid orders what am I going to do like I don’t even know what to
do like I was so like discouraged and I just thought you know oh yeah we’re
just going to have all these papers out and it’s just gonna be amazing
everyone’s gonna yeah yeah and I just and that was like my first lesson of
you know like people don’t invest in you if they have no like reason to yet
okay I want to follow up on don’t let me forget I want to follow up on that
piece because uh this adversary adverse adversity I keep Point saying
adversary this adversity that you had to overcome early on you had this grand
plan and people didn’t buy and whatever okay uh but first I wanted to ask you
about what so what was the strategy in your first line of shoes that you came
out with I mean were you looking for some well I’ll just ask you that what
was the strategy well I was just hoping that you know I go out there with
these shoes and everyone Lov them and all these big stores would come
flocking and I remember my dad saying well how do you know they’re going to
buy your stuff like oh because I I have really cute stuff like it’s going to
be great that’s what I want to ask you about like what was in the design what
did you decide in the design that people would like did you have to do like a
bunch of market research or did you I did I did the same um Trend stuff a lot
of what I do now I’ve got more in depth with it now but yeah I mean we I just
did all the you know watch the runways what’s on the streets of different you
know um cities and I was living in New York so I feel like that’s like you
know you’re on the Forefront of a lot of that and um I honestly just designed
a bunch of stuff I liked I was just like okay well this is cute I want to do
it and got to start some