Natalie White founded Moolah Kicks on January 1, 2020.
Courtesy of White
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Natalie White was a player on her college’s club basketball team when she saw a shoe advertisement featuring four WNBA players promoting sneakers named after a male player.
“It really sparked me to think, ‘What is the message here and what are we teaching the next generation?’” says White, a member of the 2024 Under 30 Sports list.
While reflecting on the social implications of the ad and industry at large—which suggests male sports are both the standard and the aspiration—she also realized the performance implications. The majority of shoes are designed for men’s feet and sized down for women shoppers. But nothing else—like the shape, proportions or other parts of the form—is changed. (Sound familiar?) That makes it more likely for women to experience knee, ankle or leg injury while wearing shoes, White explained.
That inspired her to take a step in a new direction: She founded her own by-women-for-women footwear brand, Moolah Kicks, in 2020.
Today, Moolah Kicks can be found in nearly 500 stores thanks to a retail partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods, where they created the first-ever women’s basketball section. They also sell products directly to consumers through the company’s website and have expanded their offerings from the original shoe model, called the Phantom 1, to three new shoe styles, a kids shoe line and apparel. White declined to comment on the company’s revenue.
She knows that the holidays are a hot time for Moolah sales–as are the peak seasons before winter and summer basketball seasons. To take advantage of these seasonal markets, Moolah needs to stay top of mind for consumers all year long, White says. That’s why the brand relies on an omnichannel approach to keep up brand awareness—including both paid digital advertising and grassroots or one-on-one marketing with basketball players.
For instance, Moolah kicks has brought on Destanni Henderson, a former LA Sparks player that currently plays for Turkish team Antalya Toroslar, and Caroline Ducharme, a UConn player, as brand ambassadors (who have 211,000 and 30,000 Instagram followers, respectively).
White’s best piece of business advice is to not lean too heavily into seasonality, she says.
“Who we are never changes and the quality of what we offer is going to be the same all year round,” she says. “From when basketball season starts through the end of the year, we definitely keep our foot on the gas.”
Until next week,
P.S. Have a nomination for our 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list? Let us know here.
Canelo Álvarez Flexes His Business Muscle
Canelo Álvarez is number 5 on the Forbes highest paid athletes list.
ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES
Canelo Álvarez, No. 5 on Forbes’ 2023 ranking of the world’s highest-paid athletes and a member of the 2018 Sports Under 30 class, has amassed a fortune of $275 million as one of the best boxers in the world. But Álvarez has created an empire outside the ring: Over the last few years, he’s launched a chain of five gas stations in western Mexico called Canelo Energy; an associated chain of convenience stores called Upper; cofounded a sports drink brand called Yaoca and launched a line of tequila-based canned cocktails with spirits supplier Spirit of Gallo, among other projects.
On Our Radar
-Baby Boomers are in with the shop and scroll trend: Members of that generation who use TikTok have grown 57% since 2021 and, according to a new report, the app is encouraging them to shop online even more frequently than Gen Z. The year-end report also points out other trends to keep an eye on for next year, like increasing concerns about AI evolving too quickly, a declining interest in veganism and how short-form video is drawing new audiences into combat sports. (GWI)
-Beyoncé is on track to become a billionaire, with her net worth hitting $800 million this week, per Forbes estimates. This summer, the 42-year-old Queen B ranked No. 48 on Forbes’ list of the Richest Self-Made Women in America with a $540 million net worth, which has since seen a significant boost thanks to the Renaissance World Tour, as well as an adjustment to Forbes’ estimate of her music catalog and her art collection. Guess it really does take a billion to look this good. (Forbes)
-Applications for admission to Musk University … opening soon? According to tax fillings for Tesla CEO and SpaceX cofounder Elon Musk’s latest charity, The Foundation, the billionaire is planning to open a university in Austin. To start, the institution will be a STEM-first primary and secondary school, and later plans to “expand its operations to create a university dedicated to education at its highest levels,” per documents submitted to the Internal Revenue Service. (Bloomberg)
Mental Health Minute with Dr. Matthew Sacchet
Building a startup or an illustrious career can be incredibly stressful. Somewhere between creating pitch decks, managing a team and making waves in established industries, it’s easy to forget that there’s more to life than work. So how do you protect your peace and climb whatever ladder you’re on?
Take a minute to hear from our Under 30 listers about their personal journeys with mental health and how they keep sane. Up this week: Dr. Matthew Sacchet, a 2017 30 Under 30 Healthcare lister and the director of the Meditation Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Can you briefly describe your research?
The Meditation Research Program studies “advanced meditation,” which means going beyond current conceptions of mindfulness for stress reduction and workplace effectiveness. Our goal is to understand meditation scientifically and to use that scientific research to advance both clinical and non-clinical uses of meditation.
Why did you decide to take on a professorship role?
I decided to become an academic because I have always been interested in broadening the boundaries of what is understood about meditation. Academia is a context that is principally concerned with this endeavor of knowledge generation.
What is the biggest misconception about meditation and well-being?
One misconception is that meditation is limited to supporting stress reduction and work productivity. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Meditation is so much more than that. My intention with developing advanced meditation research is to help correct this misconception.
What is the biggest challenge in this work?
Many think the biggest challenge is the scientific component. To me, more challenging aspects include raising awareness. That’s why I have been working on better explaining my work to people who don’t have experience with or knowledge of advanced meditation. For example, some people don’t know about advanced meditation but they do have experience with intensive exercise, which can elicit different kinds of states of consciousness like clarity, calm and joy, just like advanced meditation can.
What is something you’ve learned from your research about founders, business leaders or high-achievers when it comes to mental health and well-being?
[Success] can be difficult and can appear to go against supporting one’s mental health and well-being. There certainly isn’t a silver bullet solution in this context but I do believe that those who only sprint may someday trip.
Looking for a few new year’s resolutions? Try out Dr. Sacchet’s well-being checklist:
✓ Exercise regularly
✓ Eating something healthy
✓ Regulate your sleep pattern
✓ Invest in supportive relationships
✓ Take time to relax
✓ Meditate
