We recently connected with Alexis Howard and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alexis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Etta Grove Footwear is a start-up, luxury brand that offers fashionable, feel-good footwear in women’s sizes 7m to 14m. I have worn a women’s size 10 or above since the age of 10. I now wear a size 13. There were times I felt a painted shoebox would be better than what was available in the footwear market, at least it would be creative.

In September 2021, right before my 50th birthday, after decades of struggling to find suitable footwear and talking about a shoe brand that catered to extended sizes, I founded Etta Grove with my two young adult daughters (Kayla and Haley). We are proud that our brand is the namesake of my grandmother, Etta, who was also an entrepreneur and wore an extended size shoe. As stylish as she was, she also had difficulty finding cute, comfortable, well-made footwear in her size.

Etta Grove is about being bold, being unique, and finding your own personal style. It’s about feeling confident in what you wear and knowing that it will fit properly. At Etta Grove, our prototype/sample size is 12 (rather than the industry standard of 7) so that we can genuinely assess each design for functionality and aesthetic at a larger size before grading. In addition, we want those of us who wear extended sizes to be able to see stylish footwear in a larger size on a shoe store pedestal and know that we are in the right place. Additionally, we offer our footwear in whole and half sizes between 7 and 14, which is not common for footwear brands once you reach size 10. We three cofounders bring our personal knowledge and experiences of wearing an extended shoe size to our brand.

There are a few other brands that genuinely offer extended sizes, but just like everyone else we who wear larger sizes deserve to have options. Etta Grove has created a collection of luxe fashionable shoes. This collection has been designed around the idea that no matter what size your feet may be, you should be able to find fashionable footwear that makes you feel good about yourself and helps you stand out from the crowd. Etta Grove is committed to the empowerment of women of all shoe sizes and we are just getting started. We hope to include narrow and wide widths eventually.

Notably, we will donate a portion of each sale to a local, nonprofit organization that works for the better of girls, teens, and women. So far we have made donations to Girls Inc DC and Dress for Success DC.

Alexis, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Native Washingtonian and I remained here to raise my family. I attended Howard University School of Business (Consumer Affairs Management – B.S. 1994) and Howard University School of Law (J.D. 1998). I have been an Attorney working in equal employment opportunity with the federal government since 1999 – 23 years. However, I have always been a “creative.” For years, my creative outlet was working on arts & crafts, school projects, and arts classes with my children and then minor sewing projects (creating capes, costumes, and masks) for a local nonprofit organization.

My mom, my daughters, and I all wear an extended shoe size and there is a gap in the footwear market for women’s larger sizes. I have experienced frustration in finding quality, cute, comfortable footwear for me and my loved ones for decades and have talked about starting a footwear brand to address it for years. As I approached my 50th birthday, in September 2021, I decided to do something about it and founded Etta Grove Footwear. And, naturally, my two daughters (Kayla and Haley) are my cofounders. I like to say that I am the classic and they are the modern/contemporary for Etta Grove. We balance each other out as to aesthetic and we bring our personal knowledge of wearing a larger size to the brand. Recently, we added unique handbags that complement our footwear to our collection.

I am most proud of holding a shoe or handbag which was once just an idea in my head now in my hand. We proudly just participated for the first time in DC Fashion Week and it was great. I want clients to know that aesthetic, functionality, and quality are priorities for us. We are building a brand and continuing a legacy of hardworking entrepreneurial women.

Etta Grove is fulfilling the dream of my 10-year old self, addressing the need for size-inclusivity in the footwear industry, making opportunities to bond further with my young adult daughters, creating intergenerational wealth for my family, and developing a plan to retire from my full-time government job and living an empty nester life with my husband.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Our greatest challenge, after getting a footwear factory to see our vision for extended women’s sizing, has been funding. In 2021, we received a $5,000 grant from 1863 Ventures 3Rs program and, in mid-2022, we launched a crowdfunding campaign on ifundwomen.com that raised about $9,000 primarily for preorders for our products. Both organizations offer substantive educational programs for entrepreneurs. We note that the ifundwomen.com platform, as compared to other crowdfunding platforms, returns their commission earned on sales to help other women entrepreneurs and does not require you to reach your crowdfunding goal to receive any money earned.

Because footwear requires product development, utilizes various physical components, many of our suppliers are global so we incur high costs for shipping, customs, taxes, etc., and we have a freelance team consisting of a bookkeeper, public relations manager, design consultant/production manager, and virtual assistants; it has taken over $100,000 to launch our business and we are primarily self-funded.

As a primarily self-funded business, we’ve had to take personal loans (from federal retirement and federal credit unions) to create shoe lasts for each size-inclusive design we produce and develop for production. This is difficult as a new entrant in the footwear industry, where it is key to build brand trust and utilize marketing and branding services, and the customer preference is for in-stock sales rather than preorder-based sales. Notably, we looked into business loans (at agencies and banks you probably know) but they were scarce as a startup, requiring two years of experience in the related industry and high variable interest rates.

Despite this, we’ve successfully developed 11 footwear and three handbag designs. We now need to produce our remaining 7 footwear designs and continue to convert prospects to customers. We’re confident that the quality and aesthetic of our products will create loyal customers and our business will be profitable.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We sell direct-to-consumer through our brand ecommerce website, ettagrove.com, which allows us to receive sales without paying commission to a third party. However, we have to pay for: the website (which is through shopify) and any apps (e.g., to create an About Us page); storage of our inventory at a remote fulfillment center; and fees for the fulfillment center picking, packing, and shipping our product to customers. We utilize a third party return service, Happy Returns, which is free for their basic service portal but there would be a fee if we used their national drop off service. In addition, with our ecommerce site, we personally handle customer service inquiries utilizing an online chat feature and a toll free number. We receive an email when there is a message from a customer and have requested up to 48 hours to respond, which we usually do in the evenings. We handle wholesale opportunities through a direct email to me at [email protected].

We also sell through a boutique for independent brands, Flying Solo NYC. We pay a flat monthly subscription fee and commission on product sales. They sell our products through their website, provide customer service, and have a Public Relations room where our products can be “pulled” by stylists for events or photo shoots.

Also, we are a participating brand with the Amazon Black Business Accelerator. Through that program, we are assigned an Amazon representative to assist us with learning seller policies, creating the best product listings, creating advertisements and promotions, shipping inventory, resolving any issues, scaling the brand, and various opportunities. My Amazon representative has been great, and I believe she will assist me for a year. With Amazon, they handle customer service. There are paid commissions and fees related to storage and shipping through Amazon.com.

Each method has its pros and cons so business owners have to decide what works best for them at any given moment. You either pay with time or money.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ettagrove.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ettagrovefootwear/
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
Mike Nelson @thatdopeshot Rari @rarifilmz Danielle Flowers @danielle.flowersphoto