Moolah Kicks Challenging Shoe Giants With WNBA’s Courtney Williams

This summer Minnesota Lynx point guard and WNBA All-Star Courtney Williams has taken over the internet and was an All-Star Weekend sensation alongside her Twitch StudBudz co-host and teammate Natisha Heideman. Williams has also received attention as of late for WNBA fines.

Williams is an endorsed athlete for Moolah Kicks, a women owned, founded, and specific basketball shoe company that spent extensive time and resources to engineer a basketball sneaker for women’s feet to help reduce injuries common in women players. However, over the course of the last several months Williams has accrued fines for wearing the shoes as they violate the WNBA’s uniform policy.

According to the policy, WNBA players are allowed to display the logos of any sneaker brands they want but that sneaker company must have a contract with the league, which Moolah Kicks currently does not.

So far, Williams has been charged $1500, a $100 fine that doubles for each offense. Moolah Kicks has consistently paid the fines on behalf of Williams. Recently, Williams and Moolah Kicks made headlines again as Williams covered up the logos to avoid the penalties.

Williams’ Unmarked Sneakers and WNBA Compliance

However, an unmarked pair is on the way to Williams in an effort to demonstrate good faith to the league according to CEO and Founder Natalie White, “Those just arrived to the US, we had to make those on a super tight timeline. Typically those would take a couple months to get done, but we pulled as many strings as we could to get them here as fast as we could to really to demonstrate our commitment to being compliant with the W.”

White and Moolah Kicks aren’t straying away from wanting to work with the WNBA but as of now the fee that the league wants isn’t conducive for the start-up.

White hopes there is a way to come to an agreement in the future, “Ultimately what we hope comes out of this situation is that women’s basketball players can start playing in equipment that’s fit for them and for our game, it is just so important. At the highest level, we still have WNBA players wearing sneakers that put them at risk for knee, ankle, and leg injury.”

She further explained, “We want to see our logo on the floor and we want to focus on the future. We want players to be in a situation where they can do what they believe in and they can wear what they want to wear. We’re having conversations with the W, we’re trying to work out an agreement or some sort of working relationship where we can have our logo on the floor. And in the meantime, we’ve gone ahead and we’ve made sneakers that have no logos on them for Courtney so that she doesn’t have to worry about tape and coloring them in.”

Competing in the Multi-Billion Dollar Shoe Industry

For White, Moolah Kicks is about a revolution for women’s hoopers where they are at the center of the shoe technology, design, social media strategy, and simply put, the outright heartbeat of the company.

White knows she’s up against giants like Nike, Reebok, and Under Armour, but there is also room in the space as the estimate for the basketball shoe industry in the United States alone is set to exceed six billion by 2030.

White feels the messaging and focus on girls and women is working, “When people hear about us, they love it. And then when they try the shoes on, they’re sold, and this is something they want to join. This is something they want to be a part of. We are the only brand that solely exists to serve this market.”

She continued, “We’re most focused on reaching our customers and introducing ourselves because when we do that, this is something that the women’s basketball community wants to be a part of. But all of these fines, these challenges are basically people trying to get in the way of us introducing ourselves because when we do, we have the full package. It’s like we have the authenticity of believing in this industry, not as a charity, not as a PR, but because this is where we’re from, we’re here for female ballers, and we have a product that is outperforming everyone else on the shelf. We have a technology that players prefer.”

Moolah Kicks Numbers Show Explosive Growth

White and Moolah Kicks have made waves this summer since the news of the fines alongside Williams became public. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales since the announcement were up 700% in the week that followed compared to the same week the previous year. DTC sales are up 200% at the close of July compared to June. Lastly, DTC sales are up 225% in comparison to the same time period from last year.

In addition, Moolah is in over 600 Dick’s Sporting Goods stores across the country.

Centering Women is Setting the New Standard

White is matching the moment in women’s sports, but specifically women’s basketball. In an area of sport that has long had an incredible product, but has been overlooked until the last decade, White sees the growth, attention, and need for women specific products as an opportunity for her company.

She said, “ I believe that in women’s sports we need infrastructure that’s built for us. I say that we are currently living in a very bright state, but we’re seeing some discrepancies and maybe I’ll call it unrest on a lot of different levels. And it’s because of the infrastructure, it’s because we’re moving in systems that weren’t built for us. Having brands like Moolah, having any specific brands contributing to an infrastructure and a world that puts us first, I don’t know how you can have a bigger impact than that. I really don’t.”

White expanded, “This is an inflection point where we no longer have to be in the shadows. It is ultimately up to the consumer where we’re going to go and if we’re going to continue to be compared to men, in the shadows of men’s sports, or if we’re going to have our own thing. And so if we’re going to have our own infrastructure, the future is so much brighter and it’s in our hands. We’ve set it up so it’s up to people to make those choices, make their personal choices reflect that. Every single one of us has a voice and an opportunity to build the next wave of what women’s basketball and women’s sports is going to be.”

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