Emily Soloby by no means anticipated to create a workboot model. However Juno Jones Security Boots is really the fruits of her passions and experiences.
After beginning her profession as an legal professional specializing in ladies’s and youngsters’s rights, Soloby left the authorized subject to assist her husband take over the household enterprise, a trucking and security coaching faculty in Philadelphia. Over the following decade, she immersed herself in that business, whereas persevering with to assist ladies’s points with skilled organizations like Girls in Trucking.
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However Soloby — who’s a self-labeled shoe lover and even studied shoemaking as a interest — discovered herself pissed off along with her wardrobe choices. “I’d be going from shopper conferences to a job web site and I solely had my regular footwear or what I might discover after I was procuring [for workboots], which had been tremendous ugly,” she mentioned.
And he or she wasn’t the one one who felt that manner. “I began speaking to members of Girls in Trucking [about starting a work brand], and so they had been like, ‘Sure, please do that. We’ve nothing. We’ve no choices. What’s on the market isn’t suiting us, both that it’s clunky and simply not becoming our ft proper. And it makes us really feel undermined, like we’re not regarded as reliable within the office.’”
Courtesy of Juno Jones
Soloby launched Juno Jones with a Kickstarter marketing campaign in February 2020 and by mid-March had raised greater than $31,000 from 184 backers to fund the primary manufacturing run. She mentioned that regardless of the uncertainties of the pandemic at the moment, the funding occurred rapidly as a result of she’d hung out laying the groundwork and constructing a group across the model.
“Our mission is to empower ladies in these industries to know that they belong, they’re acknowledged, that they’re reliable and they are often protected too,” Soloby mentioned. Her efforts embody internet hosting a podcast known as “Hazard Ladies” to unfold the phrase about profession choices for ladies within the trades. “There’s such a niche within the workforce proper now, and girls are the untapped useful resource for filling all of those jobs which are wanted.”
Along with the trucking business, Soloby mentioned Juno Jones is attracting clients engaged in building and farming, in addition to indoor jobs in manufacturing, warehousing, materials dealing with and the sciences.
And after beginning as direct-to-consumer, the model has garnered retail assist as effectively. Roughly half of the enterprise is now wholesale, based on Soloby. Key retail companions embody Zappos and Duluth Buying and selling Firm, and the model is trying so as to add different accounts that cater to the workboot buyer.
Courtesy of Juno Jones
The Juno Jones assortment consists of two silhouettes. The unique look, the Meti (retailing for $259), is a waterproof jodhpur-style ankle boot that is available in black, brown and pink leather-based, in addition to olive suede. The Serpentine ($269) is a laced leather-based fashion with an 8-inch suede shaft, provided in black and brown variations.
Each of the boots have a trend aesthetic, however they’re additionally absolutely outfitted for the worksite. They’re ASTM F-2413-18 licensed for impression and compression with metal security toes. The footwear are additionally Electrical Hazard licensed and include a puncture-resistant midsole and nonslip lug outsoles which are oil and gasoline resistant.
Wanting forward, Soloby mentioned that Juno Jones will introduce extra value level choices within the coming yr. And he or she is continuous to hunt out business organizations and retail and distribution companions to achieve ladies within the workforce. “As a small enterprise, we need to make these connections and get our foot within the door in order that we could be part of the alternatives which are accessible,” she mentioned.
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