Moolah Kicks' Natalie White Doesn't Take 'No' for an Answer

Sometimes, a single ad can change lives. Just ask Natalie White, CEO and founder of Moolah Kicks, the first brand focused exclusively on women’s basketball shoes. In 2019, White, a then-Boston College senior, saw an advertisement featuring four WNBA players promoting men’s sneakers and realized something needed to change. At the time, there wasn't a single basketball shoe on the market designed specifically for women—which created a higher risk of injury for female athletes due to differences in body type. An idea was born, and after conducting market research with college players and consulting with medical journalists, therapists and surgeons for an initial mold, the finance major officially launched an LLC on Jan. 1, 2020. In less than four years, Moolah Kicks has become the No. 1 brand in women’s performance basketball footwear—taking on sports marketing juggernauts such as Adidas, Under Armour and Nike. To date, Moolah Kicks is available in more than 500 Dick’s Sporting Goods locations, with new product launches arriving as often as every other month. That level of success didn't happen overnight. Learning on the fly White initially ran Moolah Kicks as a solo operation and dedicated the first six months to research and development. “[It was] making sure we were going to make the highest-performing product for the female basketball player and seeing those differences between the male and female foot form,” White said. The entrepreneur made about two dozen cold calls to fabricator Jones & Vining before CEO Jim Salzano agreed to take the project on. How Moolah Kicks Is Revolutionizing the Sneaker Game “The biggest challenge is definitely starting from scratch,” White said. “There’s no question that I’m young, and I started a performance footwear brand right out of college. I had a lot to learn, and I still am learning.” White learned quickly. And when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and sent her home for the remainder of her collegiate career, she worked “around the clock” to bring a product to market, beginning with Moolah Kicks' first shoe, the Phantom 1, and quickly expanding with a second shoe, the Neovolt Pro. That hard work would soon pay off. On a Sunday morning in Brooklyn in April 2021, White assembled about 40 of her former teammates and friends in the New York basketball community. Using a rented camera, the group shot a promotional video, which ultimately led to $30,000 in presales in two weeks and a phone call with Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Lauren Hobart. “[The footwear and apparel team] said to me, ‘How soon would you be able to deliver this?’” White said. “The biggest brands will take over a year in advance. Me being me, I said I could get it here for basketball season—five months away.” Staying ‘scrappy’ Following the launch in 140 Dick’s stores in fall 2021, WNBA stars like Chicago Sky’s Courtney Williams have rocked their own signature shoe, and the brand has more than 60 NIL partnerships. “It’s been growing from extremely scrappy to very polished,” White said. “That has been the biggest change, but we will always have that scrappy, hustler strand of DNA in us." Moolah Kicks has undoubtedly come a long way since White was a Boston College senior with an idea for a better women's basketball shoe. And at just 25 years old, the CEO doesn't have any plans to stop soon. “It's this continuous process of pulling up and elevating every single area of the business, both internally and externally,” White added. “How can we get stronger next week, and how are we planning to be exponentially stronger in a year?”

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This Sneaker Brand's Founder Doesn't Take 'No' for an Answer

Moolah Kicks' Natalie White launched the first brand focused exclusively on women's basketball shoes

Mollie Cahillane

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Mollie Cahillane