Footwear Insight

footwearinsight.com July/August 2021 ~ Footwear Insight • 9 THE FOOTWEAR EYE D escribed in his bio as a "natural-born problem solver," Rob Gregg was searching for solutions and ways to help in March 2020 when a close family friend was stricken with COVID and put on an ICU ventilator for five days. During that period, Gregg, who has generated $5 billion in customer acquisition revenues for Direct-To-Consumer firms over the years and subsequently launched luxury shoe brand Rob McAllan, connected with the president of SONSIEL (Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Leaders) and discovered a need for protective PPE foot- wear among the millions of nurses worldwide. "It didn't make any sense," opined Gregg in a recent Footwear Insight Extra podcast. "Players are issued thousands of pairs of performance cleats every year, but nurses must purchase their footwear, often not finding the protection and comfort they need on the job." "No doubt, there's this huge, largely unaddressed need for better footwear for nurses," he says, believing that some of the footwear donned by nurses today doesn't always offer the best solutions. Enter Gales, named after the founder of modern nurs- ing, Florence Nightingale. Gregg established the brand days after the family friend fell ill. His first orders of business—crowdsourcing the design to develop a new nursing shoe silhouette and surveying healthcare profes- sionals at 89 facilities for additional input on what performance areas should be addressed in the product. The result was a completely altered manufacturing opera- tion — a vertically-integrated in-house, injection-molded manufacturing process based in the U.S. While the method enables Gales to produce more shoes efficiently at an affordable rate, the domestic location enables the company to avoid duties upwards of 22 percent if the shoe was imported. Also, Gales partnered with medical grade insole maker Ortholite for its easy-to-clean shoe that features antimicrobial protection on the insoles and outsoles and sells for $89.95. Outsoles can be wiped clean in sec- onds and the insoles are machine washable. — Bob McGee Gales Footwear Focuses on PPE PODCAST EXCERPT Listen to the full podcast interview with Rob Gregg of Gales on FootwearInsightExtra.com Gales Frontline Nurse Shoe. Boots, muddied. Souls, cleansed. New for Spring '21 the Sypes features the Bloom™ Algae O FIT Insole®, ACT Midsole and recycled materials throughout. The Sypes delivers exceptional support, fit and performance wherever your trail leads Contact your rep or email us at: info@obozfootwear.com to learn more. obozfootwear.com

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