Yahoo Finance CEO explains how she became a shoemaker for stars
Sarah Flint, an eponymous shoe company founded in 2013, is making a name for itself in the fashion world. One of the shoe company’s investors is none other than Cindy Crawford.
The business, run by CEO Sarah Flint, began wholesale and was selling to stores such as Barneys and Bloomingdale’s. It switched to direct-to-consumer about a year ago as “the landscape was changing,” Flint said. The company then dropped prices by almost 50% in order to sell “the best possible” price and quality to its customers.
Since then, the brand has become increasingly popular among celebrities.
“What I think is really amazing about my brand and the way that the celebrities are wearing them is that they’re really wearing them in their everyday lives,” Flint said on Midday Movers (video above). “So you see, say, Amal Clooney walking down the street with George Clooney and at the UN the next day in a pump.”
Kate Bosworth has also been spotted wearing Sarah Flint, as was Meghan Markle when she made her first public appearance with Prince Harry last September.
“The important part about any kind of celebrity out in your shoes is really just being where your customers are,” Flint said. “And so many of our customers are paying attention to what these tastemakers are wearing and doing. For these tastemakers to opt into the brand when they really have access to everything is very exciting.”
Giving customers a unique experience
Gaining that celebrity following isn’t easy.
“It’s working with publicists,” she said. “It’s reaching out to stylists. It’s even me sometimes direct messaging people on Instagram, which sounds like it wouldn’t work, but it does.”
While celebrities wearing the brand is exciting, Flint didn’t start the business for that reason. She wanted to make shoes that were “comfortable and wearable.”
As a child, Flint spent a lot of time drawing. She moved to New York to attend a fashion design school before heading to Italy to study manufacturing alongside factory workers to learn how to make comfortable shoes.
One of her newest shoes, called the Perfect Pump, has arch support and six millimeters of padding and rubber on the front.
“It’s sort of all these details that I never had in shoes that I wanted my customers to have,” Flint said.
Sarah Flint’s shoes are made entirely in Italy and available only online, with prices starting at $195.
Follow Adriana on Twitter.
Read more: Coach signs Michael B. Jordan as its face of menswear
