Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Ep. 44: She Reinvented Cowgirl Boots… Without Using Leather - Desert Bloom Boots (Kristen Decker)

Transcript

Ep. 44: She Reinvented Cowgirl Boots… Without Using Leather - Desert Bloom Boots (Kristen Decker) · Glovisor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What if your favorite cowgirl boots. We're just iconic, but
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: ethical and completely reinvented. Welcome to the Glovisor podcast, where
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  Speaker 1: we explore business growth, communication and personal development through real
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: conversations with people that make an impact. Our guest is
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  Speaker 1: transforming Western fashion from the inside out. She's the founder
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  Speaker 1: and CEO of Desert Bloom. She's took legendary Mexican heritage
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  Speaker 1: boot making infused it with innovation, creating cowgirl boots made
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  Speaker 1: from corn and wheat that feel like sneakers and performed
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  Speaker 1: like traditional leather. She's not just building a brand, she's
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  Speaker 1: building a movement for conscious, confident women who want style
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  Speaker 1: with purpose. Glovisor welcomes Kristin Decker.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, thank you so much for having us on the show.
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  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it. I'm Kristin Decker, founder of Desert Bloom.
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  Speaker 1: Looking forward to the conversation. So Kristen, let's begin. Please
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  Speaker 1: tell us more what you do.
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  Speaker 2: I've always been a cowgirl, so I've always had a
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  Speaker 2: love for cowgirl boots, and so about five years ago,
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  Speaker 2: I had this wild idea of wanting to create my
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  Speaker 2: own boot brand and wanted to do it differently So
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  Speaker 2: for the past five years, I've pretty much been eating, breathing,
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  Speaker 2: and sleeping boot development and here in Leon Juanawato, Mexico.
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  Speaker 1: So, Kristen, what inspired you to pursue this path?
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  Speaker 2: So being a cowgirl my whole life. I was raised
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  Speaker 2: on a farm. I used to wear cowgirl boots and
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  Speaker 2: hats and you know, be a part of four h
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  Speaker 2: and all the things when I was little. So cowgirl
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  Speaker 2: boots for me was just It's just as staple in
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  Speaker 2: my life and it's something I wear pretty much every day.
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  Speaker 2: And I've always kind of had this dream of you know,
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  Speaker 2: this goes back years and years ago, of wanting to
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  Speaker 2: have my own boot brand. And life gets busy you're
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  Speaker 2: doing this and that, and sometimes those dreams or things
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  Speaker 2: that you think about don't always, you know, they don't
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  Speaker 2: always come to fruition and being down here in Mexico
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  Speaker 2: and being a part of the Mexican culture and the
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  Speaker 2: Mexican history, and then also discovering Leon Juanna Wato and
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  Speaker 2: basically which is like the boot capital of Mexico. These
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  Speaker 2: guys are just masters at, like you know, developing shoes
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  Speaker 2: and especially Western boots and learning about this process and
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  Speaker 2: seeing it, and also really kind of like understanding, you know,
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  Speaker 2: where the fashion of footwear industry has been for decades.
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  Speaker 2: I really noticed there's a big gap there. You know,
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  Speaker 2: in the industry for decades, it's either been all animal
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  Speaker 2: leather or it's been a cheap plastic synthetic. And so
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  Speaker 2: I started thinking, you know, if I were to ever
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  Speaker 2: have my own boot company, I would want to do
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  Speaker 2: things differently. I'd want to try to make an impact,
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  Speaker 2: try to make a difference, try to fill a void
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  Speaker 2: or create a new category in the industry where I
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  Speaker 2: feel like we could actually make a difference. So it
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  Speaker 2: wasn't about just creating another boot that would compete against
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  Speaker 2: you know, all the other boots on the market, But
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  Speaker 2: it's more about for me, was about how can I
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  Speaker 2: do something that could actually make a difference. About ten
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  Speaker 2: years ago, I had discovered this material here when I
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  Speaker 2: was in Mexico and when I started researching. Originally it
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  Speaker 2: started with the cactus leather, and I just came across
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  Speaker 2: it by chance and I thought, wow, this is so interesting.
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  Speaker 2: This is it's not animal leather, it's not a cheap
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  Speaker 2: plastic synthetic. This is something like entirely innovative, entirely new,
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  Speaker 2: and I was really intrigued. So I started doing a
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  Speaker 2: bunch of research. And we also, being down here in Mexico,
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  Speaker 2: my husband and I, we also own a property management business,
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  Speaker 2: and so being in the property menae of business down here,
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  Speaker 2: we're servicing a lot with baby boomers or snowbirds that
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  Speaker 2: spend half the months up north and then half the
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  Speaker 2: months down here in Mexico. And because of this business,
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  Speaker 2: we actually get a lot of people who are would
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  Speaker 2: give us their old furniture or things like that that
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  Speaker 2: they weren't using. And so when I had discovered this company,
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  Speaker 2: I thought, well, why don't I order like some big
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  Speaker 2: roles of it, and we'll start maybe recovering some of
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  Speaker 2: this old furniture and just see what happens, because I
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  Speaker 2: wanted to kind of experiment with it and.
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  Speaker 3: See.
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  Speaker 2: And so we started recovering couches and chairs, you know,
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  Speaker 2: one after another, and after some time, I was just
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  Speaker 2: like seeing the results, seeing how it was held up,
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  Speaker 2: seeing how it lasted, and I thought to myself about
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  Speaker 2: I literally woke up five years ago and looked at
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  Speaker 2: myself in the mirror, and I said, I need to
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  Speaker 2: create some cowcrow boot, So, you know, it's just kind
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  Speaker 2: of it was a mixture of like all of these things,
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  Speaker 2: from being in Mexico, from learning about the heritage, learning
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  Speaker 2: about the you know, seeing the boot development and factories
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  Speaker 2: in Mexico, learning about this material, experimenting with it, and
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  Speaker 2: then just like having a waking up one day and
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  Speaker 2: just saying, this is what I need to do.
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  Speaker 1: Now, let's go back here you are, you're experimenting with
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  Speaker 1: the products. Did you make your first pair of boots
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  Speaker 1: for yourself and walked around with them and then realized
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  Speaker 1: this is pretty comfy and maybe this is something I
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  Speaker 1: should bring back and produce as a mass produce as
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  Speaker 1: a product. Was that the case?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely? Absolutely so.
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  Speaker 2: When I, basically five years ago I decided to do this,
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  Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about the boot, like I mean
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  Speaker 2: about how to like develop a actual like build a
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  Speaker 2: cowgirl boot brand like on my own right, like I've
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  Speaker 2: seen people do it. I learned about it, But what
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to do is I wanted to I ended
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  Speaker 2: up surrounding myself around people that had actually been in
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  Speaker 2: the industry longer than I have, and I ended up
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  Speaker 2: hiring a shoe consultant who'd been in the industry for
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  Speaker 2: about thirty forty years that worked with a lot of
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  Speaker 2: major Western brands, and so she helped me. We basically
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  Speaker 2: found our development team in Mexico, and we outsourced a
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  Speaker 2: designer in the UK to help with some of the
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  Speaker 2: designs for the boots.
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  Speaker 3: And then, of course, you know.
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  Speaker 2: We once we had the designs, once we had the
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  Speaker 2: development and the feel you know of the shoe, which
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  Speaker 2: like our last that we developed as a custom last
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  Speaker 2: that's inspired by a tennis shoe fit. So they are
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  Speaker 2: truly designed to be extremely comfortable from the moment you
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  Speaker 2: wear them. So at that moment, that's when we were like, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: we've got the material, we've got the design, we've got
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  Speaker 2: the development, everything we need. Let's make some prototypes. And
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  Speaker 2: so we actually started out making our very first prototype
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  Speaker 2: with the Cactus leather, and and we probably we did
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  Speaker 2: this for quite a few times, and it came to
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  Speaker 2: the point where I wasn't happy with the finish and
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  Speaker 2: I wasn't It didn't it didn't have the quality and
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  Speaker 2: the feel that I wanted it to for for a
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  Speaker 2: leather for this type of boot, like I wanted to
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  Speaker 2: feel and look like a traditional leather boot and act
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  Speaker 2: like a you know, like a boot as well. And
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  Speaker 2: I wasn't happy with the results that it was giving
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  Speaker 2: me for a shoe, and so we ran several prototypes
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  Speaker 2: with that, and then I discovered it's a similar same
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  Speaker 2: type of biomaterial, but it comes from the corn and
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  Speaker 2: wheat fibers, and the corn and fibers have proven to
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  Speaker 2: be more durable, and so for shoes, you definitely need
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  Speaker 2: to have something stronger, more durable type material than say
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: you would maybe you know, recovering a chair. So we
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  Speaker 2: decided to pivot and we started using this same type
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  Speaker 2: of biomterial from corn and wheat fibers, and I was
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  Speaker 2: absolutely blown away, like the from the texture to the
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  Speaker 2: quality to everything. Even my manufacturing team in Mexico, who
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  Speaker 2: by the way, this was also this was also very
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  Speaker 2: very difficult because trying to get into a manufacturing facility
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  Speaker 2: down there was very difficult because for years they've always
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  Speaker 2: done it one way, which is with animal leather, and
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  Speaker 2: so they were very nervous about about taking me on
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  Speaker 2: as a client using this new innovative material because they
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  Speaker 2: were really uncertain about it. And once we had our
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  Speaker 2: first prototype, my development team and manufacturing team down there
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  Speaker 2: where everybody was completely blown away with how the boot felt,
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  Speaker 2: how the boot looked, because even my team was like,
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  Speaker 2: this looks like leather. This feels like leather, Like I
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  Speaker 2: can't believe it. Once we had the prototype, then of course, yes, absolutely,
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  Speaker 2: I am wearing this boot twenty four to seven, or
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  Speaker 2: literally over a year. I'm just wherever I go, if
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  Speaker 2: I'm up in the snow, if I'm up walking in
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  Speaker 2: the mountains, in the sand, in the mud puddles, like
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to wear this thing absolutely everywhere because I
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  Speaker 2: wanted to make sure that the boot that we were
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  Speaker 2: putting on in the market is a good quality product.
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  Speaker 2: And so I literally have a pair of boots, my
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  Speaker 2: first prototypes, that I have worn for over a year,
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  Speaker 2: literally almost every single day everywhere, and to this day.
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  Speaker 2: I mean I do have that it's got some little
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  Speaker 2: scuffs on the toe, which is completely normal because even
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  Speaker 2: that'll happen with even with your traditional leather boots that
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  Speaker 2: you wear with the Snipte, you'll get scuffs on them.
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  Speaker 2: But to make a long story short, after wearing them
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  Speaker 2: a year, almost every day, they look brand new.
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  Speaker 1: What's very interesting to me here is that you were
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  Speaker 1: so certain about your produits even before you hit the prototype,
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  Speaker 1: Which makes it so interesting that I see that very
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  Speaker 1: often you have some CEOs and founders who just know,
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  Speaker 1: they just know that something great is in the horizon.
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  Speaker 1: And I can see that that's what you saw. But now,
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  Speaker 1: once you made the prototypes, did you send it out
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  Speaker 1: to other people to test it out for you and
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  Speaker 1: to let you know so you can start getting some
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  Speaker 1: feedback before you start mass producing.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we did do that as well.
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  Speaker 2: So we had a little small circle with like a
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  Speaker 2: lot of just maybe friends and family that we would
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  Speaker 2: just like have wear the boots, swear them around almost
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  Speaker 2: what you think. And you know, we had to make
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  Speaker 2: a few adjustments here and there with a couple of
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  Speaker 2: the po runs, you know, where we had to maybe
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  Speaker 2: kind of widen the shaft a little bit or make
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  Speaker 2: some little tweaks here and there. But other than that,
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  Speaker 2: like the feedback that we have and the feedback that
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  Speaker 2: we continue to get as we do these events and
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  Speaker 2: is absolutely positive. Being in the footwear industry in general
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  Speaker 2: is not an easy task. I knew it wasn't going
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  Speaker 2: to be easy, but I also didn't think it was
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  Speaker 2: going to be this hard. People's feet are so different.
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  Speaker 2: There's from you have like people with high arches or
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  Speaker 2: high end steps, or wide feet or you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: not like a one size fits all for a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people.
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  Speaker 1: Well, so you answered my question because I was about
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to ask you what is your biggest obstacle? And I
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: think is recognizing that in this the business of dealing
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: with human beings, everything is so different and there's so
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: many variations of that, and I can see that that
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: would have been a little bit of a nightmare trying
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: to figure that out. So now you said, okay, I'm ready.
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  Speaker 1: My family members and friends have said is the greatest products.
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  Speaker 1: We're ready to roll. Now, what was your first step?
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  Speaker 1: How did you decide? Like, what was your first thing
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  Speaker 1: that you did? Who did you contact to say I'm
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: ready to sell to you?
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  Speaker 2: After we had run the prototypes, after we had run
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: the test. Obviously, in the background, while we're doing all this,
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  Speaker 2: I'm building the foundation for the company as well. So
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: we're we're we're developing. You know, obviously, we have the name,
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  Speaker 2: we have the logo, the graphic design with the logos,
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  Speaker 2: We're building the shopifi website, we're trademarking the names. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we're doing all of this foundational work kind of behind
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  Speaker 2: the scenes getting ready for this, and we we made
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  Speaker 2: we actually decided to do our very first launch with
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  Speaker 2: the boots at Stagecoach in two thousand and twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: and so it was and so that we didn't and
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  Speaker 2: we did our launch there, but it was more of
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  Speaker 2: like a soft launch, and because we didn't actually have
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the product like necessarily ready, it was like all pre
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: sales at that point, so it was just kind of
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  Speaker 2: like a hey, this is who we are. You can
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: view them, you can try them on, Like we had
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  Speaker 2: a complete size run there for people to try on
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  Speaker 2: and to feel them and touch them, and then they
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: could pre order and then a couple months later they
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: would be shipped out to the door. So so yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it was once once we kind of had once we
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: knew we had everything in place ready to go, we
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  Speaker 2: had some influencers.
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  Speaker 3: We the soft launch at stage Coach.
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  Speaker 2: And that's basically where we started to introduce the brand
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  Speaker 2: and start our eCOM business.
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  Speaker 1: How have you been able to get your boots into
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  Speaker 1: a brick and mortar store.
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  Speaker 2: We have also expanded into the wholesale market as well.
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  Speaker 2: So we do a few trade shows a year, one
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  Speaker 2: in Atlanta, one in Dallas, and then we also we're
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  Speaker 2: on fair Marketplace, and right now, since we launched in
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  Speaker 2: July twenty twenty or March, sorry, March twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 2: we are now probably in maybe ten small boutique retailers
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  Speaker 2: across the US, So we're growing strategically with our independent partners.
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  Speaker 2: I got a show coming up here in Atlanta next month,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: so we're excited about that too.
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  Speaker 1: If listeners remember only one thing from today's conversation, what
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: do you hope that message.
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  Speaker 3: Is one thing from today's conversation? Well, I mean.
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  Speaker 2: Being an entrepreneur is like is not the easiest thing
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: in the world. And so I think one one message
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: that has helped me the most is continue to believe
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: in yourself. And if you truly have a passion and
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: you truly believe in something, don't give up on it.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Don't give up on yourself. And also for me, surrounding
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: myself or surrounding yourself around people that believe in you
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  Speaker 2: more than you do is going to make it that
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: much better because there's these as For me as an entrepreneur,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: I have many there's many like times of ups and downs.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: There's times when you're just like so excited and you're like, yes,
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  Speaker 2: I got this, you know, let's go, and then there's
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: moments of doubt, right And in those moments of doubt
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: is the time when you need that people, those people
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  Speaker 2: around you that believe in you more than you do.
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  Speaker 1: Very true. Now, I love the passion, I love the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: direction you're taking. And your major market is women who
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: want the best product, most comfortable products, and they're conscious
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: product as well. But what is the future of your
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: company moving forward? Will cowboys get the opportunity to wear
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: these as well?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, I would love to be able to expand into
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: into the cowboy boots as well, and then maybe even
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: later on into children's boots. Absolutely, I definitely see that
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: being the future. We would love to one of these
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: days have a flagship store and be able to expand
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: into larger retails across the US and also even globally too.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: So we're also starting to see a pretty big audience
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: in the UK right now that is also very eco
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: friendly and and loves the cautious movement of these boots
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: as well. So we just actually shipped a pair of
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: boots to Italy the other day, which was kind of fun.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Wow, it's going global so quickly. Yes, So now, Kristen,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: who should be contacting you right now?
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Who should be contacting me right now? You know, we're
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: right now we are on a path to create something
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: larger than boots. So we are we're trying to develop
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: a new category in the footwear and faster industry.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Which doesn't exist.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: So for decades, like I said, before, you've had it's
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: either been all leather or it's been a cheap plastic synthetic.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: And so we're we're we're not trying to compete, We're
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: just trying to create another option. And so we're literally
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: on a modern calgirl movement at the moment, and we're
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: trying to build a community of people that want to
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: help us move this move this needle like move this community,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: move this developed. And so anybody who wants to support
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: women owned businesses, anybody who wants to support innovative, new
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: futuristic materials that are better for the planet, we can.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Our audience connect with you and joined us movement.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: So anyone can connect with us. We're all over social media.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: They can connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: All of our social media handles are at Desert Bloom Boots.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: For all of those social media handles, so follow us.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Find us as well on our website, which is our
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: e commerce Shopify site. We are at www dot desert
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: bloom dot com.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Kristin, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: your time and the value that you shared.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I honestly I feel honored to be a part of
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: this show and I really appreciate having me on today.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: That was fantastic, awesome. Thanks everyone for listening. If this
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: episode inspire you, share it with someone who needs it,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: and don't forget to follow the globevisor podcast for more
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: conversations that make an impact. Till the next time