PerryCo Shoes is based in Chicago, IL. We pride ourself on being a unisex brand. Breaking gender barriers while delivering wearable versatility and style.
Source: PerryCo. Shoes | Unisex Footwear and Accessories
It’s hard for me to see new footwear and apparel companies and not discuss the difficulty in gaining coverage and being acknowledged in this competitive industry. When you’ve walked the road an entrepreneur is traveling, distancing yourself from what you know they will encounter is a slow drive up a grade hill. PerryCo Shoes is in a crowded marketplace. The brand has chosen to enter the premium tier of sneaker sales at a time when every brand is inundated with inventory and discounting extensively. This discounting makes it difficult for any brand without a Swoosh or Trefoil.
In many instances a new sneaker company is digitally native which presents the initial challenge. The product isn’t readily available for purchase at a store and sizing can be problematic forcing the brand to incur expenses in shipping and returns. This hurdle isn’t preventative, it’s simply a part of the process of moving towards the buybox for consumers who discover the brand. PerryCo shoes was founded by Brittney Perry. Her assist arrived from one of my favorite brands discussed here on the site, Q4 Sports owned by Quintin Q. Williams. While this should be a boost, Q4 is also a young brand experiencing all of the issues of a startup, but inside of that assist lies the beauty of creation. A black woman saw an opportunity to provide the sneaker industry with a luxury footwear option and contrary to the belief that Black men don’t support Black women, Q took the time to pass the rock to Brittney who has moved forward and delivered a comparable product to her counterparts in a company like Koio.
Founded at Wharton, Koio’s Creation Offers the Opportunity for an Uncomfortable Discussion
In 2020 I wrote a post on Koio explaining how that brand benefited from privilege, but in the same discussion I realized that both Q4 and Super Heroic had both also benefitted from privilege. The fact that Koio was a white male led company and Q4 and Super Heroic (who netted a 2-million-dollar investment from Foot Locker, but had to shutter during the Covid quarantine) was black male led, shows the privilege of being a man in the sneaker industry. Those companies attained venture capital investments. But as I write this post and realize what Brittney is up against, I realize that her journey is more difficult. Here is a Black woman with no fashion background, who went to school for marketing and is working full time making the decision to build a footwear and apparel brand. She is self-funded and while her participation in several programs such as: The Workshop at Macys, Target Advance Design program, and currently in Vice Black + program, unlike the founders of KOIO who, didn’t even have a product and still got funding, she hasn’t attained any outside funding support and has barely garnered coverage of her brand.
This post shouldn’t be about Brittney’s journey as a woman, but the discussion is unavoidable. There are often celebrations of women who work at the major brands, or in sneaker media and marketing, but I know from experience that operating outside of the confines of a brand requires a resilience many are terrified of ever having to experience. It’s easier to begin a sneaker journey inside of the walls of Nike, adidas or Reebok. It’s easy to begin the journey with a major sneaker outlet, covering popular brands, than it is to make a conscious decision to build a company. PerryCo Shoes makes beautifully crafted footwear, but unfortunately that’s not enough. It’s not enough that Brittney is a woman, a few people will support you because of gender, but that’s not a long-term play. Being woman-led is a powerful story, but pales when placed against a footwear company founder like Allyson Felix and her Saysh brand. Brittney doesn’t have the name recognition of Felix or the following of a Black-owned brand like SIA that was launched to another level by Shaq when the brand was featured on “Inside the NBA”.
Brittney is doing the dirty, difficult, lonely job she made a decision to pursue; so, there isn’t any sympathy. Her reality is cemented in attending celebrations like the Black Footwear Forum and watching every person in attendance rocking sneakers made by companies founded by White folks when two Black-owned companies were in attendance with Jeff Henderson’s NinetyNine Products and of course Brittney’s PerryCo shoes. The real struggle for Brittney is being tough enough to rock PerryCo shoes in a room full of Black people who have fought to be accepted in an industry that has been closed off to Black folks for years, but is now gated by Black folks only willing to let in a select few. How do you knock down walls in your own community? How do you knock down walls held up by male privilege? How do you knock down the walls of white privilege without being offputting to that demographic by celebrating your womanhood and Blackness? How do you knock down the walls and build a new house when the people don’t know who you are and have so many options?
The Stark Truth Why Black Sneaker Brands Struggle and Blacks Aren’t Getting the Jobs at Big Brands
I once wrote about the struggle of being a Black person in the sneaker industry. I’m writing about Brittney Perry because she is attempting a task much more difficult than getting a job at Nike, adidas or Reebok. She’s taking on the greatest risk. One that caused me to experience bankruptcy and years of difficulty. While I lost a lot of time and money, I would only change it to know what I know now. It is possible to find a fissure in the bricks. It’s possible to place a spike into the split and hit it until the wall falls down. It’s possible to learn masonry and build your own walls brick by brick. The work may be done alone, but in time the business takes form and becomes shelter. PerryCo shoes has been fighting since 2018. The walls are falling. Now the real work begins.
Source: PerryCo. Shoes | Unisex Footwear and Accessories