INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
If you are a woman who has used the internet to buy something, particularly if you are a woman who has used the internet to buy something in
the Bay Area, there a very high likelihood you have seen ads for Rothy&severywhere you go on social media, particularly Facebook
In fact, they&ve likely been following you for years
The reason: spending big on Facebook and, to a slightly lesser extent, Instagram, has paid off hugely for the three-year-old, San
Francisco-based company, which makes shoes out of recycled materials.
Its signature product is its ballet shoe for women, which comes in two
silhouettes — a rounded and a pointed-toe version — and 21 patterns
But like most e-commerce brands, Rothy hasn''t been content to stop with one apparently winning product
Instead, earlier this year, the company introduced a women loafer, followed by a line of shoes for girls ages five through12 that mirror its
ballet shoe line for grown-ups.
Today, it extending its product line again, introducing what it calls a sneaker, though it really a sneaker
in as much as Vans classic slip-on skateboarding shoesare sneakers
In short, they&re fun and colorful, but you probably don''t want to play basketball in them.
Last summer, to learn more, we&d talked with
Rothy cofoundersRoth Martin and Stephen Hawthornthwaite about the company, which has so far raised just $7 million in funding — all of
which closed around the time of our conversation.
Yesterday, we chatted with a newer executive at the company, Kerry Horton Cooper, who
joined Rothy president earlier this year after working previously as the COO an CMO of ModCloth and as a VP at Walmart.com, among other
We asked if Rothy is raising another round any time soon
She also caught us up on what else is happening at the startup, which has now grown to 500 employees, including 450 who work out of the
company own, 100,000-square-foot factory in Southern China.
TC: Rothy is a hot brand
Will we see another round close in 2018
KC: We haven''t raised anything beyond that one institutional round that closed last summer
We&re profitable and cash-flow positive, unlike a lot of other [newer brands] so that hasn''t been an urgent issue, though it something we
entertain as we think about what strategically important.
TC: How many shoes has Rothy sold
KC: We don''t disclose that, but in May, we
passed what we&d sold in all of 2017, and our sales in 2017 were probably 1,000 times the sales were generated in 2015
I think we clearly have product-market fit.
TC: You introduced some newer products earlier this year — a loafer and a kids& line of shoes
Why
KC: The durability and washability of our shoes appeals to a lot of people and to a lot of parents, some of whom especially enjoy the
The shoes are also easy to dress up and dress down, though it still a small part of our business.
TC: Are Rothy shoes still available
exclusively through your website
KC: We also opened a store on San Francisco Fillmore street in May, an old cobbler store that we
restored.
TC: Is that the first step to more stores in more cities
KC: There are obvious other markets like New York and Washington and
Boston — heavy transit cities
There probably a little more opportunity as we think of more locations here (in California)
But we want to be measured in how we approach this to ensure the retail strategy is sustainable.
TC: Rothy has its own factory in China but
I assume you are past the point of making your shoes to order.
KC: We aren''t doing made to order
There are core colors that we always want to have in stock, and we&re pretty clear about just how much we need to make
When it comes to newer colors, we have a supply chain we can chase
We&ll launch some things on a Thursday and basically, by the next day, we can tell what the winners are
We also produce limited runs of shoes to surprise and delight people visiting the store
We&ve played with embroidery, for example.
TC: Why introduce slip-on sneakers, too
KC: It kind of an iconic stye that we&ve been watching
for a while but we wanted to wait to introduce to get the right fit and appearance first, especially because we don''t have laces to make
But these, too, are made from all recycled materials
They also have a foam wedge that provides more cushioning.
TC: Has Rothy marketing strategy changed at all Judging by my Facebook feed, it
has not.
KC: Social media continues to be a really important channel for us, though the largest channel is word of mouth
It a very distinctive-looking shoe, so people stop and ask people about them, which increases returns as more people wear them
But Facebook and Instagram are the biggest drivers
On Instagram, our customers send us more beautiful photography than we could do ourselves and we&ve leveraged that
We&ve also dabbled with influencers, though less at the Kardashian level and more around interesting women with interesting style who other
