Calla Shoes Founder Jennifer Bailey Wants to Save People With Bunions From Wearing ‘Ugly’ Shoes
Karla Rodriguez
Senior News Editor
Like most innovators, Calla Shoes founder and CEO Jennifer Bailey saw a need and fulfilled it. For years, Bailey struggled with bunions and even found herself changing out of painful high heels on her wedding day. Now, she gets approached by people who were able to wear heels on their big day thanks to Calla Shoes.
Bunions are a foot condition that affects a quarter of people living in the United States, and are 10 times more common in women than in men. There’s a common misconception that uncomfortable heels or shoes may cause them, but as podiatric surgeon Dr. Bradley Schaeffer explained to FN recently, bunions are hereditary. That is the case for Bailey, whose mother suffers from the condition and now her two daughters struggle with it too, despite the British shoemaker taking pristine care of their feet since they were babies.
A bunion is a deformity of the joint at the base of the big toe, often caused by hypermobility, which makes the toe point inward toward the other toes, causing the joint to protrude on the side. This makes wearing narrow shoes, high heels and even some sneakers a painful experience for those who struggle with the condition. While there are certain shoes like Uggs and Crocs that provide some comfort, Bailey saw a void in footwear design for women who have not given up on wearing stylish and pretty shoes, but are seeking ones that don’t cause discomfort.
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Schaeffer mentioned Calla during his conversation with FN, saying he recommends the brand to patients who are opting out of surgery and are seeking more comfortable shoes to wear on a day-to-day basis and even for special events. “If this business was around when I was getting married, it would have changed my life,” Bailey says during a recent conversation with FN. “I would have just made life so much easier. So that’s why I’m doing it, for other people and if I can do that for the people, then it’s what keeps me going and what gets me out of bed.”
Bailey started the company while pregnant with her second child 10 years ago. Her job was being eliminated while she was on maternity leave, and that was the perfect opportunity to finally go after her dream. While she started with just a few shoe designs, Calla’s shoe offerings have expanded from heels, to boots, sandals, and sneakers—which are now the company’s top selling shoes. Now that her daughters are older, they have made their mom’s shoes their footwear of choice, especially the sneakers.
The company’s founder says she often receives videos on social media from customers and foot specialists who get emotional while thanking her for creating shoes that truly make a difference in their lives. The reason she is able to get reactions like those is because of lived experience. As a person with bunions, Bailey understands firsthand which aspects of shoes make walking unbearable and has applied that wisdom and knowledge to her own designs.
From moving seams on a sneaker a mere centimeter to let the bunion breathe, to having no stitching on the inside of the shoe, a wider toe box, stretch lining, and a removable insole with arch support on the inside, those seemingly small details are a game-changer for people struggling with bunions.
“A lot of women will feel more confident in a really beautiful pair of shoes—whether that be heels, flats, boots—something that makes them feel confident, and that’s what I’m trying to give with Calla,” Bailey says.
Below, Bailey opens up to FN about running a small business, what motivated her to create Calla Shoes, and why she thinks company’s run by women are doing better than others. The conversation has been edited for clarity.
I saw on your website that you decided to go into business when you were pregnant with your second daughter. What made you decide to start the business then?
I have had the business idea for a while. I had the lightbulb moment years before that because of my feet and because of the bunions. I don’t know if you have ever had a business idea, but sometimes you just need that push to go for it. The push that I got was I was pregnant and then I was also being made redundant at work as well. I already had a baby at home, she was only one and a half. It’s stupid when you think about it like, why would you start a business when you’re going to have two children under two years old? But I decided that was the right thing to do because I thought if I can start a business then I can start it slowly, figure out how it works while I’m on maternity leave. I’ll take the opportunity to see if I could start a business and work it around my kids and that’s what I did and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
A lot of people think that once a person becomes a mom you are not able to do your work as well as you used to, but I think it makes people more focused.
Never underestimate a mom, that’s what I think. And I think men do sometimes particularly, whereas my whole team is female. I’ve got an entire female team and I’ve just taken on another member, another lady and she’s starting on Monday. And ironically, my investors are men because that’s just the investors’ world. They’re still the ones that hold the money but I do have one great female investor, though. She’s really brilliant and incredibly successful in her life before she retired.
I’m just more organized and more focused than I’ve ever been in my life. Starting the business meant that I was able to drop them off at school and I’m not dashing out doing a commute in the morning. The business is in my home and my whole team is remote. We all work remotely. You don’t have to go into an office anymore in order to communicate with people wherever they are. And also my customers are all over the world.
When I was speaking with Dr. Bradley Schaeffer, he was telling me about how he treats patients with bunions and the surgeries he does. But he also said Calla was a brand he recommends to all his patients because you have cute stylish shoes that don’t hurt your feet.
I think there’s more pressure in the U.S. than there is in the UK from foot specialists to get the surgery. In the UK, the recommendation is always footwear first, surgery last. So it’s always modifications to your lifestyle or your footwear before getting surgery because it’s not a small bit of surgery, it’s under general anesthetic. In the UK, you almost have to be disabled with it. We work with loads of podiatrists in the U.S. They have been reaching out with them saying, “Wow, this is like exactly what my patients have been looking for.” They send these lovely videos.
It’s special that there are footwear brands and doctors that are so being so outspoken and trying to get more awareness for bunions and people who deal with them because it does affect your life a lot.
It’s great that feet are certainly getting on the agenda. Fashion is becoming more understanding of different women’s bodies and it has been changing over the last 10 years. Now footwear is starting to catch on as well. We’ve not all got the same shape feet just because we’ve all got feet. I started this brand because I was quite prepared to make some sacrifices. I knew I wouldn’t be able to wear certain shoes again, but I did not want to wear something that my 90 year old great grandma would wear. I was in my 30s.
The majority of our customers sit in that Boomer age group. They’re the ones that have to wear something comfortable, but they were very much in this 60s, 70s era where fashion was everything. It’s part of their identity, their footwear is part of who they are as much as putting their lipstick on or wearing some earrings. They are our target market and we’re quite clear about this. It isn’t the women who are all about comfort, because there are loads of brands out there if you want a pair of comfy shoes. If you’re not bothered by how they look, if you are happy with velcro and big ugly shoes, that’s fine, you can probably find one, but my customers aren’t.
There are also a lot of women who change into sneakers during their weddings because their heels are so uncomfortable.
On my wedding day I wore my high heels for an hour because I didn’t have Calla shoes back then. It was just one hour of getting down the aisle and then changing into something else. So you want more than an hour. Heels are not meant for long time wear. They’re not good for your feet, any foot specialist will tell you that. I don’t have an issue with [women changing into sneakers], but I do think you should be able to wear something for a length of time that fits your lifestyle. So whether that’s a special occasion or you want to stand up in front of an audience of people and have that confidence. A lot of women will feel more confident in a really beautiful pair of shoes—whether that be heels or flats or boots—or something that makes them feel confident, and that’s what I’m trying to give with Calla. And standing up there in a pair of trainers is fine for some women, but not others.
The industry is very dominated by men still. They are still the ones telling women what shoes we should be wearing. You try and wear a pair of heels with a bunion! Most bunion shoe brands before, they have considered the upper but I don’t think they road tested them themselves, so designers need to have road tested themselves to really understand what works. All the best athleisure type of wear, I think, comes from females. They’ve been led by women, they’re the ones that know. Most great brands now are being driven by women who really understand. Our following in America is mad, it’s crazy. People send me messages on Instagram, videos literally crying. It’s really emotional. It is crazy that people feel that strongly and emotionally that someone has not listened to them in so long. I don’t know why nobody’s really doing it in America. I’m hoping they don’t so that I can do it properly. [Laughs.]
Did you start Calla having sneakers or was that an addition later on?
No, the sneakers were definitely born out of COVID. We had the idea for them and I knew that I needed to get them right. So it took around two years to get the sneakers out. They took a long time. I only started with four styles because I didn’t have loads of money. So it was a flat and three heels, and then obviously it’s grown now to what you see on the website. The sneakers came out of COVID. Straight away we could see that this is where it was going— comfort. Our business doubled the year after and it was driven by people wanting comfort more than ever. They are our bestselling line now.
What would you say to a woman who hasn’t discovered your shoes yet, who is struggling with bunions and looking for a better option?
Give them a go! You don’t need to compromise. If you really, really want to look stylish, if it’s quite high on your agenda of that middle ground of comfort and you don’t want to wear Uggs or Crocs, but you still want to feel comfortable and stylish at the same time, definitely give Calla a go. The technical features that we incorporate, like arch support, and understanding what goes into giving you an overall comfortable experience, Calla should be up there with some of your choices. What other brands do you have to choose from?
I regularly do what they call “competitive buying,” looking at what else is in the marketplace. And Calla is the only ones that I can wear. Besides Uggs, I really like my Uggs. That upper in an Ugg boot? I took what I understood from comfortable shoes and put them together into Calla.
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What what has been like most impactful part of creating this brand and creating these shoes for you?
Those really emotional messages and videos I get from people who genuinely thought that they were just going to be another pair of shoes that we were going to have to send back. I’ve gotten amazing reviews on the website, but sometimes customers will email me directly just to say more. That’s what drives me because it’s really hard running a small business. I’m not going to lie. There’s some days where I just wake up in the morning and I feel sick.
If this business was around when I was getting married, it would have changed my life. I would have just made life so much easier. So that’s why I’m doing it, for other people and if I can do that for the people, then it’s what keeps me going and what gets me out of bed because God knows I barely earn any money from it. Maybe one day! Small businesses are like that. You keep going and then maybe you get the rewards in the end, but the reward is the customers.
