*Ahriana Edwards, is not only living her best life after reaching her life long dream, she is helping other women in a certain foot size demographic live theirs, as well.
After noticing that shoe brands largely ignored women who wear sizes 9 through 14, Edwards created Vaila Shoes. And now, just one year later, her decision has led to a lucrative deal with Macy’s.
“There’s no credit that I can give to anyone else except for the man up above,” Edwards wrote on Instagram. “He gave me the vision and told me that it was time to MOVE. It was time to execute. I left my FULL-TIME JOB to achieve this dream of building this shoe company for women with extended shoe sizes.”
According to AfroTech, Edwards pitched her brand in over 20 competitions to attract the interest of investors before having a physical product available on the market. So far, Vaila Shoes has raised $80,000 in funding without giving away equity in the company.
“When I started the concept for Vaila in 2020, I knew in 2021 that I needed to raise as much upfront capital to launch and sustain the business,” Edwards told AfroTech. “2021 was imperative because it was the time being where individuals truly saw how underfunded Black founders were. Although I didn’t have any product in market yet, I took that opportunity and ran with it.” After six months in operation, her business has expanded into five Macy’s locations in New York City, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. “It took a lot of grit to be a 23-year-old founder pulling off this six-figure contract,” Edwards said. “I experienced the most difficulty raising funding for this partnership, but I kept persisting and doing whatever it took to make it work.”
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Grace Jacobson, Associate Shoe Buyer at Macy’s, told AfroTech that she was was impressed by Edwards’ tenacity, adding: “Ahriana is so inspiring creating a business that will help others feel their best having shoes that will support their shoe size that currently isn’t supported much in the marketplace. I also admired how Ahriana is showing that regardless of your age, you can still be able to make a change in this world and to just start.”
You can view the new spring/summer release from Vaila Shoes online and in stores.
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