The Shoe Designer Who Built Her Brand From The Sole Up

Author: Joresa Blount / Source: Forbes

Designer and founder of Alejandra G. Shoes Alejandra G.

What woman doesn’t love a great pair of shoes? When you can’t find what you are looking for it would be great if you could just make your own. Shoe designer and entrepreneur Alejandra G. had been creating a mark for herself with her out of the box style.

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Since her first collection launched in 2012, the company hasn’t stopped growing. Her shoes have been worn by Kylie Jenner, Tyra Banks, Giuliana Rancic, Adrienne Bailon, Christina Milian and many more. With comfort and style being of equal importance in her designs, women love them.

Joresa Blount: When did you first get inspired to create a shoe line?

Alejandra: I’ve always been in love with fashion. I have a picture of me when I was about three years old, holding a special designer fashion kit. My mom said I always loved drawing, and coloring in coloring books. It would always be really creative with the colors.

I didn’t always know that it would be shoes. I’ve told this story before, and it’s the absolute truth. I was working for a television production company at the time. I was making really good money, and I was saving up. I knew I wanted to start something. One of my friends had started a clothing line. She would take me downtown to all the manufacturers, but I noticed that there were no shoe manufacturers. So, I was playing with the idea of first starting a clothing line.

One night I was having a dream. It was a very vivid, vivid, vivid dream of shoes. They were all candied shoes. One looked like Skittles. They were candy inspired shoes. The next day I went to sketch out what was in my dream. It was so powerful. The dream would not leave me. I felt like it was my calling. I went and told my friend and family. They were like, what are you talking about? I didn’t know a single person in the fashion business.

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Joresa: How can someone who doesn’t have a traditional background in fashion launch a business?

Alejandra: I always recommend going to some type of school to understand what you are getting into. With fashion specifically, it’s only 20% designing and the rest is knowing how to run a company. When I met my mentor who referred me to go to school in Milan, I just jumped in when I came back [to Los Angeles]. Before you decide to jump into running any company, especially fashion, make sure you get some form of education. Do as much research on how much it is going to cost to start a company, how much it will to take to run. The more you educate yourself in business 101, the less money you will lose and mistakes you will make.