Billy Footwear talks independent success for National Disability Employement Awareness Month

Co-founder of Billy Footwear, Billy Price, joins us for a special episode to celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month and independent entrepreneurship.  Join us to discover how Billy and his partner, Darin Donaldson, created this stylish and universal adaptive shoe design sold worldwide!

To find out more about our guest, visit these links:
Website: https://billyfootwear.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billyfootwear/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/billyfootwear

Want to be a guest on our show?  Connect with us at: https://www.abilitiesinmotion.org/podcast
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Transcript

Intro: 0:03

Welcome to DisAbility Talks, a podcast produced by Abilities in Motion. I'm your host, Shelly Houser. Join us for real conversations and no nonsense talk from everyday people with disabilities, living their most independent everyday lives. Tune in for the latest news surrounding disability, accessibility and independence. Where conversations aren't dissed and stories that need to be told aren't missed. So let's talk.

Shelly: 0:31

Welcome to this special edition of DisAbility Talks. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and it celebrates people with disabilities in the workplace. It is estimated that 21% of disabled persons are part of the labor workforce. Yet 67.3% without disabilities are employed. Since COVID hit employers have found ways to make more jobs productive and remote. Many persons with disabilities have become entrepreneurs creating their own destiny and employment success. And that's where my next guest comes in. As a teen, Billy suffered a spinal cord injury and became paralyzed from the chest down, losing the ability to use his fingers, owner Darin Donaldson and Billy Price partnered together to create a footwear company with a universal design through determination and the philosophy of inclusion Billy and Darin created Billy footwear. The mission is to add value to the lives of others and make a difference one shoe at a time. Thanks for being on the show today, Billy. It's really a pleasure.

Billy: 1:34

Oh my absolute pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah.

Shelly: 1:38

Yes. So I've seen your footwear and it is really great. I've actually seen it out in our community here, and it's a great accessible concept for anyone to universally use. Tell us how and why you came up with this shoe design.

Speaker 2: 1:54

I love to, um, so I'm a wheelchair user, uh, that wasn't always the case. Unfortunately, when I was in college, my freshman year in college, I fell out of a three story window. And then when that happened, my world really changed. Um, I was, uh, I was a very active young kid playing lots of sports and very active in the outdoors. And, uh, and within an instant, all of a sudden became wheelchair bound. So a lot of things that I used to be able to do, I could no longer do. And putting on shoes is one of those things. So, uh, there really wasn't anything out on the market at that time that I could find that, uh, both had the, both the, the fashion element as well as the function element, because I mean, there was stuff out there. They had the function, but it just looked different. The last thing I want to do is wear something that looked different. I wanted to wear something that where my mind was our way back when like being an amblitory kid. So because there was no solution on the market. Um, I teamed with Darin, who's a longtime friend and I was throwing some ideas his way. And, uh, cause he was working on a shoe project when I was like throwing these ideas his way. And uh, we just came up with our own idea. We came up with our own solution and it was having a zipper into a shoe. Have it goes outside around the toe hole, upper folds over. So you could drop your foot in unobstructed. Cause that was my challenge. It was one, the hand started doing the laces, but to the actual shoving my foot into a shoe. So we felt that, uh, that type design had worked for me. And uh, lo and behold it did.

Shelly: 3:22

Yeah. And they're really great. I've seen them in action for one or two people that I know and they work really, really well for them. And it's a greater sense, It gives them a sense of independence and pride that they can just put their own shoes on and just go and they don't have to wait and rely on somebody else. So that's, that's the nice thing. They're not just designed for elderly persons with maybe arthritis or persons with disabilities. They really do work for everyone. And I checked out your website and some other pages that you're on and social media and there's all kinds of people that wear them. So tell us about who you designed them for.

Billy: 3:56

Yeah. So there's a lot there. Um, and I love that you're bringing up the whole university design part of it. Um, yes, my, my story, um, and my disability, my challenge that was the inspiration behind the brand, but we felt early on. We wanted to make in order to be a business, going into a very competitive market, as shoes are very competitive in the market, we had to do something big and we'll want to do is we want to take fashion and function and smash those two together, really in the spirit of inclusion and in the spirit of university design we wanted to do is we wanted to create something that everyone could enjoy and everyone can find success with. We wanted to be able to have it. So someone like myself that needs a functional shoe could be empowered, but also to be able to sit on the shelves of major retailers like Nordstrom or Zappos or, you know, countless others. And like someone could just walk in there and buy a pair of shoes because it looked, uh, on trend. So we wanted to do something really, really big in the marketplace. That was what we boldly set out to you. Um, those that need a functional shoe. There's no denying that they have a lot of success with our brand, but those that love a convenient shoe. For example, like as a parent, being able to get my three-year-old out the door faster, having convenient pair of shoes makes that a very successful, um, a great way to start off the day instead of a challenge. So there's a lot more folks that it's not like you need to have a disability to qualify yourself, to wear our brand. We wanted to make something that everyone could enjoy.

Shelly: 5:26

I love the designs. I think you have like a little unicorn style and, but you have ones for women that I saw looked like a low brown hiking shoe of sorts, such, you know, Trek shoe for the, for the trails and, and or everyday walking the malls. So they look really, and then you have something more stylish and hip, like more sneaker kind, but either way it's, it's fashionable. And it, it does have a lot of different styles for men and women, young, old, the whole concept. It works. It blends really, really how do they work over leg braces,

Billy: 6:01

Ah right. Over leg braces. So again, um, you know, it's interesting when we first started the brand, um, we first started the brand. We did a Kickstarter campaign. That's how we entered into the marketplace. And, uh, people started reaching out asking questions. And one of those questions was, did these work with AFOA and I had to take a pause to go to Google, to type in AFO. Cause I had no idea what an AFO was. I just wasn't familiar with with that acronym or what that meant. And, uh, looking at a photograph of an AFO ankle foot orthosis, a big ridged piece of plastic, I looked at it like, oh my gosh, I definitely see the challenge here because it was the same challenge. I always having, having to shove your foot into a shoe. So having that zipper going around, having it open up so you can drop your foot in and I'm distracted or that brace in unobstructed, um, you know, those that were the AFL wares, um, you know, they were having success. So to answer your question, yes, they do work for braces. Um, that's not a total guarantee. Um, some, some braces are very bulky, more so than others. So when we first started, we just had medium with shoes and, uh, as you've been able to continue to grow, we've been able to introduce wider shoes and, uh, we now have wide kids' shoes and, uh, coming up in the next out month or so maybe two we'll have extra wide kids' shoes. And, uh, those are more on the high tops in spring of next year. We'll have low tops and again, medium wide and extra wide, as well as an adults. We have extra wide, wide adults coming out in the next month as well. So all those with gradients, like making the shoes wider and wider, wider, those are really in the spirit of making it more AFL friendly for the orthotics, but it's taken a while for us to get there, but it's just really exciting that we're finally here to be able to offer up those solutions.

Shelly: 7:58

And I think it's great that you are at least listening to your consumers and your customers saying, Hey, this is what we need. We have to wear these AFOs and these MAFO's but we also want to be stylish and independent. So kudos to you on that one. What does it mean to you talking about this National Disability Employment Awareness Month? What does it mean to you to be a person as an entrepreneur with a disability to be successful in having your own company?

Billy: 8:25

Well, you know, I mean the fact that I'm a business owner and the fact that I'm an entrepreneur and the fact that our business is doing as well as it is, the word I use quite often is surreal. Um, it, this was just a small little side project idea between two friends like me and Darin. I'm just kind of throwing this idea around and just making a go of it. Um, at the time when we started this thing, it was a side hustle, Darin and I had our full-time jobs. We were working, we were doing the nine to five and then we're working on shoes in the evening to be able to build that this thing. Um, I did not grow up in an entrepreneurial family. My family is very job-related Darin grew up in an entrepreneurial family. So he was really the one that kind of educated me on what it would be like to be an entrepreneur. And then since like tasting that lifestyle, um, I'm so addicted and, uh, because you're really, you're the driver, you're the driver trying to push this thing and build this thing up. So the fact that I'm an entrepreneur is just absolutely incredible. I wouldn't trade it for the world and to be able to have like one in disability that, uh, inspired the brand and, um, to be able to talk about it on like platforms like this, to be able to share just like, you know, don't, don't give up. I mean, it's like, it's life is a grind, but you just got to keep moving forward the best you can. And, um, it really is amazing what come from it.

Shelly: 9:42

So that would be your best advice for anybody that wants to start their own business and their own, that they have their own idea that would be adaptive or helpful for somebody?

Billy: 9:51

That would be part of my advice. But another part of it is, you know, starting a business is tough. I mean, it really is. And it's just, it takes time. It really does. I mean, nothing's going to happen as fast as you wanted to. Um, likewise, I mean, like shoot, when I was going through rehab, like in the hospital, I, I was the bullheaded guy that was going to walk out of the hospital. I mean, I was not going to be the guy that was in me in the wheelchair and rolling out, but it just didn't come that way. Like, so you go down this path of going like this to my intention, but it's like that that path may have some turns and curves and some hurdles in the way, but so long as you don't quit, as long as you keep moving forward, the best you can inch by inch, it really is amazing what you can accomplish and really pick a good team that really helps too.

Shelly: 10:34

A good tribe to support you.

Billy: 10:35

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, to be able to have that supportive culture around you for you to be able to make those big choices and understand that you're going to fail, but just, don't just don't quit. I mean, just keep moving forward the best he can, um, you know, give us some time and, uh, find mentorship. I mean, that's really what I would say as an entrepreneur to be able to build up a business, find other people in the industry that are doing perhaps something similar or maybe have, you know, built a business in the past and kind of get their, um, understanding on what, what they learned and what didn't go so well. And, uh, just kind of, you know, follow in their footsteps per se. Um, and then see what you can do.

Shelly: 11:16

In trying to bridge this month. Entrepreneurs are persons with disabilities that want to be employed and, and employers that want to hire persons with disabilities. How can we bridge that connection? And what would you tell employers that want to hire persons with disabilities, but maybe are a little apprehensive and struggling with learning how to become more inclusive and more diverse. I mean, what's the best advice to help employers that are trying to get there?

Billy: 11:44

Boy? Great question. Um, well that's a really great question. I, you know, I guess the best way I can answer that is kind of reflecting on when I got hired the first time I got hired to a full-time job and, uh, I was working for after I graduated college, I went to a disability job fair and there was a company that was, that was, there were a lot of companies there, but the company that I had my eye on was the Federal Aviation Administration. So the FAA and I went in there and had a great conversation with, with those at the booth. And, um, I gave him my resume and, you know, lo and behold, like four months later, they gave me a call. And, uh, I remember I went in for an interview and to ended up getting the job. But I recall like really when I was, when I was at work, it really felt like I was hired because I had a disability. Like I was, I was the one being hired to get, like, to check that box of inclusive. And, uh, but it was interesting as, as time went by when, when people would see me, they weren't seeing the disability anymore because I was performing, I was performing, I was actually getting the assignments done that was adding value to the company. And then it got to the point where people were coming to me for advice, or like just asking, um, you know, I'd worked on something and like, okay, maybe they're struggling with their project. And they would ask for my guidance, like maybe some sort of suggestion. So being in the workforce, even though I had a disability over time, I was being, you know, approached for my skillset, not because I had a disability. So I would say that when I first entered the marketplace, I like ad at that job. Um, I was able to offer more than I think some people would give me credit initially, but unfortunately I had to kind of prove myself to be able to do that. So I would say as an employer, I would just like, remind you guys is like, just because someone has a disability doesn't mean they can't add value. I mean, when someone with a disability has a tremendous amount of value to add to a business, a great perspective, a different perspective and different way of looking at things. So I would say that when it comes to building a team, it's important to have an inclusive team with multiple backgrounds to be able to really, you know, grow this thing, whatever that thing may be, because when we have different types of conversations that are contributing, I think we're stronger for it.

Shelly: 14:12

I agree. I think we're natural born problem solvers when we have a disability. So we're used to looking at a problem from a different, unique lens every day of the week anyway, so like it or not. So finally, yeah, yeah. Right, exactly. So your shoes are sold everywhere and I was wondering if you could tell us just some of the places that you partner with that sell your shoes and do you ship your shoes internationally?

Billy: 14:41

Wow. Well, yes. Uh, we, we definitely ship international. Um, so the, the role of deck of businesses, so the business, the list of businesses that we partner with is definitely grown over the years when we first entered the marketplace, it was in August of 2017. And, uh, that was for back to school. And we started with Zappos and Nordstrom. And, uh, from there, uh, we've expanded into Shields and Von Marc who are in the Midwest. Um, there's lots of independent retail partners like mom and pop type stores throughout the United States. We've also partnered with a number of organizations or number of, uh, brick and mortar stores outside the U S. So there's quite a few stores up in Canada. Um, this year we also partner with some stores down in Mexico. We also have a number of stores over in Europe, which is just really exciting, um, Australia and New Zealand, even in South America. So our small little brand has really grown tremendously. And in addition to that, we have our own website. We have our own website, Billyfootwear.com, all of our stores, all of our, um, the stores that are carrying the shoes. They don't carry the full selection. I mean, we have toddler kids, men's women's. So depending on what store like each store kind of caters to a particular audience, more so than others. So some of our kids' stores, some are adult stores, depending on what store it is, they'll be carrying a different, um, set of skews or whatnot. But, uh, but it's been really exciting to be able to provide this as solution is footwear, a new emerging brand to all these places. And it's just been generating a lot, a lot of buzz.

Shelly: 16:18

Are you on any other social media platforms?

Billy: 16:21

We are. So we do a lot of engagement through Facebook, a lot of engagement through Instagram, um, as well as YouTube. So all of those channels are on the grill and it's been great because a lot of that traffic comes organically. A lot of, a lot of folks see the brand through those channels, and then they forward those to their friends, um, which, you know, continues to propagate like one our mission, but also just brand awareness.

Shelly: 16:44

Well, thank you so much, really for educating us and talking to us about national disability employment month and showing us where we can buy your shoes internationally.

Billy: 16:53

Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Shelly: 16:55

We do have a international audience that listens to us worldwide and thank you to those listeners that listen to us in Australia, New Zealand, the country of Jersey, all over Europe and all over Asia. Don't forget to hit that like and subscribe button and join us next week for another regular episode of Disability Talks.

Music: 17:34

[inaudible]

Speaker 1: 17:35

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of DisAbilityTalks. Want to keep the conversation going? Then visit our website at abilitiesinmotion.org or connect with us on social media. And remember don't dis my ability.