HARTFORD, Conn. — During her senior year at Boston College in 2019, Natalie White came across an online advertisement that would shift not only the course of her life but the entire women’s basketball sneaker landscape.
The promotion featured four WNBA players, however each star was holding up a shoe model named for an NBA player. The Moolah Kicks founder and CEO had always noticed disparities between the men’s and women’s games as a player growing up in New York City, but something struck a chord that day.
“I realized that my entire career I never questioned the fact that I was wearing and shopping in the boys’ and men’s section,” White, now 24, told the Hartford Courant. “When I saw that ad I think a lot clicked in my mind that the fact that women and girls had been playing in men’s sneakers not only had a negative social implication, but it also had a negative performance implication.”
White was determined to change that. She wanted to launch a brand solely focused on women’s basketball, aimed at creating products to empower female hoopers and elevate their on-court performance.
“What Moolah is doing is carving a path for women’s basketball without comparison,” White said. “Championing and celebrating women’s basketball for the love of the sport and the love of the players.”
Moolah Kicks is the first and only brand focused exclusively on women’s basketball. The rapidly rising company has plenty of ties to the hoops-crazed state of Connecticut, including a partnership with the Connecticut Sun and brand ambassadors such as UConn guard Caroline Ducharme and Sun guard Courtney Williams. Backed by Mark Cuban, Moolah Kicks launched its second model, the Neovolt Pro, this fall.
“I love that Moolah Kicks is a brand that exclusively supports and elevates women’s basketball,” Ducharme said. “Having shoes that are made specifically for women’s feet makes a huge difference. They are so comfortable, I love playing in them.”
Once White decided to start the company, one of the first steps was coming up with a name. She wanted it to be based around some sort of slang for money as a dual-part homage to the street culture of basketball in New York City where she grew up, and the financial opportunity she hoped to create for women’s basketball. So White enlisted her friends and family to help her look up different slang words that mean money.
“So me and my friends, my family, looked up different slang words that mean money,” White recalled. “And all of a sudden we see Moolah. ‘Oh my gosh, of course! It’s gotta be Moolah. It’s gotta be Moolah Kicks.’”
One of the next key stages was research — a lot of it. White, a manager for the Boston College women’s varsity team and a guard on the club team, consulted with the entire Eagles training staff as well as podiatrists and other medical experts to inform her product.
White learned about how men’s and women’s feet are different in five places. That discovery made it clear that one of the reasons female hoopers are more at risk for injury is they’ve been playing in equipment designed for the male foot. There are separate men’s and women’s running shoes for a reason, after all, so why didn’t that apply to basketball?
With the goal of fixing that, White then got to work on designing the shoe last, a mold form that the inside of all footwear is built around. That’s what makes Moolah Kicks so groundbreaking, especially when it comes to injury prevention.
“The inside of Moolah Kicks is fit and sculpted specifically for the female biomechanics and applied to a basketball shape,” White explained. “Any woman wearing it, the second they put it on they feel like, ‘Oh my God, these fit like sneakers, not like basketball shoes.’ And what they’re really saying is the bottom of your feet burning, the top of your toes hitting the front of your sneaker, those are all products of us wearing shoes that don’t fit us correctly.”
Key elements of that female-oriented fit, first introduced to the public with the launch of the Phantom 1 model in May 2021, include a narrow heel, lifted arch, slimmer width and a shallow lateral side.
Moolah Kicks got involved in the name, image and likeness space from the jump, signing over 40 college athletes to NIL deals for the 2021-22 season. It was a natural move since White and so many people working for the company were just coming out of the college. Though players can’t wear the sneakers in games due to college brand deals, White believes it signals the message that when they have the choice they wear Moolah Kicks.
Collaborations with big brands soon came into the fold as well. Dick’s Sporting Goods joined as an official retail partner, bringing Moolah Kicks to more than 140 stores nationwide in November 2021, after a cold email from White initially got their attention.
The Connecticut Sun took notice as well, leading team president and former UConn star Jen Rizzotti and Director of Corporate Community Partnerships Paul Rector to reach out to White. She traveled to Connecticut for a pitch after that, and the franchise officially announced the partnership ahead of the 2022 season.
One of the highlights of the partnership was the ‘Moolah Kicks for a Cause’ campaign. Sneaker artist Wally Champ painted pairs of the white Phantom 1 model with custom designs to go along with theme nights throughout the season, including Sun legends, pride, Title IX, breast health awareness and racial justice. The shoes were then auctioned off to fans for charity.
Moolah Kicks also helped the Sun sponsor two local AAU teams, providing players with sneakers and Sun-inspired uniforms, along with covering their tournament fees.
“From the moment I met Natalie, I knew Moolah Kicks would be the right partner for the Connecticut Sun,” Rizzotti said. “Natalie’s passion for elevating women’s basketball and creating a space where women feel seen and invested in is infectious. The Connecticut Sun is proud to work with a company committed to uplifting the next generation of basketball stars.”
One of those stars is Ducharme, who Moolah Kicks announced as one of its first two brand ambassadors, alongside Indiana Fever guard Destanni Henderson, ahead of the release of the Neovolt Pro in October.
It was a natural fit, and not just because of Ducharme’s ability on the court; Ashley Ducharme, the UConn guard’s older sister, works at Moolah corporate. White also spoke to Ducharme’s AAU program, Exodus NYC, a few years ago, before she had even developed the product.
“Working with Caroline is fantastic because not only is she one of the top players in the country, but she’s also family,” White said. “It’s been a phenomenal relationship and just a great way to continue to show how strong all of our relationships are and how deeply everyone who’s involved with Moolah Kicks cares about it and believes in it. And so to have a player on UConn, to have Ashley at Moolah corporate, it’s really the best situation you could ask for.”
Williams came on board as Moolah Kicks’ third brand ambassador last month. She wore Nikes last season, but decided to make the move after sitting down with White over the summer as part of the Sun partnership.
In a video produced HighlightHER and BR Kicks, Williams told White she often only wears one shoe for the entire season because of problems with her heels and the difficulty of breaking new pairs in. She was blown away as White explained how Moolah Kicks’ design helps fix that problem. And then she tried them on herself.
“These feel good,” Williams declared. “And I ‘aint just saying that for the camera.”
Williams will play in the Neovolt Pro model for the 2023 WNBA season, which will bring even more attention to the ascending brand.
In the short span from when White saw that ad in 2019 to now, Moolah Kicks has established itself as a name to know in women’s hoops. And White doesn’t have plans of slowing down anytime soon; she was overseas this past week visiting manufacturers for development on another model, aimed at a fall 2023 launch.
“We’ve had such an incredible response,” White said. “I think it just shows how excited the basketball community is not only about the product, but also about the brand and where this sport is headed — especially with a brand like Moolah Kicks fueling that fire.”
