A Latina Luxury Footwear Brand On Inclusivity & Comfortable Heels
Daniela Uriba on becoming not only the creative designer of her brand, but the business person behind her brand.
Colombian, luxury shoe designer and business owner, Daniela Uriba shares how she grew from being the design talent behind her shoe brand, Daniela Uriba, to the challenges she’s overcome on becoming a well rounded business owner. She knew it wasn’t enough to just be the creative talent. She needed to learn the difficult lessons of understanding production, logistics, finance and the many other things that every small business encounters.
In creating her brand she also wanted to find the white space in the shoe world that she could fill. She found that size inclusivity and comfort in high heels were two areas that she could excel in. Her brand is gender neutral and is known for creating size-inclusive footwear (many heels go up to what’s considered men’s size 13) and she doesn’t believe in shoes being just “cab to dinner/dinner to cab” shoes.
Some of the other things we discuss are….
• Resilience in the face of adversity
• Listening to feedback and not being stubborn. Learning to absorb all the information, filter it, and then utilize the parts you can to help improve and grow your business. As a creative designer, feedback can sometimes be tough to swallow. Mentally reframe these ideas from other people as tools that can help you to grow your business.
• Using previous business experiences as a springboard for your own business. Before she launched her brand, Daniela was an assistant buyer for accessories. This knowledge helped her understand the ins and outs as well, as mindset of companies as they view their buy plans and assortments. She understood cost structure and delivery deadlines.
• The importance of maintaining contacts. A previous contact of hers became a mentor later as she was launching her business.
• The value in giving yourself the grace of personal time. Taking the time to journal, meditate, create vision boards, etc. It’s OK to leave work behind and take time off. This can help you to become a better business person by stepping away and coming back with a fresh perspective to re-evaluate.
• You don’t always have to be doing physical things that you can tick off your daily to do list like like making calls, emailing, or generating sales for you to be productively running your business. Brainstorming, taking the time to think things through and strategizing are all “work”. These are things that are hard to account for or measure in terms of success or accomplishment, but they are equally important to an entrepreneur’s growing business.
Daniela enjoys spreading the message of her brand’s inclusivity. She thrives on having an impact on people and motivating them to find their own personal style. She says that fashion often tries to dictate what the consumer should wear, but truthfully, the consumer should find out whom they are, what they like to wear and feel confident in choosing what they want to wear.
Join us for a candid conversation on the learnings and challenges of being a creative designer to becoming a well rounded business entrepreneur.
