A new way of designing children’s shoes.
Mike Gugat has always had an affinity for shoes. After working at renowned sportswear brands including Mizuno and Adidas, he finally caught the entrepreneurial bug and decided to start his own footwear company, jbrds.
He’s trying to solve a problem in the shoe industry, specifically for children: companies often take the design of their adult shoes and scale them down to fit children. But properly designing children’s shoes is much more complicated than that, Gugat explained to me.
“Our vision is to really become, from crib to eight,” Gugat said, “a sports lifestyle brand for kids.”
To achieve this goal, he participates in an accelerator program at Towson University to further develop the company.
➡️ Learn more about jbrds in my latest report here.
Seeking equity amid Fearless Fund backlash
The Atlanta-based Fearless Fund’s grant program for Black women underscores the legal and operational challenges in promoting equity, Technical.ly CEO Christopher Wink writes in his latest column.
But on Monday, an appeals court ruled that the venture capital fund cannot make grants to Black women business owners, saying it likely violates the federal Civil Rights Act of 1866.
“Our work does not oppress people,” CEO Arian Simone said in another interview. “The work we do addresses a disparity.”
This is part of a broader trend against racial equity initiatives, even though diversity in the workforce and entrepreneurship has been shown to have economic benefits. Therefore, there is now more movement to make programs and initiatives community-specific and income-based, a perspective that, even without focusing on race, could still be effective.
➡️ Read more in the Technical.ly CEO column here.
News Incubator: What else to know today?
• Catholic University partnered with Rockville solar company Standard Solar on a new 25-acre solar farm, now the largest in DC. (WIPO)
• Arlington Public Schools is set to introduce several new all-electric school buses this year, thanks to $1 million in federal funding. (ARLNow)
• District voters went to the polls Tuesday to vote in several competitive races for the DC Council. Polls are open until 8 pm (Washington Post)
• José Andrés resigned as CEO of the restaurant group he launched in DC more than 30 years ago. He will continue to participate as its executive president. (Washingtonian)
• Kimberly Bush, executive director of the DC LGBTQ+ Community Center, said an upcoming center for that and other LGBTQ+-focused organizations is about 70% complete. The space in Shaw will have office and coworking spaces, at prices below market value. (Axios)
• An Amazon workers union, which maintains its HQ2 headquarters in Arlington, is seeking formal affiliation with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. (Bloomberg)
🗓️ On the calendar
• DC Startup Women and Women and Gender eXpansive Coders DC will host a panel discussion on June 6 where women and non-binary founders will describe their career paths. (Details here)
• The second annual Black Commerce Conference: The Future of Entrepreneurship will be held June 19-22 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. It will feature several workshops and panels, as well as a resource fair. (Details here)
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