809 Sandra Powers Murphy: Founder of Scarlett Chase

0:00I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be.

0:09Kara Goldin:You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. This episode of the Kara Goldin Show is brought to you by Rula, affordable in-network online therapy designed to fit real life. Let's be honest, most of us will need support at some point.

0:54Kara Goldin:Maybe it's after a hard season, during burnout, or when stress and anxiety slowly start stacking up. We've all been there. And when it comes time to actually find a therapist, the hardest part shouldn't be figuring out who takes your insurance. But for so many people, it is. That's what's always felt backwards to me. We don't think twice about using insurance for our physical health, so why should mental health be any different? Accessible, affordable care shouldn't feel like a maze, and yet for too many people, it still does. That's exactly what RULA is changing. RULA works with most major insurance plans to make real licensed therapy more accessible, often bringing the average session cost down to around$15 and sometimes even zero depending on your benefits.

1:47Kara Goldin:This is legitimate mental health care using coverage you already have. What really stands out is how intentional the matching process is. RULA takes your goals, preferences, and background into account so you're connected with a therapist who actually feels like the right fit, not just the next available option. Many therapists even have openings as soon as the next day, which makes starting feel doable instead of overwhelming. If taking care of your mental health is part of your plan this year, Rula makes it easier to begin and easier to stick with. Real support covered by insurance when you need it most.

2:30Kara Goldin:Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit rula.com slash Kara Golden to get started. After you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know we sent you. That's rula.com slash Kara Golden. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Golden Show. Today, I am so excited to be joined by Sandra Powers Murphy, who is the founder and CEO of an incredible brand that I am gaga, if I can use that word over, Scarlett Chase, a luxury footwear brand proving women no longer have to choose between style, comfort, support.

3:24Kara Goldin:And by blending European craftsmanship with patented orthotic grade technology, Scarlett Chase is redefining performance luxury for what Sandra calls the runway of life. I have a few pairs of the Scarlet Chase shoes. Probably my favorite ones right now are the Aspen, which you're going to have to go online to actually check it out. But they are so comfortable and so awesome. I got warm last night, got so many compliments. So love, love, love everything that they're doing. And this is a brand that is designed by women, for women with sneaker-like comfort engineered into every handcrafted pair. So I'm so thrilled to be joined by Sandra to hear more about the journey in building Scarlet Chase.

4:17Kara Goldin:So welcome, Sandra. Super excited to finally connect with you and have you here. Thank you, Kara. I just read your book and heard your story and thought, wow, there's just a lot of synergies and just in what you've done. And it's been such a honor to kind of have people like you, women like you that are out there doing these amazing things. And that is part of what inspired me with Scarlett Chase to create a better performance luxury solution for women that are active and doing such important things in the world. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Rula, affordable in-network online therapy designed to fit real life.

5:00Kara Goldin:Let's be honest. Most of us will need support at some point. Maybe it's after a hard season, during burnout, or when stress and anxiety slowly start stacking up. We've all been there. And when it comes time to actually find a therapist, the hardest part shouldn't be figuring out who takes your insurance. But for so many people, it is. That's what's always felt backwards to me. We don't think twice about using insurance for our physical health, so why should mental health be any different? Accessible, affordable care shouldn't feel like a maze, and yet for too many people, it still does. That's exactly what RULA is changing.

5:42Kara Goldin:RULA works with most major insurance plans to make real licensed therapy more accessible, often bringing the average session cost down to around$15 and sometimes even zero depending on your benefits. This is legitimate mental health care using coverage you already have. What really stands out is how intentional the matching process is. Rula takes your goals, preferences, and background into account so you're connected with a therapist who actually feels like the right fit, not just the next available option. Many therapists even have openings as soon as the next day, which makes starting feel doable instead of overwhelming.

6:26Kara Goldin:If taking care of your mental health is part of your plan this year, Rula makes it easier to begin and easier to stick with. Real support covered by insurance when you need it most. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit rula.com slash Kara Golden to get started. After you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know we sent you. That's rula.com slash Kara Golden. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. So first question for listeners who haven't heard of Scarlett Chase before, how do you describe the brand and really what sets it apart?

7:19Sure. So we set out to create a revolution really in women's footwear. There's been a lot of talk about trying to put comfort into beautiful luxury footwear. A luxury footwear is still made to be looked at to stay on your mantle, not to be worn actively on your foot. But we felt comfort really wasn't the right goal. The right goal was to have support and performance like a sneaker inside construction. And so we've incubated for solid five years around the notion of having a removable orthotic grade insole that we patented and a patented outsole. So when you think about performance luxury, we think we are defining a new category for women in footwear that truly requires that zero compromise between handcrafted European luxury footwear that has built-in traction control, orthotic grade support for your everyday life.

8:16Kara Goldin:And what were you doing before starting Scarlet Chase? Well, in addition to raising six amazing kids, I was in the finance world. my own broker dealer wrote a book called the road to AUM and its second edition really had a full career and so you know often I think I could have retired or I could have decided I want to do something that I really feel passionate about which is solve this problem for women so prior I was marketing consulting on the road a lot at networking and events speaking on behalf of the book and really had a full amazing experience in the financial services and marketing world but wanted to do something that I felt would impact and help women all over.

9:00Kara Goldin:This episode of The Kara Golden Show is brought to you by RULA, affordable in-network online therapy designed to fit real life. Let's be honest. Most of us will need support at some point. Maybe it's after a hard season, during burnout, or when stress and anxiety slowly start stacking up. We've all been there. And when it comes time to actually find a therapist, the hardest part shouldn't be figuring out who takes your insurance. But for so many people, it is. That's what's always felt backwards to me. We don't think twice about using insurance for our physical health. So why should mental health be any different?

9:42Kara Goldin:Accessible, affordable care shouldn't feel like a maze. And yet for too many people, it still does. That's exactly what RULA is changing. RULA works with most major insurance plans to make real licensed therapy more accessible, often bringing the average session cost down to around $15 and sometimes even zero depending on your benefits. This is legitimate mental health care using coverage you already have. What really stands out is how intentional the matching process is. RULA takes your goals, preferences, and background into account so you're connected with a therapist who actually feels like the right fit, not just the next available option.

10:27Kara Goldin:Many therapists even have openings as soon as the next day, which makes starting feel doable instead of overwhelming. If taking care of your mental health is part of your plan this year, Rula makes it easier to begin and easier to stick with. Real support covered by insurance when you need it most. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit Rula.com slash Kara Golden to get started. After you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know we sent you. That's R-U-L-A dot com slash Kara Golden.

11:11Kara Goldin:You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. So was this a personal pain point for you that you thought you could solve? Or did you look at it like this is an industry and I'm gonna go make a ton of money doing it? I mean, what was it that sort of drove you to go from finance to fashion. It's a bold pivot. You're now a founder as well. And you are on the hook for going and not only founding a company, but scaling a company. So what was it? What was that moment like when you said, I have to go do this now? A bold pivot is perfect. I mean, when you're in things like marketing, consulting, and finance, you think about these sort of highbrow careers, and then you realize it is some of the most day-to-day problems that plague us the most.

12:10And I think your listeners and you can probably think of the last time you debated a shoe decision, not based on which one would look better, but which one you could possibly make it through the day or through the evening with. And actually, that was probably the last 24 hours. There's not a problem that plagues women, in my opinion, more than footwear, making sure that we wear something that is both performance and supportive, but also looks great and makes us feel confident when we're out there in the world. And so one day I was in Penn Station, trying to get to Penn Station to catch a train home, pouring rain.

12:45There was no cabs in sight. I had about 10 blocks to go from the meetings I was in. I really wanted to catch the train to get back to my family. And I'm thinking, I can't, there's no way I can run in these shoes. I can't barely move in these shoes. What am I going to do? So I took them off. I ran barefoot. I get to the top of the platform at Penn thinking, I don't know what I just gave myself, probably meningitis, who knows, and called my assistant when I got on the train and said, oh, you won't believe it, but this is what I did to catch the train. And she said, what would you do if you could do anything?

13:15And I immediately said, I would solve this problem. I would create a solution for women who are active like me, who are networking, who are professional businesswomen who are working on behalf of families, generations, themselves in corporate America that want a solution that works better. And it started a journey. I reached out with my WPO group to say, hey, like, are there factories available? I have this design idea. And five years later, here we are with a growing company of a solution for women that changes the pitch of your foot and get you more comfortable and active.

13:51Kara Goldin:From the moment that you said, I'm going to go and start this company to actually having the first SKU, the first pair of shoes, how long did that take? Oh, great question. Well, you know, in Entrepreneur Land, you're kind of working 24-7, so I think every week should be counted as maybe two. But from the first reach out of how are we going to do this to getting our first prototype was probably a year, a solid year of just debating what the construction would be like, whether we would do a collapsible heel, which, spoiler alert, ergonomically doesn't work for women. What would be the construction?

14:35Do we need to get orthotic makers involved, et cetera? To getting that first prototype was a year. And then we continued to incubate around that perfect pump because to me, that was the holy grail. Could I change the pitch of your foot within a shoe and still have it look beautiful? And can I be stable enough that you can walk heel to toe? All the things I felt were missing in beautiful luxury footwear. Every one of those details we wanted to work out. And it did take us a few years, but the first prototype was a year.

15:05Kara Goldin:So the SC360 support system, can you speak to that? And why was it non-negotiable? I like to think of it as surround sound for your foot. You know, if you had to think about something that's going to touch all aspects of your foot, sometimes a shoe company will think about comfort and they'll think about a gel cookie. Sometimes they'll think about the upper and whether the materials are soft and luxurious. Sometimes they'll think about the thickness of the heel. And for me, I knew it's sort of princess of the pea for women, that women, every step you take, you have the benefit and the risk of many pressure points across your foot that are getting impacted.

15:51And I really felt like there were so many shoe companies that were falling short of completing the equation. They would get 50 % of it right or 60 % of it right or would look beautiful on social media or it would feel great, but it was frumpy to look at. And I really wanted the whole foot to be considered. So the 360 system is literally the notion of what's under your foot, what's on top of your foot and how your foot is cradled within the shoe.

16:18Kara Goldin:So you really focus, I mean, you have heels as well, but you have a lot of incredible styles that are flat. And I would imagine, I mean, you started this company during COVID, right? A lot changed in this industry. How did you have to adjust in your industry, given kind of what else was going on in the world, not only from a design perspective, but maybe also from actual manufacturing? Right. Right. I mean, we're European handcrafted and that was, you know, I had looked to develop in the U.S. I would have loved to have been able to do that. When you look at luxury goods and handcrafted footwear, third generation artisans, you really do have to look to Italy and some of the surrounding EU countries for that construction.

17:14Our technology is built with resources from the U.S. and as well as Europe. But I think when you think about the line, we had started with the Holy Grail, the pump, But then so many women were saying, hey, you know, but I need that level of support in my flats. And they knew intuitively that as simple and as streamlined as a lovely ballet is or a Mueller loafer is, yes, you don't have the heel to contend with. But without the support structure under your foot, you end up with the same issues in terms of ergonomically. Your back hurts. You don't feel comfortable. Your foot gets tired. And so I went about to say, can we not put our patented bottom and our patented insole, which is removable, as well into a flat system that gives women those day-to-day solutions that they want in addition to our beautiful heels and boots.

18:06And we did, and women have loved it. So for me, it is really about listening to our customers. As an initial customer myself, lightweight, travel-friendly, ergonomically correct, supportive, giving you a little literally pep in your step or rebound, giving you fit flexibility. But then what are the customers saying they need? They want it in this type of a footwear, in this type of a footwear. And that's how we've developed the line entirely based on what our customers are looking for.

18:35Kara Goldin:What is the number one SKU? the number one skew is app it's it's it's a toss-up between our booties and our boots i would say by far um our beautiful italian stretch suede boots and booties the lola and clara and then the maya and the porsche are just hands down season after season really year-round favorites of our customers they've really become a cult classic and i think that's because they fit so many women and people describe them as a hug. They also travel incredibly well because the whole shaft rolls down to nothing and they're very lightweight. So the combination of factors make them by far and away our most popular item.

19:20And we continue to innovate around that style and that design.

19:24Kara Goldin:So retail has been crazy turbulent. So what do you think has really helped you to grow the way that you have? Because obviously, the handcrafted nature of your product and I mean, it's just so, it just feels great. It looks great. But still, they aren't inexpensive, right? They're, you know, high-end shoes and you all have been, you've continued to grow in this crazy time out here. What do you think has helped you to do that? You know, I actually fielded a phone call today. Sometimes the phone calls come through to me still. And it was a customer who was in the middle of an exchange on a navy blue boot and just confirming we had received the shoe and they were getting the new one.

20:20It's part of our latest restock from Italy. And I said, you know, you to catch the founder. I so appreciate speaking to customers. Do you have any feedback? And she said, oh, I can't tell you that I was at an event with a friend and I saw from across the room, they had these most spectacular wine booties on. And I asked them where they got them and they told me about Scarlet Chase. And now I just love the brand. I think the number of women who are getting stopped and said, where are you getting that footwear, which I find really fascinating, Kara. I think it's non-intuitive because there's a lot of beautiful footwear out there, but it seems like women maybe see sort of the elevation and the forefoot, that the silhouettes are absolutely stunning, and they acknowledge the beauty of it.

21:06And then people, once they're consumers of it, they want to tell their friends. They want other people that they know who they've talked to about how uncomfortable footwear is to experience what they're experiencing in Scarlet chase. So we've had incredible growth through word of mouth. In addition to that, you know, we're in an incredible market environment where D to C is possible. We just did a Shopify master class and I'm kind of amazed at what you can do digitally that women are willing. This problem is so big for women that they are willing to buy a performance luxury footwear online and take that challenge of, am I going to pick the right thing at the right size?

21:46And then we know that if we can match that with an exceptional VIP experience, that if it's not perfect right away, that we are there to work with them, to find the writer's size, to get them in the right collection, because everyone's feet are different, to make it work. So I think that combination of the beauty of the product that people are picking up off of the street and the word of mouth of our customers and the quality of our service is really what's helping us grow as quickly as we are.

22:13Kara Goldin:What has been the hardest part about building a luxury brand? You've had incredible work experience in the past, but now you're, you know, the buck stops with you, right? You're not only the founder, but you're the CEO. You're hopping on the phone, talking to consumers when you need to do that. But what has been kind of the hardest part of building a luxury brand that maybe you didn't expect? I'm going to give you two answers. The first answer is working with Italian third generation craftsmen to take a technology advanced set of components and integrate them into beautiful luxury footwear. It is not their preference.

23:01You know, we're in the same factories with Jimmy Choo, Miu Miu, Todd's, Prada, and they have a beautiful aesthetic, but they don't try to integrate this orthotic grade, bulky, but beautiful under your foot insole, nor this rubber platform outsole. And so I think constantly working with them on why it is we want padding behind the heel added and why it is we want the upper to have a little bit more girth and why it is that we want to integrate these components has been a challenge. The other challenge that I didn't expect is, I think for women, they've been disappointed so many times in this category.

23:41They have just been told something's going to be comfortable and great and then they go to buy it and it's expensive and everything's getting more expensive. and they say, you know, it's really not worth it. I might as well just go spend$40 on a shoe I'm going to wear once and throw away. I think getting women to believe that they deserve and need high quality footwear, it is the basis of their being. I mean, you will spend more than this on a session with a chiropractor after you've, you know, worn totally unsupportive shoes for days on end. And so to me, it's encouraging women to believe that this is a key part of feeling empowered and confident and put together and as important as other parts of their wardrobe, even more so maybe.

24:29That's been a bigger challenge than I expected. But obviously, given our growth, we're starting to see that realization. And I think, as you said, coming out of the pandemic, in a difficult time in the world, there is a sense of, Should I be spending that on myself? Should I be investing in this at this time? But I think for women, once they do and they see the difference in how they feel and how it allows them to be in the world, they decide it's worth it. And then they purchase additional pairs to help round out their wardrobe.

25:00Kara Goldin:Seasonality is always something that actually not in the water industry. It actually wasn't a topic of conversation, but certainly in the apparel industry. I'm so curious about in the footwear industry, do you see a lot of seasonality? There's huge seasonality. There is no mistaking that back to school is a factor for all of us in that in the fashion world, and at least in our experience, everything kind of kickstarts into early September and is gangbusters right through the end of the year. And then there's a little lull as people kind of recollect themselves financially and in terms of what their priorities are and what they're doing.

25:48And then they look again to edit their wardrobes and bring things back in in the spring. I would say for us, because our boots and booties are such a cult classic and because I personally, I grew up a swimmer. I'm a huge beach and outdoor person. I love sandals. That's been a category that's been near and dear to my heart to look at, can we create a performance luxury version of sandals? So they're not just a brand component, but it's actually giving you this level of orthotic grade support, the cushioning, the factors that we believe make a real difference in your ability to wear it all day, unlike a flip-flop, to give you that type of support, but also look nice enough to go from traveling to dinner to wherever you're going.

26:34So I love the sandal season, but there's absolutely a seasonality in our business for fashion that is strongest in the fall and into the winter months.

26:44Kara Goldin:So fashion trends that are, they kind of come and go. Some of them, some of them come back over time, but which are you kind of sitting out that are going on right now in the fashion footwear space? Oh, you know, we are sitting out many things because our whole line is about iconic classics. If you are looking for the most editorial shoe that's going to be on the runway, you're not going to be looking to Scarlet Chase. And in fact, we get sometimes the models coming to us for like, I got to do a bunch of runway shows and I need something more comfortable I can really move in. Give me your gorgeous high black boot.