Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Michelle Obama electrifies the DNC, Alex Cooper takes Call Her Daddy to SiriusXM, and Spanx founder Sara Blakely debuts a new kind of shoe, the Sneex. Have a fantastic Wednesday!
– On a high. Who doesn’t want high-heeled shoes to be more comfortable? Spanx founder Sara Blakely knows women’s pain, and she’s trying to solve the centuries-old problem with the launch of Sneex, her new line of hybrid sneaker-heels, this week.
Sneex is Blakely’s first new brand since starting Spanx two decades ago. Spanx made Blakely a billionaire by creating a category that has spawned imitators like Kim Kardashian’s Skims. She seems to be hoping for similar success with Sneex. So far, it’s unclear if Sneex will catch on in the same way as Spanx.
Like Spanx, Sneex are intended to be functional. The design aims to solve three major problems: squeezed toes, a gap between the arch and the base of the shoe, and unbalanced weight distribution, she said on CBS Mornings yesterday. But unlike Spanx, Sneex are outerwear so style matters, and some initial reviews of the Velcro-clad, sporty heels have been harsh.
People really care what their shoes look like. And stiletto-wearers may balk at sacrificing their fashion sense for a more comfortable $395-$595 heel that looks like a sneaker.
The thing to understand about Blakely, though, is that she thinks of herself first and foremost as an inventor, not a founder. When I profiled her for Fortune in 2021, those were the terms in which she described herself. The Spanx origin story isn’t about building a business from scratch, but inventing a product that hadn’t existed before. (To be clear, other brands have introduced heel-sneaker crossovers in the past.) Blakely likes solving problems and getting in the weeds; for Spanx that meant writing her patent herself rather than hiring a lawyer. For Sneex, it was trying multiple manufacturers and factories over the course of a decade. She couldn’t believe that male factory owners in Italy and Spain had never tried on the shoes they make, she said yesterday.
Blakely heard so many nos as she bootstrapped Spanx that it’s not easy to deter her from something she believes in. She says she can’t wear heels anymore, and painful pumps are a shared frustration she’s determined to solve. Plus, she relies most on her own intuition, she told me in 2021. As Blakely said yesterday: “I’d rather be an innovator than an imitator.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Hope and change. Michelle Obama electrified a fawning DNC crowd on Tuesday with a speech that slammed Donald Trump's “ugly, misogynistic, racist lies” while praising Kamala Harris’s “joy” and “light.” She linked the Democratic presidential nominee to her husband’s 2008 coalition that was built on hope and change. Washington Post
- New deal. Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper is leaving Spotify for SiriusXM. Her three-year Spotify deal was worth $60 million; at SiriusXM, the deal is reportedly as high as $125 million over the same time frame. Variety
- Food fight. Vice President Kamala Harris is getting pushback from the food industry over her proposed ban on grocery “price gouging.” While Harris blames corporations for earning higher profits amid high inflation, executives are citing rising labor and ingredient costs for the increase in prices. Wall Street Journal
- Rugged whiskey. Beyoncé is getting in on the celebrity liquor business with a new whiskey in partnership with LVMH’s Moët Hennessy. The brand is called SirDavis and will sell for $89 a bottle. CNBC
- Pushed out. Organizations including Girls in Tech and Women Who Code have shut down or rebranded amid Silicon Valley backlash to DEI. “They have made it into a woke left thing, rather than something that is good for the American economy,” said Reshma Saujani, founder and former CEO of Girls Who Code. Washington Post
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Instacart appointed Mary Beth Laughton to its board of directors. The former Athleta CEO is currently Nike's head of global direct to consumer.
Hain Celestial Group, a health and wellness company, appointed Alison Lewis to its board of directors. Most recently, she was chief growth officer at Kimberly-Clark.
Squeeze, a massage company by the founders of Drybar, appointed Melinda Davenport, a communications executive at Meta, to its advisory board.
ON MY RADAR
Harris unlocks unprecedented wave of money from women donors Bloomberg
Angel City Football Club: A new business model for women’s sports Harvard Business Review
Inside WeightWatchers’ bold pivot to dominate the Ozempic era Forbes
PARTING WORDS
“I think it’s beautiful. It’s the highest compliment.”
— Kelly Rutherford, Gossip Girl actor, on being called “Mother” online
