Gales got its start in 2021 making comfortable, safe shoes for healthcare workers. Now, the company is reinventing itself as a solution for people with any lifestyle that requires them to stand.
Dubbed Stand+, the company is marking the rebrand with a new line of workplace safety shoes designed for people in other standing-heavy industries, such as food service, hospitality and cleaning. The new styles, AntiGrav1 and AntiGrav2, are slip-resistant and made with technology that disperses energy and reduces the impact on knees, backs and joints during long periods of standing.
“The energy dispersion technology that we launched originally in healthcare has a lot of benefits across all professions who stand,” said Stand+ founder and chief executive officer Rob Gregg in an interview with FN. “We’re excited to now launch and roll this out to a wider audience of individuals who are on their feet all day.”
In tandem with the rebrand, Stand+ announced that it raised $2 million in a recent funding round from existing stakeholders and new investors including Cake VC, Women’s Equity Lab, Midnight Venture Partners, Cosmic VP, Nik Sharma of Sharma Brands, Community Access Fund and SuperAngel.vc. As Gales, the company had previously closed a $3.9 million seed round in September 2022 and a $2.1 million round in September 2021. The brand also said it has brought on Puma, Adidas and Converse veteran Richard Ward as an investor and chief design officer to oversee the creative direction of the company’s new products.
“Safety shoes in general have had a significant lack in aesthetics,” Gregg said. “We added an element of style and design so the individuals wearing the shoes are actually proud to wear their work shoes.”
Broadening scope
For Gregg, the new direction of his comfort-focused shoe company brings him back to earlier days in his career, before he founded Gales and before that, his luxury Italian men’s brand, Rob McAllan.
“I used to work 16 hours on concrete floors in a mailroom six days a week,” said Gregg referring to his earlier experience as an agent trainee at a talent agency. “So I understand the burdens on your body from physically working on your feet all day.”
Through his conversations with people in healthcare and other jobs, Gregg came to realize the opportunity for a brand in a market that addresses the physical burnout that can happen from being on your feet all day.
Stand+’s existing healthcare-focused lines, the Pro Line and the Frontline, will still be central to the Stand+ portfolio and have been rebranded to include the company’s former name, Gales, a nod to the founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale. These products recently became eligible for purchase via health savings accounts (HSA) and flexible spending accounts (FSA), which Gregg said contributed to a 122 percent growth in quarter-over-quarter direct site sales in Q1. This accreditation will carry over to Stand+’s new lines as well.
The AntiGrav1 has the same comfort features as the healthcare shoes, but with “an upgrade in aesthetic” that includes a wider width, lower heel height and more breathability, Gregg said. The AntiGrav2 has an oil resistant slip bottom and is designed for people in industries with higher slip-and-fall instances due to oily surfaces.
“What we’ve identified is a need for better shoes that are more comfortable, that keep employees compliant and help reduce the overall chance of slips and falls,” Gregg said.
The pathway to growth
In 2023, Stand+ grew 77 percent from the prior year and is on track to more than double last year’s revenue as of the first quarter.
When it comes to distribution, Stand+ is mainly selling via its website and is exploring business-to-business relationships with companies that require employees to wear safety footwear. The brand’s new products are highly customizable when it comes to color and logo branding, which Gregg sees as a differentiator in the safety shoe market.
Following its newest launch, Stand+ has other shoe products in the pipeline, including a boot and a shoe for more casual settings.
“We’re excited for this opportunity to focus on the overall health and wellbeing of our workforce,” Gregg said. “What started with ‘how do we take care of our essential workers?’ has now expanded to ‘how do we take care of all individuals that work the thankless jobs that make the world go round?’”
