Samantha Dong founded Ally Shoes: an innovative fashion brand designed for women by women - creating power heels minus the pain
I stay motivated by… our mission to empower women with functional and quality products that solve a real pain point in their life.
Three adjectives that describe me are… adventurous, creative, empathetic
If I could have dinner with one person it would be… Michelle Obama because she is the type of leader I aspire to be: someone who’s brilliant, capable, ambitious, yet extremely relatable. Her fashion sense is impeccable, but her beauty shines more from her confidence and personality.
The most exciting innovation to me is… the type that solves a real problem but also has a positive externality to the environment, i.e., driverless cars, rent the runway. We try to do the same with ALLY by offering more size options powered by our quick made-to-order process that also reduces waste in the production process.
How did you come up with your business idea? What inspired you?
A former management consultant, I always wore heels to work. Then I hurt my feet hiking and couldn’t wear heels without pain. That’s when it clicked - heels shouldn’t hurt. I made it my mission to find the best in the business to create pain-free heels for women. ALLY Shoes’ founding leadership team includes Podiatric Surgeon, Dr. Roxann Clarke, and acclaimed shoe designer, Sarah Jaramillo. Our diverse backgrounds and varying professional experiences inspired the overall concept of our unique pain-free heels and shoe design. We each bring our expertise to the table and together we created a heel that can be a woman’s ally.
What were you doing before this? How did it prepare you for the entrepreneurial life?
I started my career as a management consultant at Deloitte. That experience taught me that you can learn everything. Consulting helped me escape that mindset that you have to ‘stay in your own lane’ or ‘stick to your silo of expertise’. It taught me the essence of problem-solving and the grit that comes with figuring things out. It’s that we can learn new things and find a pathway to a solution that I still tap into every single day.
Then, I joined a 15-person tech start up in San Francisco called OrderAhead, which was acquired by Square. I started out in operations and product management but assumed many different business roles in the company. Wearing many different hats, I perfected being nimble and creative to deliver results quickly with limited resources.
After a few years in the workforce, I went to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. During my MBA, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and injured my toes. That was a life-changing moment for me because heels have always been part of my work uniform. After that hiking injury, I couldn’t bear the pain of wearing my heels but I still wanted to. That’s when I started to ask myself - Why do heels have to hurt in the first place? I watched comfort become a major trend in sneakers and flats and decided that it’s about time we bring that trend to high heels. So a little over a year ago, I started Ally Shoes, pain-free heels for power women on the move.
What are your short/long term goals?
In the short term, we want to solve women’s literal pain point - delivering power heels minus the pain. The long term vision is to become every woman's ally in fashion - their go-to-accessible luxury and functional fashion brand. We’re more than great shoes, we’re mission-driven and committed to empowering women through fashion and innovation. Our vision is rooted in an inclusive approach to sizing and design for women. Our brand celebrates women and all of the major milestones in their lives, from their first day at work to their wedding.
What do you think about company culture? What are some of your tips on being a good leader?
The three words to describe our company culture are: Innovation, Grit, and Transparency. As a company challenging the status quo of fashion, innovation is in our blood. It's my job as a leader to allow diverse thoughts and backgrounds to the table, both from our team and from our community, and come up with solutions based on empathy.