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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Monxi Garza’s vision for SUAVS shoes
• How she is executing that vision
• What makes SUAVS a unique kind of shoe

Sometimes you just want a shoe. Not a dress shoe or an athletic shoe, just a shoe. Footwear that you can slip on and go about your day without giving it a second thought. Monxi Garza wanted that kind of shoe, but she couldn’t find anything that fit the bill. So, she decided to design it herself and that’s how SUAVS shoes got started.

SUAVS are meant to be an all-day, everyday kind of shoe that can go with any kind of outfit. Garza has a hand in every aspect of the production. She designs the shoe, then when she has a prototype she shares it with friends and family to get feedback. She takes every bit of feedback she gets and uses it to make the shoe even better than it already is. She also says that one of her best sources for feedback are people returning the shoes they’ve already bought. That helps her know what customers think of the fabric, style, and width of the shoes.

One of the things that Founders of Fashion host, Jennifer Millspaugh, loves about SUAVS is that they have a gender-neutral design. They’re a great shoe choice for both men and women! You can hear more about why Millspaugh loves these shoes in this second installment of Founders of Fashion. If you like what you hear, be sure to share the show with friends and family!

Host: Jennifer E.S. Millspaugh, PhD

Guest: Monxi Garza

 

Transcript:
this is a family media podcast welcome to this edition of founders of fashion podcast I’m your host Jennifer Millspaugh, I’m the CEO of aesthetic ventures and the Austin fashion initiative on this podcast series we’re exploring all things fashion in conversation with amazing entrepreneurs who are making a contribution to the space I one of the founding media productions for producing the series today we’re talking with Monxi Garza founder and designer of SUAVS Shoes SUAVS is the shoe brand based here in Austin Texas let’s jump into our conversation
Monxi I’ve got my SUAVS on today yeah we’re sitting here in this lovely cold rainy day in Austin fall hit us hard this year anyway I love my SUAVS because they’re so flexible around my feet and they just move with me throughout my day but take us back to the beginning how did you come to launch the brand well our everything began when I was living and working in Spain I was working in the fashion industry so I wanted to you know look well put together and look stylish but at the same time I wanted to be comfortable as well because I was walking to work every day I was taking the metro or is the train to work and then I had to go out and like run my errands meet up with my friends for happy hour really you know to all these different things on my feet all day and I realized I was always thinking about my feet I was getting blisters they are getting sweaty and just like painful annoying so I wanted to look for a comfortable pair of shoes to wear that was also stylish and I can find something like that anywhere so like I would analyst for Skechers Clark’s or things like that but they were either too bulky yeah are comfortable they’re big and bulky and just kind of yeah you know the clunky there’s not they’re not really sleek yeah and I I actually bought this really cool pair of speakers they were like converse famous Sony and they’re they’re very comfortable they were also stylish but they looked very athletic so sometimes you just don’t want to look sporty just wanna look you know like you’re going to work you’re going to meeting and you want to be comfortable as well and then you want to go and like take your dog out for a walk and you want to keep the shape same shoes on so I wanted something like that and that’s when I started thinking about this idea for a comfortable pair of shoes that you can where anywhere
so how many like how long did you kind of work on those initial first designs and sketching you sketch all of your designs yes so when I first started coming up with this idea I think I just like sketched maybe a it was a completely different designs and when I actually started off with when I lost the grand that was like it took me a year from the first sketches to actually like that the actual style I think I went through maybe a five different design sketches first and then the final one was the first prototype and then I went through like maybe like five or six different prototypes before launching the actual product so what is that yeah I love the idea of the creative process so you know would you sketch and stick it up on the wall and just kind of forget about it for awhile or you know do you just sketch in and like leave it and then come back in yeah I have another idea so for this particular style my first sketch was actually just like a dream kind of thing and I left it for maybe a week a few weeks and then I went back to it found it on my desk again and sake I kept thinking I kept looking back on this and I like really wanted to explore this idea and so I think like I would leave it and then I would look at it again and actually I don’t know if thank a lot of creatives probably experience the same thing like when you write something or when you draw something you like it as soon as like when you’re done with it you’re you like it but then when you wait a while and then you go back to your like thank this is actually not that good and so you like make changes and things like that so I wouldn’t leave it go back to a a few times and then the prototypes as soon as I like design I sent them to be made and then as soon as it got them back goes okay wait a second I actually don’t like this that much change this and that and then send that back yeah
okay so it was kind of like the act you know the act of developing those initial prototypes are you’re able to sit there and say no this isn’t exactly what I envisioned I feel like that so hard whenever I try to sketch anything and I am not by any means an artist or designer but it’s like you have the idea I feel like painters do this really well where they’re essentially painting the back forward so they have the vision for what they wanted to look like at the end result but then they began you know what they have to be paid in the beginning is not but the end result yes they have to add the layers yeah and so I feel like that’s kind of what happens for really any innovation you know if you’re sitting there thinking any design that you’re sitting there you you paint those back layers of what you think it’s possible Blake yeah and it just keeps progressing yeah and also like for for example the shoe I wanted to make was not only for me it was for everybody else so I wanted to design something that was really comfortable that anybody can where anywhere so when I got the samples back I would have liked my gramma tested my husband my brother you know everybody testing issues out and then you get all this different types of feedback and then that’s when you go back and you correct everything
so how important is that I think it’s really unique that your brand it’s really it’s gender neutral yeah and I love that I feel like that’s a really modernist addict to bring into the fashion industry and op something that we’re just now starting to see at is this combination of it’s not either masculine or feminine it’s just it’s kind of like it conforms to who the person is wearing it and their own style and there’s something about it so how important is it you know was it to you to design and that way I’m I think ever since the beginning it was one of the main points that I was focusing on apart from comfort it’s I’m not just the gender neutral aspect of it but the versatility so I wanted anyone to wear this one stylish shoes like I wanted this one style that I designed to just be perfect for anybody to be able to wear anywhere so not just me but my grandma my husband like any kind of person can wear these shoes so I really focused on that and that’s why I got all these different people to try them on and you know you can I wanted to be able to wear them with the hairs late work pants or a skirt or shorts yeah yeah I think that’s a
ha I love that I thought I think that so hard to do so hard to achieve is designed that does because it’s easy to sit here and say arm in a pigeon hole and stick it in this this is the one thing but to think about its use and the way it like transcends different you know you don’t you don’t you there’s no way that you could ever anticipate all the different ways that people are gonna wear at or all the different types of alpha combinations or whatever but it takes a lot of thought to go into the design of the issue yeah I get to something that is close to that or she was that and also the first design I came out with was the Barton slip on and describe for those of us who are listening what does that look like so the Barton slip on is basically a slip on shoe but it has this strap that goes over the top makes it look sleeker really nice for work and this was the first style that came out was kind of like a little bit I would say like a riff on a low for a low for yeah so this was a first L. A. came out with and I noticed that we had maybe ninety percent female customers and very few male customers now it’s like wait a second I’m doing something wrong here I’m going for like what I want is issue that anybody can wear not just like not just women want to to wear so I started you know asking for feedback again and asking people are why why don’t you want to try the shoe but what kind of what would you change in this type of sure to make you want to wear it and a lot of men are a lot of guys said you know latest sensors sneakers saw that’s when I started you know thinking about that new style the Selkirk which is at least a version that we have and that took me about a year or so to come up with like the perfect style not just for men but for women as well and yeah that’s a second design that we launched awesome yeah
so the like as I walk me through a bit of kind of that evolutionary process of going and getting feedback and then talking you know it learning from your customers I feel like on one hand designers design from a perspective of in a way designing for themselves they get the idea is and the brand is intimately connected to who they are as individuals and their personal journey at the same time you might be able to sell your stuff so and and I think the number one cliche thing that people talk about is listen to your customer yeah what was that journey like a figure out who your customer was and learning from them so I mean you do have to be very careful about what kind of feedback in what advice you take and you don’t take so for example one one mistake I made was a got a lot of people asking they wanted for a a light blue version of that so fine and I mean it it’s a really nice color but then as soon as we launched it a notice like okay this okay all they’re not to show what the actual feedback was so you yeah you just have to like and I guess the time you’ll start to understand what the out I guess what customers are you you start to understand what customers really wants instead of like what they’re asking for and for example a lot of the feedback we get is actually when customers are returning the shoes and they’re telling me you know I’m returning them because I don’t maybe the way it is is to there too narrow or like the fabrics are something like that they’re not really telling me you know make issue like this color but there more of like providing that kind of feedback and if it’s very constant and repetitive in a large amount of customers and you’re like okay this is actually an issue that I should be looking at changing so then if I can edit it yeah you know you keep refining I think that’s so important as that I really think about when you’re talking about when you’re building a company you’re talking about developing a brand in your development it from scratch and it does begin with you know the person the founder I think it’s so important to them and that your personal journey as a founder but then at a certain point you know it maybe it happens over time or whatever but it evolves beyond you and then yeah you you know and it becomes something bigger than you but you the it becomes an interaction it’s no longer a static thing or just an idea it yeah it’s like an an organism in and of itself yeah and I think it’s a constant thing you can’t it’s never going to be perfect so there’s always going to be things that I can be changing or like you know as time passes maybe people start wanting different things and then you have to adapt to these different things that people want so I’ll have to constantly be in on the look out of for for white people want really and then at the same time they’re still things that stay the same
so how do you define what what is it about swabs that stays the same so our main focus is comfort and versatility but at the same time I’d really really focus on keeping the share very minimalists like have a very minimalist design and style and that also plays into the versatility aspect you can wear these shoes was basically anything I’m not gonna be making this a very extravagant type of shoe that you can’t wear with anything else so that versatility aspect that comfort aspect is always going to stay the same and you mentioned that you didn’t want it to be particularly athletic so would you call your brand and athletes your brand or kind of what category I guess he’s looking to fill or are you looking to create a new category well when people ask me I always say it’s a lifestyle footwear brand so it’s more of a about the lifestyle and what the actual product is so I guess first was the person who wears them is somebody who doesn’t really want to think about what shoes are gonna wear so they can just set the shoes on and go thank you can go to work at them you can go hang out with their friends and then you can travel with them you can keep them in your bag because they’re really light weight and compact they’re super light weight they fold up into like nothing squash into and then they just go right back yeah so yeah to me I dance ballet so they feel like that lace yes to me but then something more substantial at the same time is yeah I say it’s like a stock with a rubber soul yeah yeah kind of like that yeah okay so one thing I think is interesting so you mean you mostly distribute via our ecommerce yeah so in a way you’re what you know we call in the industry now if for ical brand meeting that you there there isn’t really a lot of middle men you go straight to the factories and you design it and it’s your design and you work with that factory and then you sell it directly to the consumer and this is something that you know Warby Parker is really kind of known for revolutionizing in and bring to the forefront and so what are you know there’s now I feel like there’s lots of companies popping up everywhere and there’s like on the warby Parker of fill in the blank and so and I remember hearing a story with their founders talking about how you know what a day you know they kind of combine different innovative ideas to be who they work because there was no warby Parker to make them so how do you what are some of the things that make you unique and what are some of the areas that where you’re looking to innovate so I think yeah we always get compared to these other vertical brand right there so many in there yeah there’s a lot of there now honestly when I first lunch size eight I wasn’t looking at all these brands I was just thinking about the idea and I think what differentiates US like any brand from these other vertical brands is when you can actually when you’re focusing on the products and you’re really focusing on trying to bring something really cool and having a lot of people were you know like get your idea I care experience yeah when you’re focusing on that more so than you know being the next warby Parker the next who were or the next I am the radio in the blink one yeah it yeah I I feel like those brands that are trying to be the next so and so there is more like not really focusing on office making yeah yeah I mean they’re not really focusing on making their actually products amazing they’re more focusing on the trying to be somebody else which is thanks to replicate a model for somebody else yeah and you can I mean it’s it’s smart to look at all these other brands and take the good things that they’re doing and implement them into your own business but it’s I don’t think it’s a good idea to just like try to be them you know what I mean yeah absolutely I’m
what do you love about kind of the suavs I went for someone talk about the name how you came up with the name and and then I want to know like what you love most about them so the name came from the words five AM which is soft in Spanish and so all of which is lake in English means thank you know elegance or confidence moves yeah yeah so it’s like a combination of both things and I thought it just it makes sense for me and what I like most about sizes I didn’t I had basically designed them not just for everybody else but for me too I wear my saws every single day I don’t wear anything else well sometimes you’ll see me in over in like sandals or running shoes but apart from that it’s just like I can’t live without my sauce anymore yeah they’re part of you yes Sir where do your ideas come from do you still have other ideas for other designs for shoes or or you kind of sticking with the score and building from there yes so right now I know that there’s a product that really works and I’m going to be focusing on you know like just creating new colors and new styles based on the actual like this one style and I’m also working on bettering other styles as well so we’re working on that slip on version that I showed you the other day and we are also but one thing that I’ve noticed is a lot of our customers are actually really like their frequent travelers so we’re trying to bring in that trial aspect to the brand and we’re working on this a cool Nerone travel related products that we will be probably launching next year so cool yeah yeah so it’s kind of like your you were I I get what you mean about being a lifestyle brand and in the sense that you’re trying to fill a need not just for the aesthetic of how something looks but also the way it feels in the way it moves and I feel like generally that something actually in the fashion industry overall that we look that we loose like when we get into this idea of collection after collection after collection it’s like what are you designing this for what it not only what what is it designed to reflect you know what’s the purpose yeah and it seems like you have a very clear intention about you know specific elements that you put into the show I remember when we were talking about redesigning the Barton you’re talking about it has this feeling on the inside and I want to make that feel better yeah on the foot and and I am worse I really go I go a lot based on touch so every since I studied fashion design and when I was picking out my fabrics for designing address related a jacket or anything I I would really love touching soft fabrics and having them feel smooth on my skin so I always focus on that as well so if it’s not comfortable then I need to change that and I always need to make it better did you think when you were starting when studying fashion that this is kind of the the company or at the style of company that you would launch no yeah what we are thinking as a as a younger younger person what you wanted to do I honestly I think one of my a dreams are ideas was to launch menswear inspired brand for women yeah so lakes really well constructed coats and pants and suits that was my first idea but now I’m making shoes shoes okay yeah and
so what’s the vision for the future of your company I think for the near future jazz keep focusing on creating really comfortable versions of what we have right now and keep listening to customer feedback and keep bringing you know I my goal is to have everybody have that go to Paris you of shoes that can just up on and goes so anything new that I can come up with thank sticks to this idea okay yeah I have one more question for us but before I get into that where can people find you are you can find saws are you can talk to us on W. W. W. dot sauce are calm are you can the in house were housewives is spelled in a unique way so S. U. A. V. S. dot com yeah in so okay last question how has your life changed since you once the company yes so I think the most difference I can see is how I spend my time before when I was working for somebody it was my nine to five job and then as soon as I got home it was just like you know my other stuff may watching TV or going to the gym or whatever and now it’s I wake up and I’m thinking about size eight before going to bed I’m thinking about saws you know it’s like making my to do list here when I need it yeah so I think that’s the main difference I still go to the gym yes I’m still trying to figure out a schedule that it alright guys Moxy as I could talk to you all day long all the time so thanks for joining us and thank you everybody for joining us
thank you for listening to our founders of fashion podcast don’t forget to subscribe where ever you get your podcast if you’d like to see the big cast of this and other founding media productions join our masters and founders group on Facebook I’m your host Jennifer mills spa to learn more about my work in building Austin’s fashion industry visit Austin fashion initiative dot com founders of fashion is produced by Mariah Gosset an audio engineer Jake Wallace thank you to all the folks at founding media and thank you for listening