We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Allie Branham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Allie, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I would have to say that I find my purpose through constantly and continually discerning the best ways to live out my vocation. It is my belief that God has called me to my vocation as a wife and mother, and, in order to participate in that discovery, I, of course, must pray and have a relationship with my creator. My purpose has never changed and will never change, but my life circumstances will always be in flux. It is these circumstances that dictate how I prioritize my responsibilities. This is where constant and continual discernment comes into play: how can I support my husband while he travels for work? How can I spend quality time with my children despite feeling exhausted during pregnancy? The list goes on and on! Six years ago, God flavored my life with a son with Down syndrome, so you can imagine the high and lows He has sustained me and my family through. Living out my purpose is contingent upon finding ways to authentically live out my vocation. Now that I am a shoe maker, my vocation is no different, but my priorities may look different. What is especially different are the ways in which I am rejuvenated and renewed!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am the new owner of Soft Walker Shoes LLC which is a (very) small business that makes handmade, leather barefoot style shoes for children. As someone who never considered herself an artist or creative, I am continually surprising myself in this new venture. I suppose this all started over six years ago when my first child was born with Down syndrome. My husband and I had been married for a few years and I was growing increasingly disillusioned with my job as a scientist at a photonics company. After stepping away from my position, I not only learned I was pregnant but also that our child had a perfect triplicate of his 21st chromosome. I could elaborate on my identity crisis that ensued due to the fact that I didn’t know anything about how to be a good mother, let alone one to a child with special needs. I could also describe the internal conflict I felt knowing the work that went into my PhD and how I knew I might have to be a caregiver for the rest of my life and never work in a lab again. In retrospect, I can honestly say that those things that seemed so important, dramatic, and heavy at the time, are not really worth talking about. Of course, I remember the fears intimately, but they have already been brought to light and giving them attention feels like going backwards. By the grace of God, I have been able to grow in many positive ways.
As my son grew older and more children came into our family, my husband and I began to take tackle more of the things we didn’t know: where would our kids go to school, would our son be able to live independently, who would take care of our son when we died? While we still hardly know anything at all, through prayer and discernment, God put on our hearts that we might want to have a family business one day. This family business would provide for us while our children grew up and allow me and my husband the most flexibility to be with our kids. It would also allow our son an opportunity to learn hands-on skills, build a sense of purpose and confidence in himself, and earn a living without having to fear instability in the job market. This family business would be amazing! But what would it be?
Just about one year ago, my family started wearing barefoot shoes. Shoes that are foot shaped with a wide toe box, zero-drop sole (meaning no heel, even a small one), and allows for your feet to feel the ground underneath are considered ‘minimal’ and thus, barefoot. There are a plethora of benefits for our physical bodies and our neurological health attributed to being barefoot (and wearing minimal footwear when you cannot actually be barefoot). I quickly bought into the idea that my feet needed to be able to feel the ground for optimal physical movement, and I was very excited to learn that there were shoes out there that would finally fit my wide feet! As for my son, many people do not realize that people with Down syndrome often have a noticeable gap between their first two toes and are often described as having ‘duck feet’ because they are so wide. I was always prescribed by my son’s therapists to have him be barefoot as much as possible because this encouraged proper and healthy gross motor development. Barefoot shoes seemed perfect for our family! After I purchased a couple of pairs of handmade, leather shoes for my two oldest children, I inquired to the shop owner if she would be willing to make a custom pair for me. This inquiry led to a divinely inspired conversation that involved her politely declining to make the shoes I had requested because of her arthritic hands. However, she boldly asked if I wanted to learn how to make shoes because she had no one to pass her skill onto and wanted to enjoy her retirement. With this invitation, my husband and I felt this offer could be the start of our family business, and we were all in.
Robin, the woman who had created Soft Walker Shoes decades earlier, taught me all about her shoes, but she also taught me that a total stranger can be your biggest champion. She had total confidence in me that I would take the shoes to new heights. Since becoming sole owner, I have been able to rebrand with a new logo, extend my social media presence to Instagram and Facebook, create a new ecommerce website where I have creative control, represent the brand at the first ever Barefoot Shoe Expo in Chicago back in May 2024, and I am currently in the final stages of expanding our current size offerings of some of the children’s shoes. A few of my mom friends here in Louisville have graciously allowed me to make them test pairs of women’s styles I have had in the works for several months, and I am very excited to show them to my barefoot community when they are ready!
I am proud of the work I have done because I did it all while being a stay-at-home mother to three young kids; as we gear up for the 2024-2025 school year they are six, four, and one. If my husband and I had placed the business at the top of our priority list, we are sure we would have more followers, orders, and cash flow, but we also know our family would have suffered. We are in this for the long haul so we are confident in taking things a little slower than we would if we did not have little humans demanding our attention.
If you or someone you know would enjoy a pair of barefoot shoes from Soft Walker Shoes LLC, please visit our website at www.softwalkershoes.com
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
For me, personally, I think it was my weaknesses that led me to cultivate other gifts that were rusting away in my arsenal. As a Christian, I am often faced with the reality that I cannot live authentically in a vacuum. I need God to help me into a posture of gratitude when I feel like a victim. I need my husband to help me see myself as a gift to our family when I feel like a failure. I need my friends to help me find joy when everything seems like a burden. So if I had to choose three qualities that helped me feel gratitude, see myself as a gift, and find joy, those qualities would be: humility, faith, and hope.
My advice to anyone who desires to grow in humility, faith, and hope would be to let God guide you to be more fully human. Do not let the very loud noise of our world distract you from your heart’s truest and deepest desires. Make it a priority to be silent and be alone with your heart. It always speaks, but we hardly ever listen.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Practically speaking, my number one obstacle at the moment is marketing effectively and getting my brand the exposure it deserves. While I love making shoes and working to create new designs, I do not enjoy cultivating a social media following. Even before owning Soft Walker Shoes LLC, I had little to no personal social media presence. As a result, I simply am not familiar what makes a good post or reel, and I would much rather have someone else handle those aspects of my business. I am exploring options to either a) learn how to be better at social media despite being a millennial or b) get someone to take that responsibility off of my plate. Until either of those two things happen, I am aware that it might take some time to overcome this particular logistical challenge. As I eluded to earlier, I have to be content with the reality that I might just have to be slow with cultivating a vibrant social media following for now until my kids get a little older. Then, I can spend more time making better quality posts, but, for now, I will do what I can!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.softwalkershoes.com
- Instagram: @soft_walker_shoes
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/softwalkershoesllc/
Image Credits
photo of Allie with her three kids credit to Limor Nagy Photography.
https://limornagyphotography.com/
https://www.instagram.com/limornagyphotography
https://www.facebook.com/Limornagyphotography/
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
