Gender divides in basketball have long been publicized, ranging from differences in funding and facilities for men’s teams to much larger salaries for NBA players than their counterparts in the WNBA. But local entrepreneur Natalie White says there is another form of disparity in the basketball world: sneakers, which she argues are made with men's feet in mind. So, after graduating college last year, she started her own company, Moolah Kicks, which is now in the middle of a crowd-funding campaign for a line of sneakers designed specifically for girls and women. Natalie White joined Jim Braude to talk about her business and her source of inspiration.
“When I was growing up, I remember the experience so vividly of walking into the sneaker store and being forced to shop in the children’s or the men’s section,” White said. “As I got older, I realized that not only did the lack of women’s basketball sneakers have that negative social implication that women don’t belong in basketball, but it also had a serious performance implication, because women’s feet are different than those of men in five places. So when female athletes continue to wear these sneakers fit for boys and men, they’re putting themselves more at risk for injury.”
WATCH: Making better sneakers for women
