• What is the mission of your company or project? Creating a stylish, affordable and adaptive shoe will give more children opportunities to continue to wear their foot orthotics longer and prevent secondary impairments such as pain, discomfort, and loss of range of motion as an adult.  

• Describe the problem you are solving.  In the past 5-10 years name-brand companies have been making an effort to be more inclusive by designing shoes that can accommodate adaptive footwear. However, the lack of style variety and affordability in comparison to typical shoe styles is staggering. Many of the shoes that are currently on the market were not initially designed to accommodate orthotics.  The EJ Kicks shoe design was designed specifically for people who wear some form of foot orthoses. Another problem that people who wear foot orthotics face is the high price of their shoes due to the extra wide sizing. This serves as a huge disadvantage to people who wear foot orthotics.

• What is the market size/opportunity? Children and teens in the United States who wear some form of foot orthotics from shoe inserts to AFO (foot braces)

• What is your company/product about and how does it solve the problem?  We are providing an affordable, adaptive shoe that children especially teens would be proud to wear to encourage longevity of compliance with wearing foot orthotics. 

• Why are you seeking funding and how will you spend the funding? In order for the shoes to be affordable, we must have funding to purchase our initial inventory to set the price. Without funding we will be unable to set the price in an affordable range due to our company not being an established name brand company.  The more money we are able to raise, the more affordable we can make our shoes. For the first 500 pairs of shoes, we will need $18,000 dollars to purchase them. Without funding we will have to get a loan to purchase the shoes which will increase the cost of the shoes. 

• Who is on your team? Our team consists of Dr. Jennetta Spears, physical and CEO of EJ Kicks LLC who created the design and concept of the shoe.  We also have her husband Earl Spears, and her sister Felicia Lockhart who provide assistance with managing finances, style, social media and marketing. We all work together as a team to create ideas for EJ Kicks. So many have contributed and volunteered their time to EJ Kicks LLC with grant writing proofreading, and creating concepts for campaigns. 

EJ Kicks LLC appreciates all who have contributed to our campaign! You are making a difference in our communities by helping to bring affordable adaptive shoes to our children and teens. The pandemic has affected so many people and it is important for everyone to have affordable shoe options. Thank you to all who shares our campaign on their social media. Thank you for the followers on our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages! Stay up to date with EJ Kicks LLC on our website at www.ejkicksllc.com!