Nursing Uncharted Ep. 117: How Two RNs Built a Thriving Brand for Nurses: Uni Shoes Is Back with Big Updates

What happens when two registered nurses get tired of ruined shoes, aching feet, and energy crashes on 12-hour shifts? They build a brand from scratch, and they don't stop at footwear. 

In this episode of Nursing Uncharted, host Ann welcomes back Loftin Dortch and Alex Pastorkovich, the co-founders of Uni Shoes, for an exciting update on where the brand is today. From a recovery shoe collaboration to a nurse-engineered backpack, a jitter-free energy drink, and a next-generation shoe currently in development, Uni is redefining what it means to support nurses as the everyday athletes they are. Plus, Loftin and Alex open up about the emotional weight of leaving the bedside and why staying connected to nursing still drives everything they do. 

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Key Takeaways

• From pain point to product: How frustration with hospital footwear sparked a footwear brand built by nurses, for nurses 
• New product launches: The Keen Footwear recovery shoe collaboration, a nurse-specific functional backpack, and the ØCAF energy drink 
• Nurse-centered design: Why lived clinical experience shapes every product decision Uni makes 
• Leaving the bedside: The guilt, the identity shift, and the perspective that makes it worthwhile 
• Nurses as everyday athletes: The case for treating healthcare professionals with the same performance focus as elite sports stars 

Chapters 

00:00—Welcome back: Catching up with the Uni Shoes co-founders 

02:02—The origin story: Why nurses needed a better shoe 

05:54—New products: Recovery shoes, backpacks, and lunch boxes 

09:42—No-Caf: The nurse-specific energy drink with no jitters or sleep disruption 

12:18—Nurses are everyday athletes: Reframing how we see healthcare professionals 

20:05—Leaving the bedside: Guilt, identity, and finding a new way to contribute 

27:45—Keeping your license active and your options open 

29:12—The Amazon partnership and promo code 

33:20—Running a 100-mile ultramarathon and how it shapes product design 

31:08—What's coming next: The next-generation Uni shoe 

Guest Spotlight

Loftin Dortch and Alex Pastorkovich are two registered nurses who turned a shared frustration into a thriving brand. Alex's background spans emergency medicine and functional medicine, while Loftin brings deep clinical insight from years at the bedside. Together, they co-founded Uni Shoes with one clear mission: to treat nurses like high-performance athletes. They are both preparing to run the Tahoe 100-mile ultramarathon, and that same endurance mindset drives every product they build. Their story is proof that nursing expertise does not stop at the hospital door; it can power an entire brand. 

If this episode inspired you, subscribe to Nursing Uncharted and share it with a nurse who deserves to be seen as the everyday athlete they are. Your next chapter might be closer than you think. 

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:03 

Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of Nursing Uncharted. I always say this that I'm so excited for an episode, but I really am excited because these guys were one of my first people I found organically. And they are they're willing to come back and share an update with everyone about where they are now and exciting new products, but I just I'm so grateful that, you know, we've been able to formulate this relationship and you guys are willing to come back and, you know, have this episode with me again. 

00:00:30:03 - 00:00:54:05 

So welcome back, the creators of Uni Shoes. Thanks so much for having us back. Yeah. Happy to be here. Good, good. Well, I'm really I'm really happy. And like I said, I kind of take a little bit of credit because I really found you guys organically on Instagram two years ago. I maybe it was like, right when you guys got started and I was just so, so happy you're willing to come on here, give give me a chance, give me a chance. 

00:00:54:05 - 00:01:16:22 

And I'm excited that you guys are back here today. So maybe for someone who hasn't listened to the first episode, just kind of give a rundown of who you are and then we can kind of dive into what uni is. SoLoftin, if you want to start, introduce yourself for sure. I'm I'm Loftin Dortch, I am a registered nurse and co-founder of Uni Shoes, which we'll talk about here in just a minute. 

00:01:16:22 - 00:01:38:01 

Yeah. And then I'm Alex Pastorkovich, also a registered nurse. No longer at the bedside, but the other co-founder of uni. I sort of got my career started in like emergency medicine, transferred into like, functional medicine, concierge medicine. And now here making shoes. I love it, Alex. I forgot that you got into functional medicine. I'm just. 

00:01:38:01 - 00:02:02:01 

I'm so into that right now, and I feel like that's, like, such a, I hate to say trend because it's not, but it's just a different direction in what health care is. And I think it's it's so exciting to talk about that. So we may have to circle back and have a conversation about that at some point because I just I absolutely yeah, I really just developed, like a, just a really big curiosity and, you know, excitement for that line of, of health care. 

00:02:02:01 - 00:02:28:10 

So okay, so basically, I want to recap what like what really got you guys to develop a, a shoe line, you know, where did that where did that come from? Yeah. So Alex and I were both working in the hospital and we just shoes were one of the biggest things that we had issues with. We would wear lots running shoes or Alex was a big sneaker head. 

00:02:28:10 - 00:02:50:16 

He was wearing, like, Jordans and stuff. But of course, those are not very comfortable when you're in them for 12 hours at a time. And then I wore running shoes, but constantly spilling stuff on them blood, urine, feces, whatever. You know, we come in contact with, with the whole realm of bodily fluids. So spilling it on one time, even if it's brand new pair of shoes, it's going to soak in. 

00:02:50:16 - 00:03:09:01 

It's going to stain. Your shoes are basically ruined. You can throw them in the wash, but they're going to look terrible. So we kept coming back to this over and over a footwear, footwear, footwear. So Alex and I were both working in the hospital. We connected and we're just kind of talking through some of the pain points that we were experiencing working as nurses. 

00:03:09:03 - 00:03:41:12 

And talking about shoes. We both had the same experience. We asked around coworkers and friends all having the same experience. So we're like, there's this problem that really needs to be solved. And although neither of us knew anything about making shoes, we're like, okay, maybe, maybe we should look into this. So that kind of started us off into this journey of figuring out how to make a shoe and to create this sort of high performance footwear that had all the features we needed, but also something that looked good because there had been some some footwear out there that was for health care professionals. 

00:03:41:16 - 00:04:03:20 

Neither of us really wanted to wear it because it focused more on the functionality, less on like the style and and look of the shoe. So we wanted to kind of blend both of those together into kind of this high performance shoe that was built for specifically for us. Yeah. And with with like scrubs too. I know a lot of it is hospital specific, but at least for me, where I was working, it was like we had it, the uniform, they provided us scrubs. 

00:04:03:20 - 00:04:24:01 

And so the shoes were kind of like, you're one area where you can sort of express yourself and have a little variety in, like what you're choosing. And so we wanted to really highlight that. Now there's a little bit more with like figs and all these other brands that have a little more stylish scrubs, and it seems like there's a little bit more flexibility in the workplace on what exactly the styles and everything that you can choose. 

00:04:24:01 - 00:04:39:20 

But, you know, when we were first kicking things off, it seemed like shoes were kind of the only area that you could choose something that was like for you specifically. And so that's where the name kind of comes from. Is like kind of the unique part of a uniform. And so that's why we kind of just blended that, that hybrid into I love that. 

00:04:39:20 - 00:04:56:12 

It's so fun when you say that, like the footwear being I might have shared this story the first time, but I was a neonatal transport nurse and we had to wear I mean, the flight suits were terrible, like they were so uncomfortable. They were the worst color. They were blue, but they were like the worst. And so they're like, okay, get like boots. 

00:04:56:17 - 00:05:18:04 

And I got like pink camo boots because I'm like. And so for me, it's just joy. I grew up in central Pennsylvania, like country, whatever. But this shows a little with my personality and actually got in trouble. So I wasn't even allowed to wear my being camo boots. But, you know, I just it always makes me laugh when you say that because it really, you know, nurses sometimes are limited to expressing who they are and like their personality. 

00:05:18:04 - 00:05:36:12 

So it is nice to be able to express that. And, you know, speaking to your shoes, I own two pairs and the one pair, I think I even messaged you guys when you brought out the pink because it's just me. So it's just really exciting that I now have that that pink shoe that I can wear and no one will yell at me. 

00:05:36:12 - 00:05:54:21 

Now. So, you know, since we last met, there's actually been a lot of development behind the scenes. And some of the stuff, as you know, kind of hit the market just recently. So, you know, I don't there's a couple new products. I know there's you like, you have the backpack and then you have a new shoe as well. 

00:05:54:21 - 00:06:12:20 

So I don't do you want to talk about that. Do you want to talk about even the the changes that you may be made to the original design. Yeah, absolutely. So and one thing we really wanted to do, and we really wanted to sort of steer this way is, is we noticed that there wasn't really any brands focusing on like the actual performance of people in the workplace. 

00:06:12:20 - 00:06:29:22 

I mean, so that's one thing that we really wanted to to kind of highlight and dive deeper into. So I mean, the sort of like the next product or an add on things that are with a shoe company would typically put out as like socks, compression socks, little badge pulls. We don't want to do any of that. There's so much of that out there. 

00:06:29:22 - 00:06:46:11 

And it's it's all sort of the same. And so we really wanted to do something that was sort of within our ethos and our thesis of our brand of like improving the performance of these people in the workplace. And so one of the things that we were really excited to about doing was partnering with a company called Keen Footwear. 

00:06:46:15 - 00:07:08:21 

And so they have been growing very rapidly, and they're a very prominent force in, like the athletic, field. So a lot of like MLB and NBA teams, a lot of runners are partnering with them and they offer a like a recovery shoe. And so we we had a thought about, you know, creating our own version of this, but they were already doing it so well, it sort of looks like a croc but with like an actual sole on it. 

00:07:08:21 - 00:07:37:04 

So we thought it was like a sort of a cooler version. You know, a recovery shoe or a cooler version of a Crocs that we thought, you know, our customer base nurses in particular, would benefit from. So we really wanted to highlight that and have that as an option for people, whether they're going into work. You want to change out of your shoes into these after work, just something to kind of get out of those work shoes and put your feet in something comfortable and nice that's going to offer, you know, additional recovery benefits, to your feet. 

00:07:37:04 - 00:07:58:10 

They're super comfortable and very soft and airy, at least when I was working in the E.R., I know nobody where their shoes like in their car, even, because they're so nasty. And so having that option to kind of, like, change out of these into something else or wear these and then put those nasty things on, or even going to the gym after you know, we wanted to just, just have that option available to, for, for people in, in lost. 

00:07:58:10 - 00:08:16:05 

I don't know if you want to talk about some of the other ones. Yeah. So we did the, recovery shoe collaboration. Then we also put out a backpack and along the same lines as what Alex was saying, like, we didn't want to just make a backpack, put a few pockets in it and like, it's good to go if we're going to make something we wanted to do it right. 

00:08:16:07 - 00:08:34:06 

And so we added a shoe compartment which is separate from the rest of the bag. So it goes perfectly with our shoes. Like you can throw your recovery shoes in there. So when you finish work you take them out of your bag and they're separate. So it's not like it's going to mix in if you've got, you know, your other stuff that you don't want to get dirty. 

00:08:34:06 - 00:08:54:18 

Also, the top of the bag we've got like ten pockets, we've got a badge clip, we've got a place for a laptop sleeve, easy access on the outside for a phone pocket or to put your wallet and keys. So it's like every little thing we made was specifically for like, nurses and what we do. A lot of people will go to the gym before or after work. 

00:08:54:18 - 00:09:16:07 

So yeah, an extra pair of clothes, you can throw it in there to water bottle holders. We just always see, like our coworkers come in with like three grocery bags of like their lunch and their, their clothes or shoes or whatever. So we're like, let's create this bag that literally has storage and a place for everything. And then it also ties back in to our shoes and our brand. 

00:09:16:07 - 00:09:42:04 

And kind of creating that performance benefit for consumers. So that's kind of what we we did with the bag. So we're super excited about that. It's it's something that's it's gone really well. And then we also put out a lunch box that fits into that shoe compartment. So if you want to put your lunch in there. So all these like new things and then one, one of the, the newer things that we did, which we'll touch on briefly, but we came out with an energy drink. 

00:09:42:04 - 00:10:08:20 

And this was kind of one of those things that very out of left field, like, yeah, nobody would ever think that a footwear company would create an energy drink, but it's actually pretty unique and and interesting. I do want to highlight the like the recovery shoe and the backpack idea like that just made me really go back into my last job I had, like we had I had to change because I was like going into the the O.R. and I never was one of those that would change my shoes. 

00:10:09:00 - 00:10:31:10 

But then, you know, it was like it was. I always wore like, my flats, like my slides and stuff and like, you know, you leave for work, and I would put them on and I would notice I'm like, I it's like I didn't know how to walk almost because we were I was in this shoe that actually was like made to, you know, be worn and like fit my foot and did all the things it was supposed to to go into these like horrible, not good for you slides. 

00:10:31:10 - 00:10:50:11 

I would trip all the time. So like, this really does speak even to me. Like with the, you know, putting on something that is still good for for your feet. Like we neglect our feet as, as nurses horribly, you know, we're on them so much. We just we go for style over comfort. A lot of the times we go was on trend a lot of the times. 

00:10:50:11 - 00:11:08:00 

But, you know, even like having that, you know, extra step to like, okay, let's get them. Like massage your feet almost after work, like, let's get in something that's going to be beneficial to you, rather than just getting out of your disgusting shoes and putting on whatever to go home. So I do think that that's a really, really good idea. 

00:11:08:02 - 00:11:30:02 

And you guys are, you know, your athletes too, at the end of the day. And you know something that you said, I don't want to take it from you. So maybe one of you can think of what I'm saying. But, you know, it's we're a lot at the gym as well. And like, I love the the transition and the overlap that you have between nurses and athletes and how they can be the same, same person and the backpack thing. 

00:11:30:02 - 00:11:46:05 

I need to look at that a little bit more because I saw it briefly, but the fact that you put all of that thought into it, I like I love that, I love that concept. You're making stuff work for nurses and what nurses actually need. So I didn't want to I didn't want to bypass that without giving my, you know, opinion of all of it. 

00:11:46:05 - 00:12:00:20 

And, you know, I just I really, really like that idea. So I wanted to I wanted to highlight that. But I also do like this energy drink idea. And I know we're just going to touch on it, but I do really like, like this. So Alex, if you I didn't mean to interrupt your flow, but I just wanted to highlight that. 

00:12:01:01 - 00:12:18:16 

No, not at all. And then I guess just to take one step back to is we do want to highlight these these, you know, nurses and people in this industry as like everyday athletes. And we're trying to do a lot of education around that piece because I don't think that people typically see themselves as that, which is a little unfortunate. 

00:12:18:16 - 00:12:42:11 

But we that's one thing is like these people, they're kind of badasses. And so we want to highlight them as that because, you know, on, on a, on a daily basis, you know, you're watching 4 to 5 miles a day, you're doing all these squats and turns and you're pulling people up in bed. And it's a, it's a 12 hour endurance event that, you know, goes far beyond any type of athletic endeavor that is typically lasting somewhere between like 1 to 4 hours. 

00:12:42:13 - 00:13:01:15 

And so these people are getting all of this recovery. They're getting all this performance, they're getting all this technology. And then what we're getting is like a basic plastic sock to put your foot in for 12 hours a day and walk around in and expecting people to perform at their best, both cognitively and physically. And it's just it's time for a change. 

00:13:01:15 - 00:13:21:03 

And so we we're really trying to highlight the importance of like actual performance recovery and the proper, proper care for like what you're doing on a daily basis because it is a lot and just a cog, the combination of everything that's, that's hitting people like on a cognitive level, emotional level, and then just the physical demand that it takes. 

00:13:21:03 - 00:13:39:02 

So really wanting to to highlight these people as like the athletes that they are and provide everything that they should be able to to have an almost match, like what athletes are getting for them as well. Right? Right. And I think that that's something that is really special about you guys is that it's not like you're like, oh, had this idea to make a shoe cool, let's do it. 

00:13:39:06 - 00:13:56:09 

There's a lot of thought and it comes through. It comes through in these conversation and it comes through in your advertising. And you know, your your social media work, like you really have put a lot of thought and effort into making this for nurses and to, like, show that this is what we need and this is why it's important. 

00:13:56:09 - 00:14:21:16 

And I, I really I really appreciate that about you guys. Thanks. Like yeah I think that's one a that's one of the benefits I think to of choosing to go into an industry where we are our customer. Is that everything we produce? We think it's a pain point we had while we were working in the field. So that's kind of different from other companies where maybe they weren't, you know, in health care before, but they're, you know, trying to reach out to the consumer. 

00:14:21:21 - 00:14:40:04 

They're looking at, okay, well, what's something else? What what makes sense? Or maybe socks makes sense or maybe badge pulls makes sense. But for us it's more of like that's that was never a problem or an issue or something we were trying to solve or felt needed solving. So everything we came up with were like, oh yeah, we wish we had this, or we wish this was better because we've lived it. 

00:14:40:04 - 00:15:14:09 

We've worked those shifts we've gone through, gone through the motions and the steps that everybody in our field goes through every day. And so that's something I think that is advantageous to us as business owners working. Yeah. For, for our customer. And so some of these products, the energy drink in particular is sort of the product of both that type of thinking and just having too much time in between development of shoes, because creating shoes, making adjustments and having these like long windows of getting samples, making adjustments, sending them back to the factory a couple weeks later, getting another sample. 

00:15:14:14 - 00:15:33:14 

There's a lot of downtime in between adjustments. So our brands are just constantly going all the time. And so that that was one thing that we came up with with the the drink is called No Calf, but it's using an ingredient, it's very innovative. It's called Parisian thing. So it's actually a metabolite of caffeine. And so caffeine breaks down 2 to 3 different metabolites. 

00:15:33:14 - 00:16:06:22 

Presenting is the one that gives you all of that, you know, cognitive benefits, the energy, the focus. But it doesn't give you any of the negative side effects, so you don't get any sort of like sleep disturbances, you don't get any jitters, your heart rate doesn't elevate with that ingredient. And so what we wanted to do was just give some our give our people a healthier alternative to energy drinks caffeine, Starbucks, monster, all of those sort of negative energy drinks that we see people chugging on a daily basis and especially for like night shift, mid shift, late shift workers. 

00:16:06:22 - 00:16:26:22 

I know that was me sort of two, three, 4 a.m. needing a little pick me up meeting that like morning cup of coffee, but then you go home at eight and you're trying to sleep and you can't. And so this was like a great alternative for them since that half life is, is significantly shorter. So 3 or 4 hours, it's kind of wears off and it won't disrupt your sleep at all. 

00:16:26:22 - 00:16:45:09 

But you get some those same alertness, and cognitive benefits without any of the negative downsides. Yeah. I love that. When we when we first talked about it, I remember the initial conversation, I was like, we this is like a this is this is brilliant. Like, I mean, everyone loves coffee and like nurses. That's our, our lifeline. 

00:16:45:09 - 00:17:04:12 

But the fact that we're getting that with, like you said, without those negative side effects is huge. And this just again, shows that you guys have put a lot of thought into what nurses need without the negative consequences of the things that we need. So finding alternatives, it's brilliant. I, I love the two of you. I think that there's big and more things to come. 

00:17:04:12 - 00:17:19:00 

So I, I just I'm glad for this update and I'm glad that we are, you know, going over these these new products. But I do want to also talk about how there's a little bit of a I don't I don't know how to word it, but like a design change or a little bit, changes with the original design. 

00:17:19:00 - 00:17:38:10 

Is that correct? Yeah. So with every order, I don't think we've placed an order without making some sort of change to the shoes. So like we'll get them back. We will like our first design. We got back and we're like, this is great. We're ready to launch. We're proud of it. But with every iteration and there's always something, hey, let's adjust a little bit on this. 

00:17:38:10 - 00:17:59:22 

Like so we finally got to the point where we loved the shoe we have, but we're like, we feel like we can make this better. Like we're always looking at increasing the performance. So a lot of that is decreasing the weight, making it more lightweight, increasing the durability of the shoe. The fabric we had is great, but it's also expensive to produce. 

00:17:59:22 - 00:18:23:06 

And it comes it's it's hard to produce as well. So not just not just the price, but it's hard to produce their super long lead time. So if you want to place an order you have to place the order. Wait much further in advance. So we're looking at, for one, just creating a better product, but also making our ordering process simpler so that we don't go out of stock sooner and things like that. 

00:18:23:06 - 00:18:44:10 

So there's all these little things to take into consideration. So with this upgraded shoe we're going to have an upgraded fabric. It's going to be lighter. The foam is going to be we're using a different foam right now. It's this might not mean anything, but we're using Eva right now. We're going to use this different foam that's called TPA and it's just a little lighter. 

00:18:44:10 - 00:19:06:13 

So the compression set is going to be a lot better so that it'll last longer. But it's also going to be softer but still have that stability because that's kind of the whole thing. Running shoes don't have that stability. So we we want to make it more stable but also lighter. And so the fabric is going to be more durable, better fluid resistance still easy to clean and wipe down. 

00:19:06:15 - 00:19:27:00 

And then also there's going to be some visual a little bit of visual changes or to or excited about right now. We went originally we just went very, very sleek and minimal, which we love. That's kind of Alex and I are our design style anyway, but with this new one, we're we're going to be able to do some fun things with colors, mixing it up a little bit. 

00:19:27:00 - 00:19:45:19 

It has a little more a more design visually to it. So we're we're super excited with that. It's been a process to actually get it, get it completed. We've been working on this for a very long time, but hopefully in the next 2 to 3 months we'll we'll have that one released. Excited I can't wait. I'm like you're getting me excited, I can't wait. 

00:19:45:21 - 00:20:05:03 

It'll be my third pair I buy right? Well I love that. And you know I want to at the end of this episode I want to get back to the the, you know, the products and everything. But I do want to talk about something that you know, Alex, I think it was you that said earlier is that you leaving the bedside completely and you know what that looks like. 

00:20:05:03 - 00:20:24:14 

And, you know, I haven't shared my story on here yet, but I kind of did the same thing. And, you know, I want to talk about a little bit of like, the feelings that go into what that is like as a nurse leaving the bedside. It may sound great and exciting, but then I think that we all can agree that there's a little bit of some feeling involved in that. 

00:20:24:14 - 00:20:46:05 

So when, how and I think often you also have left the bedside completely. Is that correct? Have. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So how like what what what are those feelings like how did how did that happen. And you know what what prompted that decision. Yeah. But for me it was just needing to go all in on this. And I'm typically a 0 or 100 type day. 

00:20:46:09 - 00:21:03:04 

And so I knew that if I was going to make this work as a, as an actual career, if we were going to get going on this, you know, I sort of had the flexibility to to do that, too. I and so I kind of took the leap first before us. And, you know, there were feelings for sure. 

00:21:03:06 - 00:21:23:15 

Mine was sort of I guess I was phasing myself out and going from an E.R. then going to this functional medicine clinics, like in a mall was like a very big change of working from like a level one trauma center into, like being next to Zara. It was very different. And then so it was it was more of a gradual exit from the field, I guess. 

00:21:23:16 - 00:21:37:10 

But, you know, you watch shows like The Pit, and you see different things on line or you talk to different nurses and they're still in there and they're talking about stuff, and it makes you miss it, for sure. But there's there's always I mean, the grass is always sort of greener. I'm or there's always pros and cons and everything. 

00:21:37:10 - 00:22:02:18 

So with this, you know, it's it's been a great experience. Like I love nursing I'll always keep my license. You know I always had that to fall back on which is an amazing you know, the thing that I don't think many different industries have, I'm like, I always know I will have that option. But at the same time, you know, I'm we're still doing something within the nursing field, what's in the medical field and which still feels great because we're helping support nurses in other ways. 

00:22:02:18 - 00:22:21:02 

And so maybe it's not at the bedside. But, you know, there's so many different ways to, to kind of still be involved. And so that's it's been a great journey for me, I guess, exploring this side. Yeah. SoLoftin years is more recent. Is that is that correct? It is. Yeah. I guess it's actually been a year now. 

00:22:21:02 - 00:22:41:16 

So it was last July that I was able to fully step away from the bedside and just focus fully on the business. So for a while I was doing, you know, half and half, then I'd slowly be able to cut back because I was working at my job. So I was just able to kind of slowly work back as we got busier and then were able to start paying ourselves a little by little. 

00:22:41:16 - 00:22:57:23 

At first we didn't pay ourselves anything. It's just like everything we made right back into the business. So still, a lot of that is what we do. But now we're able to at least pay ourselves a little bit. So we can kind of, you know, get by. So I was able to finally fully go away. And yeah, it was one of those things. 

00:22:57:23 - 00:23:18:05 

It was kind of weird because it was what I'd been working for since we started. I knew I wanted like, this was what I was passionate about. This is what I wanted to do. But then when you finally do take that step and go away, there was almost like the sense of guilt that I had about stepping away from the bedside, especially when you you're seeing it in the news all the time, like the strikes that are going on. 

00:23:18:05 - 00:23:37:08 

I think it's in Massachusetts right now. And yeah, you know, it's all about safe staffing. You know, we want better safety for our patients. And so to step away and it's like, oh, work. Like there's already a shortage of nurses. And now I'm stepping away from the bedside and taking another nurse away from the bedside. So it's almost like a little bit of this guilt. 

00:23:37:11 - 00:23:56:16 

But at the same time, I guess it's all about I just have to stop and think about perspective because like, we are like Alex said, we are creating something for nurses that we want to help improve. You know, their shifts. We want to create something where they wear these shoes. It helps her shifts, you know, so the people who are working at the bedside, it's kind of like that trickle effect. 

00:23:56:16 - 00:24:19:00 

Hopefully we're contributing just in a different way, which I think you can see. It's not just like us doing business, it's other areas of nursing. People go into there maybe aren't the bedside. There's all these different ways to contribute. And also I think a lot of people who like worked with me and Alex for a few days would be like, I don't want any part of this. 

00:24:19:00 - 00:24:36:09 

Like, it's not like it's not like, cool. These guys are just like making shoes and having fun. And it's like a lot of what we do is, is, yeah. Work. Yeah, it's hard work. We're in it. So for us, it's been like that. A challenge is fun for us, but like for a lot of people, like, nah, I don't want any part of that. 

00:24:36:09 - 00:24:57:08 

So it's not like we're just like going and having a party while relieving the patients at the bedside. It's it's it's all a perspective. I don't think that anybody thinks that at all. But it's funny that you would you would bring that up because like, you know, you made you both said what? There's some guilt that comes along with it, but you're still doing something that helps nurses. 

00:24:57:08 - 00:25:19:07 

And at the end of the day, that's still your passion. You know, you're you're a nurse at the end of the day, regardless of you were a nurse for five years. You're a nurse until you retire. You are cylinders, you know, and you know, keeping your degree. And, I think one of you said it earlier and I, I hate the term fall back on, but I like this is a this is a recent shift for me. 

00:25:19:07 - 00:25:37:20 

So I left I joined corporate World but still as a nurse. My I still have to be a nurse to be what I'm doing. But leaving that bedside is a huge. Like I've said this to a couple of people and I've gotten mixed responses. I'm like, I almost feel like I lost my identity because I was so proud of what I did. 

00:25:37:20 - 00:26:01:00 

Like, I was just proud of, you know, where I've been in this space I've made and like, you know, where I am now is all because of what I, you know, being a bedside nurse. But, you know, we all grow in our careers, and I will forever be an ICU nurse. That is that is who I am. And that is like who I will always be, but is weird when I tell people what I did and their first thing was, oh, so you're not a nurse anymore? 

00:26:01:02 - 00:26:25:11 

And I'm like, do you understand how mean that is? Like, yeah, like it's like a knife in the heart. Yeah. And I'm just like, oh my gosh. But then, you know, and I'm and I'll say to my friends, like, what if I fail? Like, what if this doesn't work and you have your degree, you have your license, you have everything to your experience, your education, everything to fall back on, to go right back to the bedside. 

00:26:25:13 - 00:26:48:04 

And, you know, I think that that is what is so special about a nursing degree. And you know that you can do whatever you want. And, and a nurse, you can be an entrepreneur, you can be a business owner, you can be in corporate America, you can do bedside, you can do whatever you want, and you can shift that at any point in your career, which I think is is amazing. 

00:26:48:05 - 00:27:04:13 

And, you know, for me, this is like a huge shift in like the hospital I was working for, I actually had to resign from because of other reasons I won't get into. But you know, they didn't. There was like a hiring freeze. So there wasn't the positions, which I hate. I hate the politics of things like that sometimes. 

00:27:04:13 - 00:27:24:03 

But, you know, I was kind of grateful that it happened that way because I don't know how I would make the transition to what I'm doing now while still having the responsibility of, like, fulfilling my per diem requirement. So, you know, I think all things happen for a reason. But, you know, I can really relate to you guys a little bit more because I'm, you know, I've kind of left that. 

00:27:24:03 - 00:27:45:09 

But what I'm doing is, well, I still have to be a nurse and I'm still doing things in the NICU realm, but like, just the general like population does not view me as a nurse anymore because I'm not in the hospital, which I would love to shift that mindset for people. Yeah for sure. Yeah. And then something like, you know, obviously this is this podcast wouldn't be here without man. 

00:27:45:09 - 00:28:06:10 

And something that, you know, just for anyone that's listening, that is thinking about maybe making a shift. I'm, I'm when I'm ready, I'm going to get on nurse finders and get a, get a job. And that's something that offers even more flexibility than a staff position at a hospital, because you can go be there for a couple months. 

00:28:06:10 - 00:28:27:07 

Your requirement is so much less. You know, it all depends on the facility, but there are so options for people to keep that bedside. But I also want to explore a different route in the nursing career or in their nursing career. So I think that's just something I wanted to kind of shout out. But even if you guys are like, well, you know, maybe I want to go back and like do a little bedside, you still can. 

00:28:27:07 - 00:28:44:08 

There's always those options to come back to you, which I, which I think is great. Totally. Yeah, yeah. Alex and I would we keep our license active and. Yeah, you never you never know when you might need to jump in. Even, you know, you don't want to say it, but like, when the pandemic hit and stuff, even I was still working as a nurse. 

00:28:44:08 - 00:29:12:14 

But it's like you can always jump in and help, like if you've got an active license. So it's it's there's so many different scenarios where you can still contribute or you've got options, you know, at after. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I think which I think is great. But you know I want to I want to go back to back to the shoes and back to back to the partnership that we've actually from the first episode, you know, of this and you guys coming on, you've now created a partnership with Amazon for, for your products, which I think which I think is great. 

00:29:12:16 - 00:29:32:15 

And you know, the I don't know if one of you want to, you know, say the, the, the promo code. Yeah. So yeah, we partnered with Amazon. I mean we love it because you guys deal with the, you know, our people that who who we, you know, support. And so Amazon is 10% off. You can go to our website and check out the shoes. 

00:29:32:15 - 00:29:56:02 

Check out the backpack. You know check out everything. So it's we we love working with you guys. We've we've had a great relationship so far. And yeah, we just want to keep supporting our friends, our coworkers and and all the people, you know, who who, work hard in, in health care. Well, we I mean, I appreciate you guys a lot and I've said that multiple times, but I do I think it's amazing to see, you know, the start of it to like where you are now. 

00:29:56:02 - 00:30:17:09 

And just like how both of you have been able to invest fully in this, it's really inspiring for nurses out there to know that if they're feeling stuck, there's always there's always an opportunity to explore something new and different and exciting. And it's people like you guys that pave that way. You know, you you I think you remind me, did you guys meet in the. 

00:30:17:11 - 00:30:40:22 

We met working at an Ivy, infusion clinic for just, like, maybe four hours, one shifts, exchanged Instagrams. Yeah, we were, I often moved to New York. I was in LA. We probably didn't really talk other than, like, a few little Instagram reactions every once in a while. And then one day, we just had a conversation. We wanted to start a business together, and here we are like five years later. 

00:30:41:00 - 00:31:08:13 

Yeah, like the power of nursing though, like, seriously. Like that's just like those little like moments in passing, basically, that you can just run into someone, you're like minded, you realize you have the same passion and you're able to create something amazing for nurses for what your passion is, which I think is, is that's super cool. Is there anything else you want to highlight, like about any of the products or, or say before we before we wrap this up, I think I think we just want to. 

00:31:08:15 - 00:31:32:21 

Yeah. Again, just just highlight the importance and the education behind like having good footwork. Because I mean, we're on our feet 12 hours a day. I think it's, you know, on average 700 miles on average, like nurses are walking a year, which is crazy. And so like foot health is extremely important. And so that's why we're really pouring everything into, like, our tech, our tech and our design. 

00:31:32:23 - 00:32:01:01 

We have been working on this one next model of shoes, so that one will be quite different from anything that we've seen before, hopefully later this year or early next year. But it's been like a three year development on that one. But a lot of super exciting technology going into that shoe. Very thought, well thought out just for everything that we need in the workplace to make something that's very high performance, you know, fitting the foot shape properly, allowing the proper ventilation. 

00:32:01:01 - 00:32:21:03 

What the, the proper, fluid resistance in the right spaces. So everything is like very meticulously detailed, the stability, also the comfort. And so we're, we're super excited about that. Again. It's been like such a long, grueling process of going back and forth for, for years and years. And we just want to get it out. But it's, you know, it's not quite right yet. 

00:32:21:03 - 00:32:43:11 

And so I think for anybody that's, you know, I've been a fan of the brand or is new to the brand, you know, there's, there is like a limited color option, and style options available, which is frustrating for us as well. But we're definitely working as hard as we can to, to improve that and get that out and offer, you know, the highest quality products with like the widest variety of range. 

00:32:43:11 - 00:32:59:21 

Because at the end of the day, again, like that's where people are expressing themselves. We want them to have the that optionality of whatever they're choosing. But in order to do that, you know, it's it's expensive and we're just running this by ourselves. So we're doing the best we can to get it out. But it'll be worth it for sure. 

00:32:59:22 - 00:33:20:04 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean I'm excited about that. But also I don't mean to like call you guys out, but I did stalk your Instagram before we, we we got on here and I see that you're, you're training for something that's big that's coming up. And did that have any influence on, you know these new designs that are coming out for sure. 

00:33:20:04 - 00:33:39:19 

Yeah. Alex and I are both. We're running the Tahoe 100 mile ultramarathon. Let's see next Saturday. So not this coming Saturday. It was soon. You said the date and I was like, we were recording. Like what? Yeah. Yeah. So. So we're coming right up to it. So we both run ultramarathons before. But this will be our first run running it together. 

00:33:39:21 - 00:34:01:21 

But yeah 100. It's definitely influenced how we approach building our shoes and our product because we're we're constantly trying like different running shoes and looking at like the tech and feeling the like shoes. Just you think like, oh, it's built for running. But it's like every shoe is different. And there are things we like about certain shoes and don't like about other shoes. 

00:34:01:21 - 00:34:27:02 

So we we've definitely taken that. We see the performance and the time and the effort that companies are putting into creating this performance footwear specifically for running. And so we do that exact same thing, but are now focusing that towards what we do in the hospital for work. So the movements we perform, having something lightweight, making sure it's durable and the materials are made specifically for what we need. 

00:34:27:07 - 00:34:47:02 

And so every, every aspect of that we put into our product, in our shoes. And so it's it's just kind of fun. Like you can just look if you look at our brand, like you're looking at me and Alex, like you literally just it's it's our lives and what we like. Just everything that we, we go through an experience and we put and you can tell. 

00:34:47:02 - 00:35:02:10 

And like I said, I stalked your Instagram and I'm just like, it's literally like, I know you guys and like I don't other than, you know, through these through these calls, but you know, you really do put your heart and soul into what you're doing and you can see it and that and I just love that overlap of, you know, the nurses. 

00:35:02:10 - 00:35:23:00 

And I'm sorry if I say it wrong, but like nurses are everyday athletes like that is it's so true. And you, you guys are both like, you know, you guys both have a passion for, you know, like athletics and and nursing and just putting that together. And you came up with some wonderful product. So I'm so excited. And that promo code again is Am ten for 10% off. 

00:35:23:00 - 00:35:37:06 

So don't forget that. And I just wish you both the best of luck in these new products. And thank you guys so much for coming on here again. I really appreciate you both and I'm proud of you. And I'm so excited to see these new, these new products that are coming out. Awesome. Yeah, thanks so much for having us. 

00:35:37:06 - 00:36:17:05 

Thank you for tuning in to Nursing Uncharted. You can learn more about this episode and our show on our website at AMN. Health care.com. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend and subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast platform. You can also find show updates and nursing opportunities on our Instagram at AMN. Nurse. Special thanks to AMN Healthcare for making this show possible.