You can make it! Designing Safety and Comfort for Women

Stacey Head

As the founder of SheWear, Stacey Head has transformed a personal injury into a successful footwear manufacturing business that prioritises both safety and style for women. Her journey illustrates how identifying a market gap can lead to innovative manufacturing solutions.

From Travel to Footwear Manufacturing

With determination rather than manufacturing experience, she launched her business eleven years ago. “I started in my home garage. I imported a container load of shoes and just thought I’d give it a go. I was quite naive when I started, but I do have a pretty strong work ethic.”

Stacey’s path to manufacturing was unexpected and sparked by personal experience. “My career was operational management in travel and aviation. Then I had a career change and went into property development. On one of my builds I had a nail go through my foot. I tried to source a pair of women’s work boots and the safety footwear manufacturers just weren’t looking after women.”

Broadening Manufacturing Perspectives

Stacey challenges narrow perceptions of manufacturing careers. “Manufacturing is so broad and people have this misconception that if you work in manufacturing, you’re on a factory floor. Manufacturing is so broad from design—I would probably classify myself as the designer in the manufacturing process—to everyone from sample makers to designers, all the way to women in fabrication.”

For her, manufacturing encompasses the entire product journey: “Manufacturing is a product at the end of the day, it’s from design concept all the way to actual manufacturing and producing that product and everything and anything in between.”

Product Evolution and Innovation

What began as basic women’s work boots has evolved into a comprehensive footwear range. “I started the brand just purely as work boots for women with a really basic product. Now I’ve morphed that business after spending a lot of R&D into a healthy shoe company. We’re releasing proper fit-for-purpose women’s walking shoes and waterproof hiking boots—I want to get women who can’t be active because they have health problems or bad ankles active.”

Overcoming Challenges

As a woman in a non-traditional industry, Stacey acknowledges that resilience is required. “You’ve got to have a lot of drive, but you also have to be really resilient. Manufacturing is such a nontraditional career path for women. You have to double down on what you can and can’t do and you can get criticism from everybody along the way. You just need to back yourself even when you’re not backing yourself.”

Encouraging Women in Manufacturing

Stacey believes education is critical to increasing women’s participation in manufacturing. “It all starts in education and knowing what your options are. Girls are still taught that they should be nurses and teachers—there’s nothing wrong with that—but if I was going through school now, I probably would have gone into a trade or manufacturing.”

She’s noticed patterns in women who pursue non-traditional paths: “Girls with dads that are in trades or manufacturing or run their own business often see a different career path than traditional girls who maybe have university educated fathers.”

Her advice is straightforward: “Stick to your guns and don’t let people tell you you can’t do it. Women tend to work harder to prove themselves in non-traditional industries. You need a tough skin, and even when you’re feeling not confident inside, you just have to keep going.”