Moolah Kicks Goes Back to School to Build the Better Women’s Basketball Shoe
Founder Natalie White took her brand all the way to the WNBA, but the science behind the sneakers brought her back to the girls’ hoops players who inspired their existence.
During a 2025 WNBA All-Star Week in which players sought a greater share of league revenue and fans greeted players union executive Napheesa Collier’s MVP performance with a “pay them” chant, Collier’s Lynx teammates Courtney Williams and Natasha Hiedeman caught all of it and more during a 72-hour stream that introduced the world to the StudBudz.
Ordinarily, this would be great news if you were, say, the founder of a sneaker company that had signed a deal with Williams before fans spent hours following her and Hiedeman around Indianapolis. But as a New York Times feature from that week made clear, there was a steep price to pay if a shoe brand wanted to play in the league with more financially established sponsors—and even a supportive WNBA star willing to cover logos and stand by the brand could only do so much.
Suddenly, the brand that Natalie White had developed as a senior at Boston College in 2019 looked as if it had hit a ceiling. Making matters worse, a series of tariffs imposed on Moolah Kicks’ overseas suppliers were making the brand’s presence in hundreds of Dick’s Sporting Goods locations throughout the United States look like a much costlier proposition than it had been in previous years.
We are really leading into the original ‘why’ and we’re strengthening who we are as a brand to put our stake in the ground as ‘better for you,’ because there is more attention around women’s basketball than there’s ever been.
Natalie White, founder, Moolah Kicks
But Moolah Kicks weren’t designed specifically for WNBA players, nor were they initially intended for big-box distribution. Back at Boston College in 2019, White used Boston College women’s teams and teams of girls’ and women’s sports players visiting Conte Forum as her initial research.
On the “Million Dollar Stairs” outside Conte Forum she heard from girls and women whose first pairs of basketball shoes came from the boys’ section. She heard from athletes walking around on burning soles and nursing sore toes that hit the front of their shoes. With help from B.C. professor and former Saucony CEO John Fisher—as well as medical journals, therapists and surgeons—White learned that high arches, slim heels, and narrow widths in poorly designed shoes were contributing to 52% more foot and ankle injuries among elite women athletes compared to their male counterparts.
Key differences in a woman’s foot also contribute to increased ACL injuries, especially in ill-designed shoes.
With the Women’s Sports Foundation noting that 22% of girls who play sports quit before they finish high school—with 41% of that group saying it isn’t fun anymore and 21% feeling they weren’t good enough—White has a clearer view of Moolah Kicks’ purpose going forward. This year, the brand has teamed with Texas hospital The Scottish Rite for Children to study the effects of its shoes on athlete movement and has dropped three new models—the Evolyte Elite for top-tier players, the latest iteration of the brand’s mainstay Neovolt line, and the Kids’ Press Break made specifically for girls and promising players “No break-in and no burning.”
By bringing Moolah Kicks back to schools and club teams and shifting toward a direct sales model using the brand’s revamped site and ecommerce platform, White sees an opportunity to help athletes earlier in their careers and establish Moolah Kicks as an endemic part of the girls’ and women’s game as soon as players first pick up a ball.
“We are really leading into the original ‘why’ and we’re strengthening who we are as a brand to put our stake in the ground as ‘better for you,’ because there is more attention around women’s basketball than there’s ever been,” White said.
Running the numbers
When the Moolah Kicks brand was founded in 2020, no women’s basketball player had a signature shoe produced for them in nearly a decade—going back to Candace Parker’s Adidas Ace Versatility in 2011.
But even when the signature shoes arrived—Hall of Famer Elena Delle Donne’s Nike Air Deldons and Breanna Stewart’s Puma Stewies in 2022; Sabrina Ionescu’s Nike Sabrinas in 2023; A’ja Wilson’s Nike A’Ones, Reebok’s Angel Reese 1, and Jacy Sheldon’s Holo JS:01s in 2025; and this year’s Caitlin Clark Nike Caitlin 1—they were often lightweight, flexible, and colorful enough for the court, but still distinct enough from Moolah’s product for White to see a void in the market.
“It means getting sharper about our positioning in the market and getting clearer about the reason that we exist and the value that we deliver to the girls basketball community,” White said. “There’s a ton of brands trying to get in the game, and you’ve got to be clear—Why are you different?—and it allows us to showcase the science that makes us different.”
With girls’ and women’s focused shoes still comprising roughly 1% of the total market for basketball shoes, Moolah Kicks worked with both Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, and The Scottish Rite for Children to see where the brand’s shoes offered an advantage and where it could make improvements.
The university’s report from 2024 found that Moolah Kicks’ shoes provided “a greater sense of ankle stability and comfort” that helped players cut quicker and jump higher compared to their performance in unisex sneakers from other brands. During six weeks of trials, athletes in Moolah Kicks shoes had fewer complaints of foot and leg pain than their unisex-shoe counterparts and credited the cushioning of the ankle and tongue of the shoe for reducing even minor injuries—like blisters.
There’s a ton of brands trying to get in the game, and you’ve got to be clear—Why are you different?—and it allows us to showcase the science that makes us different.
Natalie White, founder, Moolah Kicks
This August, the Scottish Rite found that Moolah Kicks shoes had less impact than other basketball shoes on athletes’ knees when running and stopping and created less wear on hips while cutting and jumping. It also caused less inward-angling of knee joints when landing from a rotating jump, reducing the risk of ACL injury, and helped foot movement when side-shuffling or planting.
However, the university noted that Moolah Kicks’ impact diminished a bit as the shoes were broken in, with athletes feeling landings a bit more in the lower legs and seeing jumping performance reduced. White and the brand took the note and doubled up the midsole in the Evolyte Elite and strengthened the cushioning of the Neovolt.
“This season we are promoting that science, because now it’s not a question of ‘Do I want this one women’s option or the others’ but ‘Which women’s product is best for me?” White said. “We can go back to those Conte Forum roots and demonstrate the ‘Better for You’ platform because now the market has grown enough that it’s ready for it.”
Straight to the source
Moolah Kicks reaped some of the initial benefits of women’s basketball’s growth as it attracted investment from Mark Cuban and Dick’s Sporting Goods’ DSG Ventures. However, as tariffs initially imposed in 2025 continue to squeeze the U.S. footwear industry, White and Moolah Kicks have pivoted—shrinking their distribution footprint from hundreds of Dick’s Sporting Goods stores to “select” locations and overhauling their direct-to-consumer ecommerce site to take advantage of its higher margins.
“We’ve kept our prices unchanged, and we have switched around the interior of the business in order to continue delivering customers that consistent quality and price,” White said. “We’ve had to make a lot of changes in order to keep that promise to them.”
We have players choose our products rather than us paying folks to wear our products.
Natalie White, founder, Moolah Kicks
Moolah Kicks has also moved away from its athlete endorsement strategy, seeing increased opportunities for WNBA players among other brands and a desire among players at other levels to embrace the brand without endorsements. While White is grateful for Williams’ support and for the collegiate and WNBA players who wore Moolah Kicks during games and practices, another generation is making the brand its own.
“We have players choose our products rather than us paying folks to wear our products,” White said. “Everyone who you see wearing Moolah is wearing them because smart players choose to maximize their edge…and we’ve found that that has been really powerful with our demographic of high schoolers.”
The Moolah Kicks site now proudly touts that its shoes are worn by more than 150 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) youth teams nationwide. The brand is reaching out directly to high schools, 3-on-3 tournaments, academies, recreation leagues, and camps (16 just this summer with its Moolah Madness pop-up) to get players acquainted with its shoes and to become a familiar presence within the sport.
As it drops new sneakers and learns the science behind them, it shares that data with players at as many levels of the sport as it can.
“Youth basketball is so important, because it’s important for them to play and have fun, and so that’s who we’re also here for,” White said. “We love and care about all women’s basketball, and going to tournaments and being in person with them has allowed us to make that connection and emphasize the love that we have for players who are playing just one year, who are playing rec ball for fun.”
White’s efforts have also kept Moolah Kicks a relevant part of an expanding women’s basketball ecosystem. Beyond the WNBA, the Unrivaled 3-on-3 league heads into its third season (and an eight-city tour), while the developmental Upshot League just finished its first season. A global league, Project B, launches in 2027 and already has significant commitment and investment from current and former WNBA players.
White sees the new leagues as potential opportunities for Moolah Kicks not solely because they’ll include unsponsored players who can try the brand’s products, but by creating more paths to professional basketball for its core demographics. While just 1% of NCAA men’s basketball players go to the NBA, nearly 22% go on to play in professional leagues around the globe. That percentage shrinks to 0.8% of collegiate women’s players heading to the WNBA, and just 9% offered opportunities elsewhere.
Considering that just 4.7% of girls who play high school basketball continue their careers in college, White sees new leagues expanding player opportunity and already creating increased interest in women’s rec leagues.
“Starting a culture of women’s recreation basketball that these leagues can help inspire, it only opens up the opportunity that we can serve more seasoned generations of players,” White said. “Rec league women’s players want to put themselves in the best position to not get injured, they want to put themselves in the best position to feel comfortable on the court…and for people who started playing rec ball because they’re inspired by these leagues or just playing for fun, they’re the exact people who share all of the values that Moolah is working so hard to continue to build.”
