For years, QLVR co-founder Nicolle Dean watched women struggle with athletic shoes that didn’t fit properly – tangled laces, a baggy heel area, crushed toes and daily frustration with athletic footwear that was clearly designed for someone else. With a background in the footwear industry, along with her husband Martin, she knew the industry secret: women’s sports shoes are just men’s shoes made smaller. But knowing the problem and solving it are two different things.
Today, seeing icons like Davina McCall and Dame Kelly Holmes embrace QLVR Running Slippers is a proud but surreal moment for a start-up that launched from a £100,000 Kickstarter campaign. As the community of QLVR fans grows, women are excitedly sharing their discovery of something new that is truly made for them and making a difference to their training from support, stability, alignment and cushioning to running PBs without trying – they are getting on board with the QLVR revolution and bringing friends – proof that when you genuinely solve problems women face, recognition follows naturally.
Here are five valuable tips Nicolle learned about building revolutionary products that attract both recognition and investment.
- Create categories, don’t just improve products
To disrupt an industry of giants in the athletic footwear market, Nicolle’s team put aside conventional trainer design and went back to the drawing board with the idea of inventing something entirely new: the Running Slipper. They questioned why, after 5,500 years, people still needed laces at all, and could there be a better way? Their patented Wing Fit system, inspired by bird wing mechanics, delivers a secure 360-degree fit in one second. For investors, category creation signals genuine innovation and makes it harder for larger competitors to respond quickly.
- Put your market first, even when it costs more
QLVR’s biggest breakthrough came from a commercially challenging decision. While other brands design for men first, then shrink for women to share expensive tooling components, Nicolle chose to build exclusively for women’s biomechanics — narrower heels, wider toe boxes, higher arches – something that the industry has neglected for too long. This focus made production more complex but created something genuinely different. The proof: nine out of 10 women who try QLVR purchase immediately.
- Make sustainability a performance advantage, not just a nice-to-have
Instead of token use of eco-friendly materials, Nicolle and her team at QLVR worked with leading sustainability material suppliers to create QLVR’s 100% vegan construction using castor beans, dandelions, corn waste and eucalyptus – each choice delivering superior performance compared to standard synthetic materials. This attracts investors who understand that sustainable innovation represents premium quality and competitive advantage, not just good intentions. The tip: Don’t compromise, every detail matters, and every decision in your product design reflects your business’s brand values.
- Design for real-world versatility, not just specialised performance
Rather than creating a shoe for one specific activity, QLVR engineered for cross-training, gym workouts, running and daily wear. This came from understanding how women actually use athletic shoes throughout their active lives. The takeaway: observe how customers really use products, not just how they’re supposed to.
- Turn tester insights into product development
Seeing that legend Dame Kelly Holmes was running in QLVR was a huge highlight for the QLVR team and reinforced what they already knew. After a full year pre-launch of rigorous wear testing, partnering with runners and personal trainers, the shoes had benefited from extensive tester insights and feedback, which fed into refining and finessing the final product. Tester insights are key to refining future products and ensuring they meet the demands of serious athletes. Nicolle’s approach: seek partners who will push your product to excel, not just promote it.
Final Thoughts
Seeing respected figures like Davina McCall and Dame Kelly Holmes embrace QLVR feels incredible. But the QLVR team knows that celebrity validation only works when it’s built on genuine innovation that solves real problems. For fellow entrepreneurs, QLVR’s journey shows that revolutionary products come from questioning basic assumptions — like why women should accept poorly fitting athletic shoes designed for men. Sometimes the most obvious frustrations represent the biggest opportunities, and stepping out of your comfort zone to share your solution can lead to connections you never imagined possible.
Nicolle Dean is co-founder of QLVR, the world’s first Running Slipper designed exclusively for women. For more information, visit qlvr.com
