Coming from New Zealand, the land of 27m sheep, the idea of wool in footwear seemed like one of those things that should have been done and never had been,” says Tim Brown. He first pitched an idea for wool sports shoes in 2013, when he was a business masters student at the London School of Economics.
Mr Brown, now 37, spent a term on the MBA programme at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, as an elective to LSE students. The professor overseeing that entrepreneurship class, former Walmart.com chief executive Carter Cast, did not pick the pitch for ultra-comfortable, sustainably produced shoes as one of the ideas that the students would try to develop.
“Carter called me aside and he said, ‘I don’t think this is a good idea’,” Mr Brown recalls. “‘But for whatever reason, of everyone in this class you seem most committed to try and make this work.’”