Moolah Kicks founder talks Dick's Sporting Goods partnership and 'the fight for gender equality'

Moolah Kicks Founder & CEO Natalie White joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss her journey into designing women's basketball shoes and her observations on gender equity gaps in professional sports and the athletic footwear space.

Video transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. When it comes to equality in sports across genders, perhaps a lot of attention falls on pay for some of the top athletes. Specifically when it comes to basketball, you can look at Steph Curry's $45 million and compare it to the top earning WNBA player and notice quite the discrepancy there. But aside from just numbers, it's also worth pointing out that a lot of the shoes basketball players wear come from companies led by men. And it's a bit ironic when you think about women playing in basketball shoes that aren't catered specifically for them.

And that's the idea that has our next guest launching into the space and now rolling out her products, Moolah Kicks, out nationally. Natalie White, the founder of Moolah Kicks and CEO, joins us here. And Natalie, appreciate you coming on to chat. I mean, you got some high accolades. Mark Cuban was also tweeting last month about the partnership with Dick's Sporting Goods to roll these things out nationally. Talk to me about where the idea came from and how you've been able to ramp this up so quickly.

NATALIE WHITE: Absolutely. Well, thanks for having me on, first of all. Thanks for giving us some time there to point out DT versus Curry there and the pay gap. But my name is Natalie White, and I founded Moolah Kicks because I have recognized that inequality gap that exists between men's and women's basketball. I grew up my whole life playing basketball.

And I remember, whether it was walking into tournaments and seeing that the tickets to my games were $5 and the tickets to boys' games were $10, or if it was walking into a footwear store and seeing that there wasn't a single option for female basketball players, my entire career and up until this year with Dick's Sporting Goods and Moolah Kicks, women have been shopping in the children's or men's section for their sneakers. So I'm thrilled to have started Moolah Kicks two years ago on a mission to fight for gender equality, to ignite a culture of our own within women's hoops, and of course, make sneakers that are fit specifically for female players.

AKIKO FUJITA: Natalie, I don't play basketball, but I can tell you, as somebody who wears size 5 to 5 and 1/2 shoes, I can attest to having to go to the children's section because there's just not sizes for those who are sized for men. Talk to me about the fit here. How is it different than other sneakers that have been traditionally designed for men?

NATALIE WHITE: Yeah, absolutely. So on the inside of every single sneaker, it's actually made with this form, which is called a last. And it's basically a skeleton shape of either a man's or a woman's foot form. And so on the inside of all of the sneakers that have been on the market historically, they're made with a last that is shaped for a man's foot, whereas Moolah Kicks, the inside of our sneakers boast a higher arch, a slimmer width, a more narrow heel, and those small differences that actually make the inside of the sneaker biomechanically fit the foot form of female players. And in turn, this leads to a decreased risk of injury when you're hooping in women's sneakers and in Moolah Kicks.

ZACK GUZMAN: Boston College grad, we should point out here, too, and noted basketball player yourself-- I don't think I ever reached the level you did in my college days or even earlier than that. But when we talk about, I guess, scaling this up, obviously, Dick's Sporting Goods, 140 stores, right, more than that. Talk to me about, I guess, what the next steps are in kind of partnering to grow this and make sure the options out there are available for more women.

NATALIE WHITE: Absolutely. Well, first of all, being in 140 stores across the country is unbelievable. And I really couldn't be more grateful to be partners with Dick's on this initiative to have women walking into the store, girls walking into the store, and for the first time ever, being able to go to a section with sneakers that are dedicated just for them.

Where this brand grows is really an embedding ourselves in the women's basketball space, becoming a part of growing a culture unique to women's basketball, and eventually, being the backbone for women's hoops to amp up the sponsorship money, the television, and really, everything that women's hoops needs to grow, and start to tackle that pay gap that you mentioned right at the beginning of this segment.

AKIKO FUJITA: And finally, Natalie, you know, when I heard about Moolah, I couldn't help but think about Allyson Felix, Olympian who started her own women's shoe line, Saysh. She actually left Nike because of how she felt they were treating women's ath-- female athletes. And I wonder, when you think about this space, number one, is there enough funding and backing to continue to grow, specifically targeting female athletes? Or ultimately, is it about getting the big names like a Nike to buy into this idea that they've got to cater more to women in terms of what they sell?

NATALIE WHITE: Yeah, what's so important here-- and I'm glad you brought that up-- is really that women's hoops, right, have been asking-- women's sports, women's basketball players-- we've been asking for resources for investment for so long. And what Moolah Kicks is, is actually a vehicle where we don't need to ask anymore because we hold the keys to our own future, right? And as we have women continue to buy into Moolah Kicks, rock them on the court, and the brand itself continues to expand, we actually will be able to take hold of those opportunities within our own community, rather than continuing to ask these systems that weren't built to focus on the women's game.

ZACK GUZMAN: That's a big step-- no pun intended here-- in the right direction with the launch here and the rollout. Excited to watch it play out. You've got to come back and keep us posted on how things go as the business continues. But Natalie White, Moolah Kicks founder and CEO, appreciate you taking the time. Thanks again.