Sandra Powers Murphy: Founder of Scarlett Chase

Episode 809

On today’s episode, we welcome Sandra Powers Murphy, Founder & CEO of Scarlett Chase — a luxury footwear brand proving women no longer have to choose between style and support. By blending European craftsmanship with patented, orthotic-grade technology, Scarlett Chase is redefining performance luxury with shoes engineered for what Sandra calls “The Runway of Life.”
Sandra’s journey began with a personal frustration after a successful career in finance — she couldn’t find shoes that were both beautiful and truly wearable. Rather than settle, she identified a gap in the market and built a brand handcrafted in Italy with sneaker-like construction and proprietary support designed to challenge expectations around women’s footwear.
In this episode, Sandra shares how she pivoted industries to launch a fast-growing brand, what it takes to innovate in a legacy category, and why designing by women for women creates a meaningful advantage. We discuss navigating today’s retail landscape, leading with discipline, and turning a personal pain point into a powerful business. A great conversation for founders, leaders, and anyone inspired to build something better.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show today. I am so excited to be joined by Sandra Powers Murphy, who is the founder and CEO of an incredible brand, that I am Gaga. If I can use that word over Scarlett Chase, a luxury footwear brand proving women no longer have to choose between style, comfort, support and by blending European craftsmanship with patented orthotic grade technology, Scarlett Chase is redefining performance Luxury for what Sandra calls the runway of life. I have a few pairs of The Scarlett Chase shoes. Probably my favorite ones right now are the Aspen, which you’re going to have to go online to actually check it out, but they are so comfortable and so awesome. I got warm last night. Got so many compliments. So love, love, love everything that they’re doing. And this is a brand that is designed by women for women with sneaker like comfort engineered into every hand crafted pair. So I’m so thrilled to be joined by Sandra to hear more about the journey in building Scarlett Chase. So welcome Sandra, super excited to finally connect with you and and have you here.

Sandra Powers Murphy 2:09
Thank you, Kara. I just read your book and heard your story and thought, wow, there’s just a lot of synergies and just in what you’ve done, and it’s been such a honor to kind of have people like you, women like you that are out there doing these amazing things. And that is part of what inspired me with Scarlett Chase to create a better performance luxury solution for women that are active and doing such important things in the world.

Kara Goldin 2:35
So first question for listeners who haven’t heard of Scarlett Chase before, how do you describe the brand and really, what sets it apart?

Sandra Powers Murphy 2:47
Sure, so we set out to create a revolution, really, in women’s footwear. There’s been a lot of talk about trying to put comfort into beautiful luxury footwear. A luxury footwear is still made to be looked at to stay on your mantle, not to be worn actively on your foot, but we felt comfort really wasn’t the right goal. The right goal was to have support and performance like a sneaker inside construction. And so we’ve incubated for solid five years around the notion of having a removable orthotic grade insole that we patented and a patented outsole. So when you think about performance luxury, we think we are defining a new category for women and footwear that truly requires that zero compromise between handcrafted European luxury footwear that has built in traction control orthotic grade support for your everyday life.

Kara Goldin 3:44
And what were you doing before starting Scarlett Chase?

Sandra Powers Murphy 3:49
Well, in addition to raising six amazing kids, I was in the finance world. My own broker dealer wrote a book called The road to AUM, and its second edition really had a full career. And so, you know, often I think I could have retired, or I could have decided I want to do something that I really feel passionate about, which is solve this problem for women. So prior, I was marketing consulting on the road a lot, at networking and events, speaking on behalf of the book, and really had a full amazing experience in the financial services and marketing world, but wanted to do something that I felt would impact and help women all over

Kara Goldin 4:29
So was this a personal pain point for you that you thought you could solve, or did you look at it like this is an industry, and I’m gonna go make a ton of money doing it. I mean, what was it that sort of drove you to go from finance to fashion? It’s a bold pivot. You’re now a founder as well, and you’ve you are on the hook for going and. Not only founding a company, but scaling a company. So what was it? What was that moment like, when you said, I have to go do this now,

Sandra Powers Murphy 5:09
a bold pivot is perfect. I mean, when you’re in things like marketing, consulting and finance, you think about these sort of highbrow careers, and then you realize it is some of the most day to day problems that plague us the most. And I think your listeners and you can probably think of the last time you debated a shoe decision, not based on which one would look better, but which one you could possibly make it through the day or through the evening with. And actually, that was probably the last 24 hours. There’s not a problem that plagues women, in my opinion, more than footwear, making sure that we wear something that is both performance and supportive, but also looks great and makes us feel confident when we’re out there in the world. And so one day, I was in Penn Station trying to get to Penn Station to catch a train home. Pouring rain, there was no cabs in sight, I had about 10 blocks to go from the meetings I was in. I really wanted to catch the train to get back to my family, and I’m thinking, I can’t there’s no way I can run in these shoes. I can’t barely move in these shoes. What am I going to do? So I took them off. I ran barefoot. I get to the top of the platform at Penn thinking, I don’t know what I just gave myself, probably meningitis. Who knows? And called my assistant when I got on the train and said, Oh, you won’t believe it, but this is what I did to catch the train. And she said, What would you do if you could do anything? And I immediately said, I would solve this problem. I would create a solution for women who are active like me, who are networking, who are professional business, women who are working on behalf of families, generations, themselves in corporate America that want a solution that works better. And it started a journey. I reached out with my WPO group to say, hey, like, where are there factories available? I have this design idea. And five years later, here we are with a growing company of a solution for women that changes the pitch of your foot and get you more comfortable and active.

Kara Goldin 7:03
From the moment that you said, I’m going to go and start this company to actually having the first SKU, the first pair of shoes. How long did that take?

Sandra Powers Murphy 7:17
Oh, great question. Well, you know, in entrepreneur land, you’re kind of working 24/7, so I think every week should be counted as maybe two. But from the first reach out of how are we going to do this, to getting our first prototype, was probably a year solid year of just debating what the construction would be like, whether we would do a collapsible heel, which, spoiler alert, ergonomically doesn’t work for women. What would be the construction? Do we need to get orthotic makers involved, etc? To getting that first prototype was a year and then we continued to incubate around that perfect pump. Because to me, that was the Holy Grail. Could I change the pitch of your foot within a shoe and still have it look beautiful, and can it be stable enough that you can walk heel to toe, all the things I felt were missing in beautiful luxury footwear, every one of those details we wanted to work out. And it did take us a few years, but the first prototype was a year

Kara Goldin 8:17
so the SC 360 support system. Can you speak to that and and what? Why was it non negotiable?

Sandra Powers Murphy 8:29
I like to think of it as surround sound for your foot. You know, if you had to think about something that’s going to touch all aspects of your foot, sometimes a shoe company will think about comfort, and they’ll think about a gel cookie. Sometimes they’ll think about the upper and whether the materials are soft and luxurious. Sometimes they’ll think about the thickness of the heel. And for me, I knew it’s sort of princess of the P for women, that women every step you take, you have the the benefit and the risk of many pressure points across your foot that are getting impacted. And I really felt like there were so many shoe companies that were falling short of completing the equation. They would get 50% of it right, or 60% of it right, or look beautiful on social media, or it would feel great, but it was frumpy to look at. And I really wanted the whole foot to be considered. So the 360 system is literally the notion of what’s under your foot, what’s on top of your foot, and how your foot is cradled within the shoe.

Kara Goldin 9:30
So you really focus. I mean, you have heels as well, but you have a lot of incredible styles that are flat and I would imagine, I mean, you started this company during covid, right? A lot changed in this industry. Did you? How did you have to adjust in your industry, given kind of what else was going on in the world? World, not only from a design perspective, but maybe also from actual manufacturing, right?

Sandra Powers Murphy 10:08
I mean, we’re European handcrafted, and that was, you know, I had looked to develop in the US. I would have loved to have been able to do that. When you look at luxury goods and handcrafted footwear, third generation artisans, you really do have to look to Italy and some of the surrounding EU countries for that construction. Our technology is built with resources from the US and as well as Europe. But I think when you think about like the line, we had started with the Holy Grail, the pump, but then so many women were saying, hey, you know, but I need that level of support in my flats. And they knew intuitively that as simple and as streamlined as a lovely ballet is, or a Mueller loafer is, yes, you’re you don’t have the heel to contend with, but without the support structure under your foot, you end up with the same issues in terms of ergonomically. Your back hurts, you don’t feel comfortable. Your foot gets tired. And so I went about to say, Can we not put our patented our patented bottom and our patented insole, which is removable as well, into a flat system that gives women those day to day solutions that they want, in addition to our beautiful heels and boots? And we did. And women have loved it. So for me, it is really about listening to our customers as an initial customer myself, lightweight, travel friendly, ergonomically correct, supportive, giving you a little literally pep in your step, a rebound, giving you fit flexibility. But then what are the customers saying they need? They want it in this type of a footwear and this type of a footwear, and that’s how we’ve developed the line, entirely based on what our customers are looking

Kara Goldin 11:46
for. What is the number one SKU?

Sandra Powers Murphy 11:50
The number one SKU is app, it’s, it’s, it’s a toss up between our booties and our boots, I would say, by far, our beautiful Italian stretch suede boots and booties, the Lola and Clara and then the Maya and the Portia are just hands down, season after season, really, year round favorites of our customers. They’ve really become a cult classic, and I think that’s because they fit so many women and people describe them as a hug. They also travel incredibly well, because the whole shaft rolls down to nothing, and they’re very lightweight, so the combination of factors make them, by far and away, our most popular item, and we continue to innovate around that style and that design.

Kara Goldin 12:36
So retail has been crazy turbulent. So what do you think has really helped you to grow the way that you have because obviously, the handcrafted nature of your product, and, I mean, it’s just so it just feels great, it looks great. But still, they aren’t inexpensive, right? They’re, they’re, you know, high end shoes and you got, you all have been, you’ve continued to grow in in this crazy time out here. What do you think has helped you to do that?

Sandra Powers Murphy 13:15
You know, I actually feel that a phone call today. Sometimes the phone calls come through to me still, and it was a customer who was in the middle of an exchange on a navy boot, navy blue boot, and just confirming we had received the shoe and they were getting the new one. It’s part of our latest restock from Italy. And she I said, you know, you happen to catch the founder. I so appreciate speaking to customers. Do you have any feedback? And she said, Oh, I can’t tell you that. I was at an event with a friend, and I saw from across the room they had these most spectacular wine booties on. And I asked them where they got them. And they told me about Scarlett Chase. And now I just love the brand. I think the number of women who are getting stopped and said, Where are you getting that footwear, which I find really fascinating. Kara, I think it’s not intuitive, because there’s a lot of beautiful footwear out there, but it seems like women maybe see sort of the elevation and the forefoot, that the silhouettes are absolutely stunning, and they acknowledge the beauty of it. And then and then people, once they’re they’re consumers of it. They want to tell their friends. They want other people that they know, who they’ve talked to about how uncomfortable footwear is to experience what they’re experiencing Scarlett Chase. So we’ve had incredible growth through word of mouth. In addition to that, you know, we’re in an incredible market environment where d to c is possible. We just did a Shopify masterclass. And I’m kind of amazed at what you can do digitally, that women are willing. This problem is so big for women that they are willing to buy a performance luxury footwear online and take that challenge of is, am I going to pick the right thing at the right size? And then we know that if we. Can match that with an exceptional VIP experience, that if it’s not perfect right away, that we are there to work with them to find the right or size, to get them in the right collection, because everyone’s feet are different, to make it work. So I think that combination of the beauty of the product that people are picking up off of the street and the word of mouth of our customers and the quality of our service is really what’s helping us grow as quickly as we are.

Kara Goldin 15:25
What has been the hardest part about building a luxury brand. You’ve had incredible work experience in the past, but now you’re, you know, the buck stops with you, right? You’re, you’re not only the founder, but you’re the CEO. You’re hopping on the phone talking to consumers when you need to do that. But what has been kind of the hardest part of building a luxury brand that maybe you didn’t expect?

Sandra Powers Murphy 15:57
I’m going to give you two answers. The first answer is working with Italian third generation craftsmen to take a technology, advanced set of components, and integrate them into beautiful, luxury footwear. It is not their preference. You know, we’re in the same factories with Jimmy Choo Mew Mew Todd’s Prada, and they have a beautiful esthetic, but they don’t try to integrate this orthotic grade, bulky but beautiful under your foot insole, nor this rubber platform outsole. And so I think constantly working with them on why it is we want padding behind the heel added, and why it is we want the upper to have a little bit more girth, and why it is that we want to integrate these components is has been a challenge. The other challenge they didn’t expect is, I think, for women, they’ve been disappointed so many times in this category, they have just been told something’s going to be comfortable and great, and then they go to buy it, and it’s expensive and everything’s getting more expensive, and they say, you know, it’s really not worth it. I might as well just go spend $40 in a shoe I’m going to wear once and throw away. I think getting women to believe that they deserve and need high quality footwear, it is the basis of their being. I mean, you will spend more than this on a session with the chiropractor after you’ve, you know, worn totally unsupportive shoes for days on end. And so to me, it’s it’s encouraging women to believe that this is a key part of feeling empowered and confident and put together, and as important as other parts of their wardrobe even more. So maybe that’s been a bigger challenge than I expected. But obviously, given our growth, we’re starting to see that realization. And I think, as you said, coming out of the pandemic, in a difficult time in the world, there is a sense of, should I be expending that on myself? Should I be investing in this at this time? But I think for women, once they do and they see the difference in the how they feel and how it allows them to be in the world, they decide it’s worth it, and then they purchase additional pairs to help round out their wardrobe.

Kara Goldin 18:11
Seasonality is always something that actually not in the water industry. We it actually wasn’t as it wasn’t a topic of conversation, but certainly in the apparel industry, I’m so curious about in the footwear industry, do you see a lot of seasonality?

Sandra Powers Murphy 18:34
There’s huge seasonality. There is no mistaking that. Back to School is a factor for all of us in that in the fashion world, and at least in our experience, everything kind of kick starts into early September and is gangbusters right through the end of the year. And then there’s a little lull as people kind of recollect themselves financially and in terms of what their priorities are, what they’re doing, and then they look again to edit their wardrobes and bring things back in in the spring, I would say, for us, because our boots and booties are such a cult classic, and because I personally, I grew up a swimmer. I’m a huge beach and outdoor person. I love sandals. That’s been a category that’s been near and dear to my heart to look at. Can we create a performance, luxury version of sandals, so they’re not just a brand component, but it’s actually giving you this level of orthotic grade support, the cushioning, the factors that we believe make a real difference in your ability to wear it all day, unlike a flip flop, to give you that type of support, but also look nice enough to go from traveling to dinner to wherever you’re going. So I love the sandal season, but there’s absolutely a seasonality in our business for fashion that is strongest in the fall and into the winter months.

Kara Goldin 19:55
So fashion trends that are. I they kind of come and go, some of them, some of them come back over time. But which are you kind of sitting out that are going on right now in the fashion footwear space?

Sandra Powers Murphy 20:15
Oh, you know, we are sitting out many things, because our whole line is about iconic classics. If you are looking for the most editorial shoe that’s going to be on the runway, you’re not going to be looking to Scarlett Chase. And in fact, we get sometimes the models coming to us for like, I got to do a bunch of runway shows, and I need something more comfortable, I can really move in. Give me your gorgeous, high black boot, but consistently, we’re looking at the iconic classics that women are going to need in their wardrobe year after year. So by default, we’re out of a lot of the current trends. It’s it’s a constant challenge, of course, from a design perspective, because you want to take sort of the newest color palette, and you want to take some of the newer design elements, but we think for women at the end of the day, when we look at buying behavior and we look at what they really need, it is the more classics, the neutrals and the classic styles and silhouettes that we really focus on, and will continue to focus on as a brand.

Kara Goldin 21:21
So you are a mother of six kids, a parent of six kids. When you think about what your kids are learning from what you’re doing, what do you hope their takeaway is?

Sandra Powers Murphy 21:39
Well, Scarlett Chase is named after my youngest Scarlett and my grandmother Chase. So I think for sure, Scarlett, who’s a freshman in high school, is learning, you know, I think that she’s learning that women can do a lot of amazing things. I think it’s also that you’re compromising, that, just in reality, you’re compromising if I’m on in Italy, I’m not on the soccer field, you know, or I’m not at the dance recital, but that when you are able to build something of your own accord that you feel really passionate about and you can add value. And she sees the response of women that come and try on locally here, I think there’s an appreciation for the fact that she can also do anything in the future that she sets her minds to. And that’s what I that’s what I hope to impart, that anything’s possible if, if they try hard and work hard and are committed enough to it.

Kara Goldin 22:36
So physical stores versus direct to consumer, how do you think about your business and your business model?

Sandra Powers Murphy 22:45
So we get asked this question all the time. At some point, a flagship store might be nice. I don’t believe when you look at the trajectory of footwear brands, a lot of physical stores have not been value add economically. I would rather continue to put our resources into R and D. I have a real passion for continuing to perfect and build a solution set for women, and I understand the notion that if I build it, it will come. Is not real. But I also believe that as we continue to get a groundswell and a following with the focus on the quality and the construction and continuing to innovate, continue to patent the work we’re doing. We’re about to come out with a really incredible couple of things that are new for the line, and I think that’s where our time and effort needs to be spent, not on storefronts. So while it would be great to see Scarlett Chase’s name in those ways, I think we will remain a primarily D to C brand, and we will build the level of VIP experience and response that is necessary to make that a good solution for ourselves and Our customers,

Kara Goldin 23:57
a story of of a consumer that that maybe shared, shared how Scarlett Chase has really helped them. You spoke about one consumer. I always say it’s like the lifeline. I think for many founders, when you hear back from consumers that you’re doing it right, and you know, maybe others that they’ve tried or not, I think it it often is the feedback that founders need in order to keep going, because it’s really tough to be a founder, and I’d love to hear one of those stories that really kept you going.

Sandra Powers Murphy 24:37
So we have a soul story section on our site that really profiles amazing business women that are doing things in the world, and that Scarlett Chase allows them to feel empowered and confident when they’re going on stage, when they’re taking care of patients, when they’re out there in the world doing expert witness work. We just have some amazing women customers. But I will say that. One of my favorites is a it’s not actually posted yet. This woman is a huge athlete by night and a very strong professional in the finance community by day, and she also happens to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. Now I didn’t know that for a long time, but when I started to talk about Scarlett Chase, and the first opportunity was there for her to try Scarlett Chase. She said, this has just changed my life. I just literally couldn’t solve this problem before nothing worked. I couldn’t wear anything, and it was just constantly challenging for me when I wanted to be focusing on other things. And so we hear a lot about customers who have rheumatoid arthritis, plantar fasciitis, you know, neuromas, bunions that not it’s not going to work for nothing you do is going to work for everyone. Kara, right? Like, no matter what product you make, it’s going to sometimes you It’s doesn’t work. That said, I think when I see and hear women respond to how the boots fit and actually have the stretch that allows them to fit a lot more women, and how the supportive orthotic allows women with foot conditions often to wear a beautiful shoe again that they had given up on. That’s what keeps me going. That what that’s what keeps me excited about innovating. I want to continue to make what we’re doing more comfortable, more supportive, more lightweight, more gorgeous every step of the way. And it’s our customer feedback that definitely drives me.

Kara Goldin 26:28
You mentioned that you had some new products that are coming out. Can you share any of those or sort of the concept behind them? If you don’t have a visual for them?

Sandra Powers Murphy 26:39
Yes, I mean, I’m gonna, I give you a visual. This is so cool. So everyone loves our boots anyway, but everyone loves a great cowboy boot, right? That’s like an amazing thing. This gorgeous cowboy coming out, this beautiful hand, the Goodyear. Well, it’s got our patented bottom, it’s got our removable insole. But what I always found struggling about cowboy boots, and one of the reasons that our classic boots, and I might take a minute to show you, our classic stretch Italian boots, are so nice, is that you can literally roll these down and you’re packing, and this is all you have to pack. And it’s amazing. You have this gorgeous high boot, but it’s lightweight and it’s it’s so easy. Why can’t I do that in cowboy boots? Because they’re way too bulky. You can’t possibly take that when you travel. And so I thought, well, you should be able to do that. So why don’t we make it two pieces? Why don’t we make the booty itself be something I can wear on its own, and then the gator be something that I can lie flat in my suitcase, I could also then swap out the gator. Have a riding style, a cowboy style, lower gators just give women a whole system that they could use. So we’re really excited about this new cowboy boot that we’re launching momentarily. We’re also coming out with a square toe version of some of our classics. We had a lot of customers who, even though the holy grail to me is this beautiful pointed toe, wanted something a little more square. And we saw that with our mules and loafers, which have been hugely popular. So we are adding these absolutely stunning, hand crafted in Italy, super baby soft leather boots and ballets and slingbacks that will have a square toe. So those are the those are some of the shoe based things that we’re working on right now.

Kara Goldin 28:31
Oh my gosh. I’m so excited for those. Definitely have to purchase those, for sure. So, Sandra, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing all of your journey with all of us. You’re proof that some of the best companies start with a simple refusal to settle, and that you can change industries. So many lessons from your journey, and I’m really honored that you came on and I’m so excited that we finally got a chance to meet. We’ve been trying for a while, so it’s it’s really great that you were able to to come on. So for everyone who wants to check out Scarlett Chase, definitely do so. And the team, as as Sandra said, are building all the time, all the coolest shoes and most comfortable shoes around. So I will see you next time on the Kara Goldin show. Thank you so much again, Sandra for sharing everything.

Sandra Powers Murphy 29:33
Thank you, Kara was pleasure. Thanks

Kara Goldin 29:35
again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more. About my journey. I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.

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