A big idea for little feet

It's a sad reality of shoe shopping: What's cute isn't necessarily what's comfortable.

Tracy Ingle knows this is especially true when it comes to baby shoes, which she's found are often stiff, unsupportive and improperly constructed for a child's growing foot.

"I love baby shoes, and I bought them because they're cute, but I never actually put them on my kids," says the mother of four, a former St. Joseph resident who now lives in Kansas City. "So I thought, 'Let's come up with a shoe they'll actually wear.'"

That's exactly what Ingle has done with JEMOS footwear, a company she formed with her brother, Tonie Jones, who lives near St. Joseph, two years ago. JEMOS - an acronym made from the first letters of their children's names - offers shoes for infants through 2-year-olds designed to meet medical recommendations for healthy foot development, including a wide toe area and cushioned, flat soles. The company's fall/winter 2009 line is made up of 15 styles for girls and six styles for boys that are each available in five sizes.

The shoes hit stores in May, after Ingle and Jones spent months researching, going to trade shows and traveling overseas to meet with suppliers.

The end result of all this are shoes that are hand sewn at a family-owned factory in China - where Ingle and her brother spent two weeks while shopping for someone to make their shoes - and are made of high-quality remnant leather from a furniture company in the United States.

"These are shoes that were potentially a couch," laughs Ingle, who is responsible for creating designs and coming up with color combinations for the footwear line. "There's so much waste going on; why waste leather if you can make it into a really cute shoe?"

This principle goes along with JEMOS' aim to be eco-friendly. In addition to making use of remnant material, the company also uses packaging that's 100-percent recyclable and decorated with little ink.

JEMOS' shoes are now sold at five stores in the Kansas City area, including at Brown's Shoe Fit Company in St. Joseph, as well as at stores in other states and through online retailers. The shoes' suggested retail price is $28 to $30. To see a complete list of retailers, go online to www.jemos-footwear.com.

Despite the quickly growing list of stores carrying her shoes, Ingle says her best salesperson has been her sister-in-law, Jeanetta Jones, who has sold more than a dozen pairs to co-workers.

"I really don't have to say anything" to sell them, she says. "I just refer people to the Web site, and the shoes are so cute, they sell themselves."

Jeanetta Jones adds she isn't surprised her husband and Ingle have started this business, noting that "they're just very, very good at that sort of thing."

Still, "This is something I wasn't really planning on," Tonie Jones says. "But with our backgrounds, we thought we could combine our efforts and do it."

Tonie Jones' background is in the import/export business - which came in handy in finding a company to sew the shoes and allows him to take care of shipping and other technical aspects of how the company is run - whereas Ingle worked in public relations and marketing before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Now, she combines motherhood with her work by doing a lot of late-night e-mailing, searching for stores to stock her shoes and networking with other moms who have also become entrepreneurs.

"It's been interesting and fun to talk to those women about how to grow a business," she says, adding of her own entrepreneurial venture so far, "It's been a long journey, but it's been fun getting here."