Gumboots Are Back In Fashion Thanks To Melbourne Brand, Merry People

The strategy for Merry Individuals‘s present day gumboots all began on Danielle Holloway’s every day commute. She was performing at ANZ at the time, and identified herself frequently ruining her get the job done sneakers on her travels to and from the workplace in Melbourne’s wet climate.

‘Growing up on a farm in South Gippsland, Victoria, I was familiar with just how beneficial gumboots can be but could not come across a pair that bridged the gap amongst city and nation life,’ Danielle states.

Like most creative entrepreneurs, she made the decision to find a option herself, developing the first Merry People type: the now-bestselling Bobbi Ankle Boot built from normal rubber with a neoprene lining. They’re 100 for every cent waterproof, like the realistic gumboots she recalled from her childhood, just a minor little bit a lot more developed up.

‘When wondering of a model title, I kept coming back to the idea of pleasure,’ Danielle provides. ‘It was why I needed to start out the small business and it was how I wanted my clients to feel when they wore their boots. Gumboots and splashing by puddles or mud normally takes me back to my childhood. It is a minute to be spontaneous and crack absolutely free (even just for a instant) from all the daily stresses that appear from currently being an adult.’

She commenced out selling the shoes at farmer’s markets and functioning on the business enterprise on evenings and weekends prior to she left her company job to ‘take the plunge’ and give Merry People today her all. ‘I selected the route that I could see myself remaining happiest in and I have no regrets,’ Danielle claims.

‘I did have some hard days. It was really hard because I was in my early 30s and I was living 7 days-to-week and at situations having to offer my possessions to fork out for my rent.’

Considering that then, Merry Men and women has developed from a grassroots start out-up to a prosperous enterprise based mostly in Collingwood and bought throughout Australia, New Zealand, US and the British isles. Her specialized niche of useful, fashionable shoes has attained a growing client base of regional gardeners to interior-town personnel and all the things in among. The array has expanded also, now featuring the regular Darcy Mid Calf Boot and their most recent start, the Billie Clog, in a variety of neutral and daring colors that replicate the brand’s pleased ethos.

‘Cass (our merchandise designer) arrived into perform a person day with a Bobbi boot she experienced slash herself and produced into a clog and claimed to me “Dani what do you think about this!” … and I liked it!’

“In 2023 we will be extending our dimension range to measurement 45 and moving into a extra unisex model. We are all truly enthusiastic about this improve and hope our customers are far too!’

Although Danielle suggests she constantly felt ‘so awkward’ when she told people today she was making an attempt to start out her very own gumboot business, these times she proudly spots a person most days putting on Merry People today – and ‘it’s the finest feeling’.

Shop Merry People’s complete variety and their new Billie Clog colourways on the internet here.