For women working in industrial sectors, wearing a steel-toed work boot is just part of the job. As they’re moving back and forth from the shop floor to the conference room, wearing clunky work boots, mainly modeled after men’s styles, can make it hard to look professional and polished.
Xena, based in Milwaukee, is a new fashion startup that launched May 9 to address the problem by making the first stylish, steel-toed work boot for women, said Xena Co-founder and CEO Ana Kraft. The startup’s product is an ankle boot with about a 2-inch heel, which comes in black and cognac brown.
To make them safe to wear on shop floors, Xena’s boots are resistant to impact, compression, heat and chemicals. Additionally, they feature an anti-microbial insole and are made from leather certified by the Leather Working Group.
“While I’ve loved working in the engineering field for the last five years, there was one thing I truly hated, and that was the bulky, steel boots that it made it impossible to look professional,” Kraft said. “I launched Xena workwear to give women the option to express their true personality and feel confident in their roles.”
The boots, manufactured in Mexico, retail for $170, which Kraft said is slightly more expensive than other boots on the market because Xena uses higher-grade materials. The startup’s boots are tailored toward women working in manufacturing, architecture, and electrical and mechanical engineering.
Before Xena, women’s options for these kinds of boots included brands like Timberland and Justin, but Kraft said they were never as stylish, feminine and professional as she wished they were.
“The industry has not changed in decades,” Kraft said. “They take a men’s boot, make it smaller and make it pink, and that is not the solution women want.”
Xena’s boots can only be purchased on the startup’s website right now, but Kraft said she plans to expand retail channels to third-party online vendors. Additionally, Kraft said she wants to add more boot styles and even clothing to Xena’s line in the future.
Until then, Kraft is working on raising a seed round of funding to help the startup expand. Xena is currently finishing up Madison-based gener8tor’s gBETA program, which ends Friday.
“What we wear has a major impact on our self-confidence, which impacts a number of other job-related factors, including performance and long-term career success,” Kraft said. “Professional women deserve to feel confident when they’re moving from the shop floor to the meeting room.”
