Volleyball has grown to be one of the largest female team sports in the world, yet many young players wear shoes made for other sports.
Rick Anguilla and Mark Oleson knew this too well, as both have daughters who play travel volleyball and struggle to find shoes that perform the way they need them to.
As two athletic footwear designers with decades of experience, the two men decided over a taco dinner a year ago that they had the power to change the volleyball landscape. That’s why they started Avoli, which they’re calling one of the first large-scale volleyball footwear and apparel brands.
“If you type in ‘basketball’ in the LinkedIn profile, you're going to see millions of designers and product line managers and marketing, but you type in ‘volleyball’ and it falls under ‘team sports.’ It doesn't even really have a representation yet,” Oleson said.
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Avoli will launch in late July with a single pair of shoes in six colorways that Anguilla and Oleson designed, tested and tweaked for months with the help of young female volleyball players.
Soon after launch, Avoli will release another shoe design as well as slide-on sleeves for players’ arms and knee pads.
Most volleyball players, including Anguilla’s and Oleson’s daughters, have to wear basketball shoes because they perform the closest to what they need, the designers said. But close doesn’t mean functional, Oleson said.
“When (players) started looking at the front of their foot, the forefoot area was completely compressed (in basketball shoes),” Oleson said. “Volleyball players start off, especially in these tournaments, at 7 in the morning and go to 2 in the afternoon, so their feet are soaking wet from sweat. They're jumping about four times more than a basketball player over the course of the game, and there is no heel-toe running (in volleyball).”
Anguilla and Oleson said the way they designed the Avoli shoes is specifically tailored to what a volleyball player needs: a cushioned forefoot to allow for shock absorption from jumping, a wider forefoot to allow movement but a thinner heel to offer stability, airflow through the arch of the shoe to prevent sweating, and support for the arch to keep the player comfortable on the balls of their feet.
These innovations are not just conducive to movements in the sport, but they also suit a woman’s foot better than other shoes, Anguilla said, as women’s feet are slimmer than men’s feet.
The two recruited help from a fellow Portland-area footwear designer, Samantha Noyes. Noyes owns Studio Noyes, which is behind footwear startups Mise and Shugo. Noyes said that she knew both Anguilla and Oleson from around the industry, and when Anguilla told her about his new project, she instantly felt a tug to get in and help them with it.
“I came back to the studio and pitched it, and one of my teammates actually played volleyball in college, so she was immediately super psyched,” Noyes said. “It was like an immediate fit, I think, from the start.”
Avoli will operate as a strictly direct-to-consumer business to start off, Anguilla said. He added that they plan to set up tents at volleyball tournaments to showcase their products, because all they usually see at tournaments are booths for non-functional player accessories like jewelry.
Avoli is also supported by about $1 million the two men were able to raise in a round from a group of investors in tech, consumer products and private equity.
As far as jumping into the deep end of an untapped market with few investing in it, Anguilla said there is little apprehension that Avoli won’t resonate with people.
“This is an issue that is hidden in plain sight,” Anguilla said.
In agreement, Noyes said Avoli reminds her a lot of when she started Mise, which makes footwear for chefs and other restaurant workers.
“There was always this culinary industry that never felt that they were put first, and it was always just a thing that was kind of on the side, especially in the footwear space. And I think it is the same with Avoli,” Noyes said “These girls, there's products for them, but it was never that they were given the attention that they deserve, so I think that's really the thing that will set Avoli apart.”
