worldie began with a pattern we couldn’t ignore. kids grow fast. sports change. shoes wear out.
during a customer discovery program at the University of Chicago, parents described the same cycle again and again. buying kids’ sports shoes meant constant guesswork, wasted money, and shoes that rarely fit or lasted long enough to keep up. then the insight clicked. kids don’t play one sport, and they don’t need three different sport-specific shoes.
so we set out to build one high-quality, multi-sport shoe designed for growing kids and the way they play.
the idea was simple. making it real was not.
after years of prototyping and kid wear-testing, one thing was clear. the shoe had to perform across sports without compromising comfort or fit. when the right design partner came on board, the shoe took shape. the result was a durable, multi-sport shoe built for the sampling phase of childhood, when kids are trying everything.
we tested it with a small launch on Kickstarter. parents showed us we were right by tripling our goal.
our future isn’t just a better shoe. it’s a better system.
we’re building worldie toward a future where kids’ sports shoes are made closer to home, last longer, are reused more often, and guided by better data as kids grow.
the goal is simple. one brand parents can trust to get their kids through every season of sport. without waste. without guesswork. without constant replacement.
aaron is a lifelong athlete who grew up playing every sport he could, learning firsthand what young athletes actually need from their gear.
after looking back at his own childhood, he saw a clear gap in kids’ footwear and teamed up with brandan to survey hundreds of parents and validate it. now, he’s focused on building one shoe that lets kids play as many sports as they want.
aaron graduated magna cum laude from Wharton and holds a JD/MBA from the University of Chicago. he has advised some of the world’s largest companies as a management consultant.
sports: soccer, hockey, basketball, baseball.
brandan brings a parent’s perspective and a builder’s discipline to worldie. as a dad of three, he sees firsthand how sports shape kids on and off the field. after 13 years in the air force, he learned resilience, accountability, and how to build for the long term.
combined with years advising startups, that experience led him to co-found worldie with a focus on solving real problems in kids’ sports footwear.
with a JD/MBA from the University of Chicago, brandan brings practical, execution-focused thinking to every part of worldie.
sports: football, basketball, soccer, golf.
worldie is built to keep up with young athletes today and take responsibility for the world they’re growing into. that means designing shoes that last longer, waste less, and are made with intention at every step. so families don’t have to choose between performance and purpose.
