INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Of all the startup jawns that could possibly come from Philadelphia, perhaps none is as unexpected as Jenzy, the startup that provides an
online marketplace and virtual sizing tool for kids’ shoes.The company, which has raised $1.25 million from Morgan Stanley’s
Multicultural Innovation Lab, was born of desperation and grew up on two continents.Co-founders Eve Ackerley and Carolyn Horner met five
years ago in China while working as English language teachers in the remote corners of Yunnan province
Without much in the way of retail options, the two women resorted to doing much of their shopping online… and it was while searching for
shoes that they realized one of the major pain points of the online retail experience was finding the right size.Jenzy founders Carolyn
Horner and Eve AckerleyWhen they returned to the U.S
So they set out to develop an application that would be able to size feet using nothing more than a smartphone, and worked with vendors to
ensure that women could know their sizes and buy the right shoes.As the idea evolved, the two first-time entrepreneurs realized that however
annoying the buying process was for adults, the need for appropriately sized shoes and a marketplace to buy them was even more acute among
children.“The most proprietary part of what we do is standardize all the shoes on our platform,” says Horner.The company works with
brands like Converse, Saucony and Keds to send kids shoes that actually fit their feet
“A kid could be wearing a six in one shoe and a seven in another,” says Horner
Using Jenzy, the shoes will arrive in the right size for each foot
“We work with the suppliers to make sure that we’re sending the correct size to a parent when they check out on Jenzy.” For
retailers, it’s an opportunity to reduce what amounts to a huge cost
The industry average rate for returns is 30%, and Horner says that Jenzy reduces that figure to 15%
And those savings matter in what’s an $11 billion industry, according to Horner’s estimates.The company launched the first version of
its app in July 2017 and just released an update earlier this year
To date, Horner estimates the company has sized 25,000 feet and had 15,000 downloads since May.“The plan was to see about if we still were
interested when we got back from China,” Horner says of the company’s early days. Initially, the two partners worked out of
Ackerley’s parents’ house in California, but eventually moved to Philadelphia when the company pivoted to focus on children’s shoes to
be close to their beta testers — Horner’s family, who had a lot of kids.
