All Marissa McTasney wanted was a pair of pink work boots. What she ended up with is a very successful construction equipment products business.
Having worked at what she refers to as a “cushy corporate job” at IBM, McTasney knew it was time she did something different career-wise. Construction seemed to be a logical choice as she was the one who did all the work on the house she and her husband owned. He’d even buy her power tools as gifts.
Learning the trades
In order to learn more about the industry and expand on her skills, she enrolled in the Women in Skilled Trades course offered at the Burlington Centre for Skilled Trades. On the first day of school, she and her classmates were given vouchers for a pair of work boots.
“I really wanted a pair of pink boots for myself,” says McTasney. “And I would have paid anything for them.” But she couldn’t find them anywhere, even though store clerks confessed that women “asked for them a lot.” She even tried getting the local shoemaker to make her a pair, but they couldn’t dye them.
Most people might have given up, but not McTasney. While learning the skills required for building a house—wearing regular-coloured work boots—she continued to do research. She spoke with store managers, salespeople and women in the trades. What she found was a market that was ready for those pink boots she so desperately wanted. One of many searches online led her to a manufacturer—in China. She emailed them and asked if they could make women’s work boots that could meet safety guidelines and, most importantly, be a particular shade of pink.
They could.
What about ones in navy, green and red too? “Some women wouldn’t be caught dead in pink; they wanted a choice,” says McTasney. “And then they wanted the whole matching outfit too.” She needed a manufacturer that could help her with a growing range of products, not just the boots.
No problem.
So she and her husband re-mortgaged their home and prayed that this was the right thing to do. McTasney started her construction business, called Tomboy Trades, and painted local businesses and houses by day, and worked on her equipment business by night.
 Did she have any experience in product development?
“No. I was really fortunate that I fell into the hands of a credible manufacturer,” she admits. All she knew was the type of products she wanted.
Arranging for the first shipment of samples caused a little bit, okay, maybe a lot of stress on McTasney’s part. She puts it this way: “You send the money and you think there’s some kid in a basement, licking his lips and thinking, ‘I got another one.’”
Her peers in the construction equipment industry (who happen to be men in their 50s) are shocked when they discover that she has managed without an agent or a translator so far. She doesn’t speak Chinese; McTasney and her manufacturer communicate in English by email and MSN. “Conversing over the phone is more difficult,” she admits.
Despite her fears and the sense of operating without a net, she felt that she was on the right track. All she needed now was a retailer—and she knew just who she had to talk to: Annette Verschuren, President, Home Depot.
Building on a great idea
When McTasney found out that Verschuren would be speaking at an upcoming Women of Influence luncheon, she bought a ticket. Then the student went a giant a step further and set up a meeting with Verschuren after the luncheon—but it wouldn’t be about her products. “I didn’t have the samples yet,” says McTasney, “I wanted to talk to her about providing good entry-level jobs for the women in the [skilled-trades] program.”
Through speaking with classmates and graduates, she had discovered that some women had left the program and industry altogether because they couldn’t find suitable jobs. “Some of these women thought that getting paid $10 an hour or lugging bricks up a ladder was a good job—and wouldn’t think to question the safety of it or walk away and find something else,” she says. “I knew that Home Depot could help graduates.”
And so did Verschuren, who worked with McTasney to put the right people together in order to make it all happen. As a result of McTasney’s chutzpah, a lot of the women completing the next course at the Burlington Centre for Skilled Trades will be put into positions through the Home Depot services organization.
Once that initiative was completed, McTasney said to Verschuren: “Please remember me, because I’m going to need your help in about three months.”
A very special delivery
Her samples had finally arrived from China and “they were fantastic.” Excited by the quality and finally being able to touch and feel those pink boots, McTasney knew that she had to get these products into Verschuren’s hands—and into Home Depot.
“I put together a big galvanized tub of products, which included fresh flowers and cupcakes, because I knew they wouldn’t let it rot,” she admits. But Home Depot staff wouldn’t let her know where the president was, or even if she was in the country.
Her only contact was Nick Cowling, Senior Communications Director, and he appeared to be out that day. Still, she put the tub in the back seat of her car and prayed for a favour. A wrong turn landed her at the loading dock of Home Depot headquarters and she was surprised to see Cowling standing there, as if he was waiting for her arrival.
Cowling said, “You know what? This might be exactly what we need right now and we’re doing a build on Wednesday and I’ll give it to Annette.”
It’s not as easy as you think
Verschuren loved the products. Within a month McTasney was presenting to the executives and the merchants—and a week later she signed the buyer’s agreement. Then things slowed down as she got organized as a Home Depot vendor. “There were so many requirements: insurance, incorporation...I needed to have my trademark paperwork done,” says McTasney. The Home Depot contract forced her to take Tomboy Trades to the next level.
The website build was her most costly business lesson: tight timelines and designer’s “over-committing” led to McTasney spending over $10,000 with three different designers. It also took her focus away from the rest of her business needs, although a loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada helps her with cash flow, but not actual purchases.
These delays also created the need for her next leap of faith: ordering the products without a purchase order. “It was so we could move everything along,” says McTasney. Despite the risk she knew she could “always get a regular job and pay it off.” But for the next order it wouldn’t be so easy, since the numbers would be much higher. It’s a moot point anyhow, as this was a risk worth taking: the Tomboy Trades product line is available online at Home Depot.
Why has the women’s work boot market been ignored until now?
It’s been considered too small. In Canada, the work boot industry generates $300 million in revenue a year and women’s products are only 15% of that. “So to Kodiak, Caterpillar, that’s insignificant. But to me, I don’t mind making $45 million,” she laughs. McTasney knows there’s competition coming, but she’s the first to market—which puts her in a key position for growth and expansion.
I leave it to McTasney to sum up her fabulous journey so far: “I don’t think I would have done anything differently. Even the mistakes: we kind of think that’s part of the journey. And there’s been lots of tears, don’t get me wrong, it’s been really scary. But you know when you’ve made the right choice.”
And she now has those pink work boots, probably a few pair actually.
Currently Tomboy Trades products are available online through www.homedepot.ca and products will soon be available in stores coming this fall. For more information, visit www.tomboytrades.com
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