Some people think big. Others, like the popular “pink boot lady,” just think bigger.

And manage to get there faster.

Featured last summer in the Star’s Thinking Big series on small business, Marissa McTasney, the founder of women’s work-wear line Tomboy Trades Ltd., has found hers growing by leaps and bounds since her story hit these pages.

Of course when you have the gumption and a great idea that involves fashion friendly gear for the female “fix-it” set in pale pink and baby blue, you already have a foot in the door, so to speak.

Since she opened for business in March, the Brooklin, Ont. mom quickly became one of the best sellers of women’s apparel online at Home Depot Canada. Over the last few weeks she stepped things up with her successful launch in 10 Zellers stores in the GTA.

Turns out Zellers customers love her chick-friendly boots, tool belts, hard hats, tinted safety glasses and T-shirts so much that the retailer is launching the line in all 281 of their stores across Canada by Mother’s Day in May.

In particular, the pink tool belts and construction-ready work boots “are flying off the shelves,” she says.

Naturally other major retailers including Wal-Mart have also expressed an interest.

“The response has just been amazing since the story ran in the Star. Nothing compares to that exposure. I’ve heard from people in Ireland and the U.S. I have people coming up to me and shaking my hand,” she marvels.

Zellers got on board when an employee at its store at Shoppers World in Brampton saw her story in the paper last August and contacted the store manager.

McTasney got a call from him the next day and mistakenly thought they wanted her for a public speaking gig on starting a business, which she’s been called on to do quite often this year – most notably last month at the prestigious Canadian Club.

“He said ‘No, I want your stuff’,” she recalls.

Without skipping a beat, McTasney made a presentation at a Zellers regional managers’ meeting, but even before they inked a deal, “I gambled and ordered the leather (for the belts and boots) in advance.”

Her instincts and hard work paid off. She had to fully stock the stores in 10 weeks, but she did it, including providing the packaging and promotional materials and signage with the distinctive Tomboy Trades logo – which resembles the Charlie’s Angels logo, only with two women wielding a saw and a hammer.

“She worked miracles to get it in the first store but she did it,” notes Lori Ronald, Zellers’ general merchandise manager for ladies’ wear at the Brampton head office.

“We thought it was an innovative line and obviously it was home-grown. It was very well accepted,” she says, adding she owns a pink tool belt herself and got one for a friend’s 12-year-old daughter too (they’re adjustable.)

“We really feel that this is a great line for the ‘do-it-yourselfer’ woman. It just shows what hard work and determination will do for a person,” adds Ronald.

Statistics show that one in four Canadians planned to remodel or renovate their house this year, and women now make up more than half of those fixing them up.

Since the business exploded, McTasney had to get warehouse space to store her product. She found a 20,000-square foot space in Markham, and instead of working out of her home north of Whitby, she now officially hangs her shingle outside an office near her warehouse.

And thanks to some key investors, the 32-year-old finally makes a regular salary from the business, which means, among other things, “I don’t have to buy groceries on my credit card anymore.”

Of course she inherited a couple nicknames along the way, from “pink boot lady” to “pinky boots.”

McTasney and her husband also just returned from an eight-day tour of the factories in China where they make her product line. She’s especially thankful to the manufacturers in Tianjin, where they make the work boots and tool belts, and in Qingdao, where they make her cute T-shirts.

“It was fascinating to see it all. I’ve been so naive and inexperienced and they really stuck with me from the start,” she notes.

Besides pastel pink and blue, the line comes in darker shades like forest green and dark red. The gear ranges in price from $19.99 for a hard hat to $99.99 for work boots, all of which meet required safety standards.

Next on the list is a planned expansion into the U.S., re-branding to include tools – to go into those handy tool belts of course – and a kids line by next Christmas.

“I didn’t really believe all this could happen. I’ve never worked harder but it’s been worth it.”

Credit: Toronto Star; Lisa Wright

In high school I excelled in fine arts and having fun,” shares Marissa
McTasney. First she tried the Ontario College of Art and Design and when
that didn’t work out, she pursued the fun angle and backpacked in Australia. Eventually she came back to Canada, got married and worked in sales at IBM. After the birth of her second child, Marissa started to question what she wanted to become. She’d just written and illustrated a book for her children, encouraging them to find their passion and follow their dreams – then realized she was doing neither. So after seven
years in the corporate world, Marissa traded in her high heels for construction boots.  “I was always handy but spent my
time ‘winging it.’” When she saw a course for women in the skilled trades, Marissa signed up, then commuted every day for five months from Whitby to Burlington. On the first day of school she received a voucher for a pair of work
boots. The women had to buy men’s boots – the only kind available. And so Marissa’s hunt for pink construction
boots began, first on a whim and then in earnest, as she realized she was on to something.  I first met Marissa when we presented her with the Company of Women scholarship as part of our support of the Women in Skilled Trades program.
Unlike the other students who were embarking on a career in the skilled trades, Marissa had a kernel of an idea –
Tomboy Trades – a line of work boots, hard hats and tool belts, all designed for women. Marissa, now 32, and her
husband Taz, believed so much in the business that they re-mortgaged their house to finance the start-up.
Fast forward not even a year, and Marissa’s products are available online through Home Depot. In December,
she is launching with Zellers in 15 stores. As we exchanged emails for this article, Marissa was in China talking to
manufacturers about expanding her product line.  I have a sense that one day soon I will be saying with pride that “I knew her when…” And the icing on the cake – Marissa plans to offer her own scholarship in the future. Now that’s
paying it forward.

Writer: Anne Day
Company of Women

It’s a good thing for skilled tradeswomen that Marissa McTasney wears pink nail polish but doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty.

She also knows the business end of a circular saw and doesn’t want to look like one of the boys when she uses it, thank you very much.

That determination and one “eureka” moment in a Burlington boot shop are what drove the 32-year-old mom to dramatically change her life last spring by starting her own line of – dare we say it – totally cute work wear for women in girlish hues from pale pink to baby blue.

Based in the house she renovated and lives in with her young family just north of Whitby, Tomboy Trades Ltd. offers everything from boots and tool belts to hard hats and tinted safety glasses in female-friendly sizes, colours and styles.

But make no mistake they may be pretty but these steel-toed boots are made for workin’.

“I can use a drill but I’m also a mom with two kids. And I wear pink nail polish,” McTasney says.

“It’s not just about wearing pink boots. It’s about not trying to look like a man to fit in on a work site. It’s about saying, ‘We are here!’ And it’s about style, comfort and personal taste,” explains the energized entrepreneur.

McTasney is here alright. Since the launch last March, her clothing business has quickly become one of the most popular work apparel lines offered online by Home Depot Canada. Jumping on board was a no-brainer for the retail giant with an increasing number of women entering the skilled trades and the recent explosion in the home improvement industry.

“We have a lot of women customers. They’re not just shoppers, they’re also the decision-makers,” said Home Depot spokesperson Tiziana Baccega.

Roughly 60 per cent of visits to homedepot.ca are from women and Tomboy Trades is the first line of work apparel Home Depot Canada has offered that is designed specially for women.

Statistics show that one in four Canadians plan to remodel or renovate their house this year, and women now make up more than half of the “do-it-yourselfers” – or “herselfers” as the case may be – out there.

McTasney figured that with more women becoming homeowners they would naturally be a growing segment of the overall home reno market. Notice how home improvement manufacturers have shifted much of their advertising to women, with ads and marketing specifically targeting them. “I don’t think women should have to blend in and pretend. We’re different. We’re colourful,” she reasons.

Most new entrepreneurs aren’t lucky enough to have their product catch the eye of Home Depot Canada president Annette Verschuren. McTasney actually got face time with her to pitch her idea and followed up by cleverly delivering the boots in Verschuren’s size to her office in a galvanized tub with flowers and cupcakes.

“You can’t really ignore something when it contains items that will go bad,” she smiles.

As it turns out Verschuren was totally smitten with the pink boots and took a chance on the first-time vendor to help develop her product line and get it to market.

“She saw them and absolutely loved them,” recalls Baccega. “Marissa got the right person at the right time,” she adds.

An uber fix-it machine in her own right – “my husband buys me tools for Christmas,” she says – McTasney decided she didn’t want to return to her software job at IBM after daughter Francesca was born just over two years ago. She also has a 4-year-old son Carter and understandably wanted work with more flexible hours.

So she decided to pursue her passion for home renovations by taking a course early last year at the Centre for Skills Development and Training in Burlington. Sponsored by the Ontario Women’s Directorate, it trains women interested in the skilled trades sector in areas such as welding, mechanical, carpentry, landscaping, construction and metal-working – fields traditionally dominated by men.

“On Day One, they gave us a coupon to get a pair of work boots. We went to this store in Burlington but all they had were men’s work boots in brown or black. They could have found something to fit, it just wasn’t my style,” McTasney says.

She searched everywhere in GTA stores and on the Internet for retailers or shoemakers who made pink work boots, which she pictured as more her style, but couldn’t find anything. Persistence paid off and she eventually found a reputable manufacturer in China to make them for her and ship them to her home.

“I started wearing them and got amazing feedback,” she says, noting she saw a woman recently step off the GO Train in a pair of her pink Tomboy boots and who clearly was wearing them for fashion rather than functionality.

Starting a new business was a very big step, so to speak, but with the encouragement of her husband David she got cracking on a business plan to develop the line, consulted focus groups and received a loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada.

To come up with the company name she assembled a round table of 15 women in various professions and trades, including her sister and her mom, who have helped her numerous times to make cupcakes and put together media kits.

“I wanted the name to be very plain and I wanted it to appeal to women. I wanted it to be sexy and commercial. I wanted it to say, ‘I’m bold, I can use a circular saw’,” says McTasney.

It’s fitting too that the bright pink Tomboy Trades logo, featuring two glamorous-looking ladies wielding a saw and a hammer, puts you in mind of the Charlie’s Angels logo.

“I feel like I can relate to the Drew Barrymore character in the movie, when she kicks butt and then moonwalks out the door. That’s me,” she laughs.

The matching boots, tool belts and T-shirts are made in China while the hard hats and safety glasses are made in Canada and the U.S. Pink is still the hottest seller by far but she also has forest green and dark red for women who still want a cute boot but aren’t into bright pastels. The gear ranges in price from $19.99 for a hard hat to $99.99 for work boots, all of which meet required safety standards.

She’s had so much positive feedback that next month she is introducing a men’s line called Tough Trades offering tan and black colours for both sexes. McTasney also plans to expand into the U.S. market along with Britain and Australia and possibly develop a line for kids who also like to have fun building birdhouses and dollhouses.

Though McTasney has worked hard and had a few lucky breaks, she says a new business is not to be entered into lightly. “I’ve always had a pain in my belly” to do something entrepreneurial, she said.

“But you have to be passionate about it because it’s not easy. You have to really believe in it.

“If it weren’t for all the great response I’ve had from women though I don’t think I would have ever done it.”

Credit: Toronto Star; Lisa Wright

They say it takes a woman to do a man’s job, so why not look like one the next time you take a sledgehammer to the kitchen wall? tomboy Trades offers a full line of made-for-women work clothes and tools, including toolbelts, hard hats and these pink construction boots.  Pamela Anders, Home Improvement’s Tool Time Girl, would have loved them. 

How can women get a foot in the refinished cherry door of professional carpentry and other skilled trades (or DIY, for that matter) if they don’t have the right shoe? Problem solved. Ladies, Marissa McTasney has something for you in a red steel-toe boot. And a pink hard hat. Men, you too, if your tastes run that way. If not, we’re thinking: Gift idea.

Statistics show that more women are living alone and those who aren’t are learning that if you want a reno job done right, do it yourself. That way you don’t have to wait until your partner comes home from the golf course and wants a nap.

Another statistic. According to the Department of Labour in the United States, for every four people who leave skilled trades, only one new person enters an apprenticeship.

We have felt the shortage of skilled tradespeople in Ontario, even though salaries are good and hours flexible.

Women in low-paying jobs, are you listening? McTasney was planning to go back to her software job after daughter Francesca (Frankie) was born two years ago.

“But software wasn’t my passion,” says McTasney, who lives near Whitby. “I’ve always been handy but not properly trained. And with two kids (son Carter is four), I wanted something with a flexible schedule.”

She took a course at the Centre for Skills Development and Training in Burlington that is sponsored by the Ontario Women’s Directorate. New students are given coupons to buy workboots, but when McTasney went shopping, all she could find were black or brown boots.

McTasney learned a lot in the course, and the trip to the workboot store gave her a life-changing idea. Several weeks ago, the pink steel-toed workboots of her company, Tomboy Trades, were available online from the Home Depot.

But Tomboy Trades isn’t just pink boots. It also sells tool belts, T-shirts, hard hats and safety glasses in pink, red, blue and green … and does renovations.

If sales are good — and signs are already encouraging — her products will be available in Home Depot stores in a few months. She would like to branch out into tools designed to fit women’s hands.

McTasney owes a measure of her success to her daughter. She wrote a book of advice for her, With Love (Trafford Publishing, $14.99) in which she urges Francesca to follow her passion. Then she realized she should heed her own advice.

She consulted focus groups, received a loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada, and she and her husband David remortgaged their home twice.

Boots, tool belts and T-shirts are made in China, and hard hats and safety glasses are made in Canada and the U.S. She sleeps with an instant messaging unit and gets by on four hours of sleep a night.

Her pitch to the Home Depot almost didn’t happen. She had the pink boots in a galvanized tub with flowers and cupcakes for Annette Verschuren, president of the Canadian operation. “But she could not be located. I was just about to leave when I bumped into someone I know who works there, and he promised me he would get the package to her.”

A meeting was held the next morning, and McTasney e-mailed her friend to find out what happened.

“My friend said to me, ‘Not only do they fit, she’s wearing them right now in a meeting with the president of the Home Depot worldwide, and he’s ordered a pair for his wife.'”

McTasney developed her product line while doing renovations, the real business of Tomboy Trades and what she prefers to do.

“While all this was going on I retiled my splashpad.”

McTasney also developed a registry of Canadian women tradespeople on her website, tomboytrades.com.

Tomboy Trades’ boots are $100. All other items are $25 or less.

And the Burlington course is so successful that last month the Ontario Women’s Directorate added five new trades programs for women.

jmahoney@thespec.com

Marissa McTasney met her English husband, Taz (a.k.a. David), while backpacking in Australia. They scuba-dived in Thailand and Bali and got married in Mexico. They teach scuba and she has written a book. Now she sells pink workboots, does renovations and inspires women to get busy in the trades.

Credit: The Hamilton Spectator