Footwear entrepreneur to speak at Dhillon fundraiser
By Bobinec, Greg on February 4, 2020.
Greg Bobinec
Lethbridge Herald
The University of Lethbridge’s Dhillon School of Business Student Professional Development program is hosting an evening fundraiser event for its student Professional Development program, featuring keynote speaker Justin Kittredge, Founder and CEO of ISlide.
“It’s our 10th annual event that we run, the Leadership and Innovation Speaker Series-sponsored event, and it is a two-day event,” says Heather Harty, director of Student Professional Development, Dhillon School of Business. “Day one is Feb. 6 (Thursday), it is open to students, industry, faculty and everybody interested in business. Day two is in Markin Hall on the university campus, specifically for the students which really is the goal is to help them develop and enhance themselves professionally.”
Kittredge left his position of Head of Basketball at Reebok in Boston in 2013 to pursue his dream of starting his own company. Today, ISlide is the leading customized slide sandal company in the country and a multi-million-dollar business boasting licences with some of the largest sports clientele in the world, including the National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, NASCAR and over 50 premier college athletic programs.
“Thursday evening’s main keynote speaker is Justin Kittredge, he is the founder and CEO of ISlide, which is the biggest sandal footwear company in America,” says Harty. “He started working at Reebok, he worked his way up in the company and was the head of the basketball division and from there he saw an opportunity when Reebok had really high quality footwear and that there were competitors out there that had customizable footwear, but they were poor quality and so he saw an opportunity to become an entrepreneur and he pitched on “Shark Tank,” had an offer and decided to not take the offer and then proceed using his own vision and unique marketing strategy. He was giving the shoes to celebrities to wear them, in exchange for posts and hashtags. He did a lot of unique things in business and is a good example for students to learn from.”
The dinner takes place on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge. Tickets are $30 each and are available by visiting eventbright.ca, under Dhillon School of Business Dinner & Keynote.
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