This spring, Towson University’s StarTUp Accelerator Program welcomed 16 new ventures, including jbrds, a Baltimore-based company aiming to be the first to bring shoes designed with infant and young kids’ unique foot shape in mind to the market.
The award-winning Towson program—which has included startups such as Celcy, a countertop robot providing on-demand food accessible through a smartphone, and FemEquity, a real-time HR tech approach to pay and professional gaps—began in 2020, and 2024 marks its sixth cohort.
It targets both Towson University -affiliated and non-affiliated companies that have begun taking their products to market.
That journey began for jbrds after the birth of co-founder and CEO Mike Gugat’s son.
Having experience in the athletic shoe industry, Gugat observed a gap in the market: despite their different foot shape and unique needs, babies had no shoes made especailly for them.
Read More: Child Devlopment Milestones: A Guide
Gugat teamed up with podiatrist Jay LeBow and entrepreneur David Hirshfeld—both of whom had worked with him in the athletic shoe industry—to create their product.
By 2022, jbrds was born, producing footwear designed from the mold of an infant’s foot that would ensure proper foot development from birth to age 8.
That’s because it’s shaped for the flat, narrow heel of an infant, as opposed to traditional baby footwear that is often miniaturized adult footwear. Supporting the sides of baby feet ensures the development of bones and tendons, and suede soles offer a firm grip and give.
Noted in a 2023 study published in the National Library of Medicine, because children’s feet go through so many developments from 12 to 30 months, one recommendation was for children to go barefoot rather than wear ill-fitting shoes that could cause abnormal foot shapes.
But the jbrds founders hope to change that necessity with a shoe that would allow children’s feet to develop naturally.
“We aim to help kids progress through standing, balancing, walking and then finally running,” Gugat says, with a goal for Jbrds to create the first running shoe
for children.
“It is heartwarming to see how jbrds is helping families connect over footwear,” Gugat says of their success so far.
Now, the team is hoping their success will grow with Towson’s StarTUp. Gugat says the way the eight-week program has founders of different companies work together is what pushed them to apply.
“The best part about the StarTUp Accelerator Program is its organized cohort-oriented structure, and how the companies are either student-led or student-founded,” Gugat says.
“Amidst diverse companies such as medical device companies and non-alcoholic beverage companies, there is also a sports analytics [company] led by a former Super Bowl champion,” he says of this year’s cohort.” The university environment spurs a lot of interest and intrigue. It is beautiful to see how it unites diverse people with the same purpose.”
