Sole men: for these shoe designing twins, the climb to success has been a step-by-step affair

Men's Fitness, April, 2008 by Cora Daniels

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Shane and Shawn Ward, 34-year-old identical twins, teamed up in 2003 to launch Detny, a shoe company that gets its name from Detroit, their hometown, and New York, where the company is based. Shane, a former designer for Adidas, handles the creative side, while Shawn, a former engineer with DaimlerChrysler, handles the numbers. The company's stylish men's and women's shoes earned close to $3.2 million in revenues last year. MF caught up with the pair recently for some insight on business and fitness.

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YOU BOTH HAD SUCCESSFUL CAREERS AT MAJOR COMPANIES. WHY GO OUT ON YOUR OWN?

Shawn. We were bitten by the entrepreneurship bug. I left my corporate job as an engineer first to move to New York and do day trading on the stock market. It made me a lot of money but didn't fulfill all my passions. At the same time, my brother was experiencing rumblings of wanting to do something more in his field.

Shane: I'd see my shoes on people's feet and there was no ownership in my creations because there was someone else's logo on the side. At one point, I went on a business trip with my boss and a bunch of designers. We were sitting in the airport and started talking about Mike Tyson. Just playing around, someone took a poll asking who would fight Mike Tyson for $1 million. Everyone in the group said yes. But my boss said no. It made me think--he said no because he was an entrepreneur. He had the money. I knew that was the position I wanted to be in. I wanted to own my own business so I could run things.

YOU MAKE IT SOUND EASY.

Shane: With your own business, you wear 100 different hats and work 24 hours. You literally have to find the time to sleep and socialize to keep yourself sane. Honestly, it isn't easy giving up a paycheck every two weeks. But it's much more gratifying owning your own business. The reality though is that you make way less money in the beginning than working for someone else. The competition is extremely hard breaking in. You are the David against Goliath.

Shawn. The toughest thing is getting started. I cashed out my 401(k) and mortgaged my house, and we asked everyone we knew for money. We drew up contracts that we would give our friends and family promising to pay the money back in a set amount of time. In the beginning, the company was kept afloat by the support of friends, fraternity brothers, and family. We are still "David," but now we've hit the million-dollar mark [in sales] after only three years in business.

WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE SHOES YOU DESIGN?

Shane. My brother and I are former athletes. We played college football [as walk-ons at the University of Michigan]. Today, I woke up early to lift and do cardio before work. We snowboard in the winter and kiteboard in the summer. Our brand is intended for men and women with active lifestyles. When we book a hotel for business, the only thing we make sure of is that it has an adequate fitness center because we have to be able to break a sweat when we travel. Fitness is part of our lives. I wanted to design a dress shoe that felt like a sneaker. Something that you could put on after working out at the gym that your feet felt just as comfortable in. That was our goal.

Shawn. As an entrepreneur, you have to think big. That doesn't mean you have to have a brand-new idea. Fashion and comfort is not a new idea, but we knew we could do it better. That's thinking big.

EDITED BY CORA DANIELS