Growing up on a farm in South Gippsland, Victoria, I was familiar with just how useful gumboots can be but couldn’t find a pair that bridged the gap between city and country life.

During this time, I was searching for more creativity and happiness from my work. I took a pretty crazy leap of faith and set out to create my own boots. Sketches in hand, I reached out to a friend for some technical help and the first Merry People boot was born. I wrote up a business plan and booked some flights to China to meet some potential suppliers. I was scared, nervous but also very excited with my idea!

I started selling very grass-roots, at weekend farmers markets which was hard work (having days with zero or only one or two sales was very deflating!) But the experience taught me so much and gave me the opportunity to meet our customers.

Merry People has slowly grown over the following years and I feel so grateful for it to be living my own dream adventure - creating a product I genuinely love that makes people happy!