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Tongue Tied: How Nicholas Prentiss Revolutionized Shoelaces with Bread

Nicholas Prentiss, former Division 1 athlete, founded Bread to address a simple problem: his Nike Blazers took too long to lace.

Bread was built with a deep-rooted belief that I am supposed to be in this position. I developed this belief at a very young age, and I hold it true to my heart because my life has been filled with change. I left my security job to "pursue something bigger than myself." At the time, I lacked a clear vision, but I knew something was there, a blurry candlelight in the distance, so I trotted the path of uncertainty.

I placed myself on an extremely stringent schedule; alone in my college apartment of 4. All 24 hours of the day was accounted for. I did not know that I was tilling the soil of my brain for creativity to sprout. I did not know just how quickly creativity would sprout. The "Bread Epiphany" with my Nike Blazers occurred and was documented on May 4th, 2022. I hopped on the opportunity to create as soon as I had the chance. I went all in. I started to find myself within the creation of Bread. Most working nights turned into day. I needed this. I did not tell anyone about what I was doing. I knew that spouts of ideas are fragile. They are easily damaged by the opinions of others, especially those closest to you. I planned on launching Bread by the first day of the new school year, 3 months. Of course, I had no idea how much work goes into creating a start-up. 75 pages, many sample testing (as many as I could afford), and a bulk order later, Bread was launched on September 22, 2022: First day of Autumn. I am grateful for what Bread has done for those we've served. Who knew an elastic shoelace could go so far.

In the first few months owning Bread, I worked out of my college apartment. I stored laces, marketed and fulfilled packages out of my room. If you go back in our TikTok videos (@breadlace), you’ll see how we recorded the large majority of our TikTok's in my room. As Bread continued to grow, I moved into a house, and we started working out of the garage. We stored boxes and fulfilled orders from the garage. As we continued to expand, we landed ourselves in a warehouse. The same place we work today. 

Bread elastic shoelaces provide comfort, style, and convenience. Comfort with how soft the laces are, and how they conform to the foot of the user. Style based on the laces being identical to traditional laces. Convenience based on the use of them being able to be used to slide on shoes without unlacing the shoe. Our hook is people seeing how easy shoes are able to be slid on, especially high tops, without diminishing the look of the shoe.

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