Courtesy / Munjoi Inc.
The Munjoi All-Dai, which comes in three colors and a range of men's and women's sizes, converts from a sandal slide ...
Updated: November 16, 2020
Mass. startup with patent-pending shoe takes name, inspiration from Maine roots
Courtesy / Patrick Hogan
Patrick Hogan, who spent over a decade designing athletic shoes in Boston for New Balance and Saucony, is drawing on his time in Maine to launch a casual shoe of his own.
By William Hall
Shoe designer and entrepreneur Patrick Hogan currently lives in Massachusetts but has spent a lot of time walking around southern Maine, in places like Biddeford, Kennebunkport and Portland.
In fact, Hogan was inspired to quit his corporate gig while weekending in Portland and taking a walk on the city's Munjoy Hill. He immediately texted a colleague at sports footwear giant New Balance Inc. in Boston: I’m not coming back to work.
“I’d always read entrepreneurial magazines, and always knew I wanted to do my own thing, but you realize as you grow older that time is passing,” Hogan, 43, said in an interview explaining the September 2019 start of his company, Munjoi Inc. “I realized that this was the time.”
The business name is a nod to The Hill, although he changed the “y” to an “i” when he discovered the domain name “Munjoy” was taken. The company’s shoe, dubbed the “All-Dai,” uses similar spelling.
After three years of product development, what Hogan calls “tinkering” and $60,000 of self-funding, Hogan and his company began taking pre-orders for the All-Dai on Oct. 27.
The shoe is aimed at people who enjoy summer walks like the one Hogan took in 2017 but find themselves needing more than a single type of shoe by the end of the journey. The All-Dai uses a patent-pending design, with a double-duty vamp and insole, to convert from a traditional light sneaker to an open-toe sneaker to a backless mule to a sandal slide.
Hogan had been thinking about the four-in-one design for a while, but it really took shape on a Maine beach, soon after he decided to change his career path.
“I was wearing sandals to the beach and then I'd have to stop home or pack a pair of sneakers with me to change into afterwards depending on my plans for that day,” he said.
“I was on the beach in Biddeford Pool every day for about two weeks straight, with a pen and little drawing pad and some business books in hand. This is when I began concepting out the big idea.”
Courtesy / Munjoi Inc.
... to a light sneaker. With a patent-pending design, the shoe can also be worn as an open-toe sneaker or a backless mule.
Part of the idea is Hogan’s goal of making the All-Dai environmentally sustainable. Nearly the entire shoe is made of plant-based materials: Cotton and hemp are used to make the upper, and the foam bottom comes from derivatives of sugar cane and algae.
Sustainable materials are becoming common in the shoe industry, although Hogan said his shoe uses more of them than most manufacturers. A bigger environmental benefit may be the shoe’s versatility. Hogan hopes the All-Day’s multiple uses will lead to fewer pieces of footwear being made. Nearly 70 million pairs of shoes are produced each day worldwide, he said.
“The less footwear made, the less pollution … They have to go somewhere and they can’t all be recycled. The best way to tackle the problem is to make less of them.”
Although Hogan had designed running shoes that had sold by the millions during his seven years at New Balance and a previous six at competitor Saucony, the All-Dai means something personal, he said.
“This is my first product with my name behind it, so I don’t want to do anything harmful to the environment. I want to make the best choices possible,” he said.
Sales targets are considerably smaller than the ones Hogan saw in his previous roles. In 2021, he hopes to sell 50,000 pairs at $98 apiece, mostly through e-commerce. But he said he’s already received interest from potential retail partners “around the world.”
Hogan wouldn’t disclose how sales are going so far, but said Munjoi has just placed its initial order for 5,000 pairs from SEMS Group, a supplier in Putian, China. COVID-19 got in the way — he had to cancel a trip to China on the eve of the pandemic — but Hogan says the shoes will begin shipping to customers in February.
Ultimately, he hopes to source his product from the U.S., and is considering Maine as a potential site for operations or warehousing. In fact, Hogan said he’s already looking at sites in Biddeford to help manage inventory.
His ties to the area long predate his sketching on the beach. Hogan’s father attended the University of New England — then St. Francis College — in Biddeford. The family regularly vacationed and eventually bought a summer home in Biddeford Pool.
Hogan, who was born in Binghamton, N.Y., attended Rochester Institute of Technology and now lives in Newburyport, Mass., with his girlfriend, still visits Maine frequently.
“Maine is my favorite spot in the world,” he said. “I do plan on moving up that way in the near future.”
And the field Hogan’s father studied in Biddeford? Ironically, podiatry.
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