Welcome to the Shoe Board

Hey there,

This is Colton with Leslie's Laces. I just wanted to personally thank you for signing up and for trusting us with something so personal. We are excited to help. If you've been following along with the videos I've posted then you already know this project completely took on a life of its own.

I just released a new song called "All Grown Up" on my birthday less than a month ago on 6/24 (which actually features a voice memo clip of my mom) and had set aside $1500 to pay for visuals, marketing efforts, and ads on Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok. It made me sick to think about throwing that money at ads and it disappearing in a week though. That was real money and what I was getting out of it didn't seem real. Best case scenario, I get a few more clicks/likes/comments and then end up right back where I started but with less money. It just seemed like a waste. I kept thinking there has to be a better way and use for that money, but how could I tie it to my release so that it could still do the job it was intended to do?

That's when Leslie's Laces was born. I pitched the idea to a few folks who said they would be on board to help, bounced ideas with family and friends, applied with the Secretary of State in Texas and all of a sudden I had a non-profit formed. My idea was simple, I would donate $1 per stream of my new song "All Grown Up" to Leslie's Laces (up to $1500 of my marketing budget) and if it maxed out, be able to get 25 kids in my hometown a brand new pair of shoes at $60 a piece. It seemed like a win for everyone, my new song would reach new ears and the money would be put toward something that mattered and made a difference instead of disappearing.

What I didn't account for was how the internet works. I posted a video on TikTok before a 6.5hr drive last week, asking folks to please spread the word because we only had a handful of people that had signed up and the board was about to go live soon. At that point we had something like 14 requests and way more people trying to cover shoes than we had requests. After posting I didn't check it again because I was driving, and went to sleep when I got to my destination. The next morning I woke up to a site that had crashed due to an influx of 4,000 new requests that were coming in at about 5 per second. Over the next few days we received over 25,000 requests and counting. It is still going up.

If you've read my mom Leslie's story or watched the video I made about her, you know that she was not a quitter. You know that she looked at adversity and said "try me." At almost 30k requests, I've had multiple moments where I have felt way in over my head but I can't help but feel this is my moment to step up to the plate and say "give me what you got." I am not a huge corporation like Nike, I am not Mr. Beast. I'm a kid that grew up on reduced lunches that is now a regular dude trying to ease the load of folks like him. Please be patient with me as I'm learning as I'm going, but I promise you I'm doing everything I can and giving my absolute best effort for you. We are going to do our best to put shoes on every request. This is grassroots and it is going to take the village to take care of the village. But I believe we can get it done.

In the meantime, here is your family ID number:

This will be how we identify you, as your name and info will never be public. You can use this to search your family requests by entering it into the Shoe Board when live. Also feel free to give your request number to individuals that would like to cover specifically for you, and they can enter your ID on the Shoe Board and cover any of your pairs.

Please save this number somewhere. If your address, phone number, email, or any of the shoe sizes on your request change before your request is covered, just reply to the text or email that brought you here and let us know so we can get it updated before somebody orders the wrong thing or sends it to the wrong place.

There is no deadline on your request and it will stay on the Shoe Board until it is covered. I can't promise how quickly that will happen, because it depends on how fast the community finds and covers each request, but we are not deleting requests just because they aren't covered immediately.

For this to work it is going to take all of us. Every single person that has submitted a request knows at least one person in real life that is willing to cover at least one pair. If every person that has submitted a request shares the link to Leslie's Laces and explains our mission with all of their social media folks, their friends and families, churches, banks, and local businesses, then we really can cross every name off this list. There are people out there willing and WANTING to help, but they can't if they don't know the Shoe Board even exists. You have to share it. It's up to all of us. Every time the link is loaded the Shoe Board randomizes the order so that EVERY request has a chance at the top and a chance to be crossed off. There are requests from all 50 states and US territories. I am one guy in Texas. Leslie's Laces can't physically purchase 30k pairs of shoes, and I can't reach any local businesses to help the 800 kids in small Pennsylvania towns. But if someone in Pennsylvania searches their hometown and sees 10 requests in their area, they can take those 10 to any local business and ask if they'd like to sponsor them. That is how this Shoe Board will survive and how everyone gets help and a chance to help. It is going to take the village taking care of the village. Nobody is coming to save us, but we can save each other!

Please make sure we can reach you here: not checking the box leaves us with no way to get into contact due to texting consent/permission laws.

Also, here is the link to share: www.leslieslaces.org

If you are not sure what to say, something like this works: "My family has a request on Leslie's Laces. They are getting brand new school shoes to kids all over the country, and anybody can cover a pair. Please share this."

I will reach out again soon when the board goes live. I am almost finished rebuilding the database and then we can get started crossing requests off the list.

I hope you are excited.

-Colton LaneLeslie's Laces