Shortly after giving birth to her first child in 2018, Mao Ting’s world collapsed. She was only 28 years old.
It began with a spinal injury one month after giving birth, which caused her back muscles to freeze. Mao believes it may have been triggered by the physical strain of caring for her newborn while her body was still recovering from childbirth.
She saw a doctor and gradually felt better. After a few weeks, she took two private pilates classes after explaining her condition to the instructor.
But after the classes, her condition worsened. Her muscles began to spasm and Mao could not even stand without pain.
In the two years after giving birth, the Singaporean saw more than 20 doctors, physiotherapists, orthopaedic doctors and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. No one could help.
Frozen with pain, Mao could not sit down. She lay on a baby mat to play with her baby daughter and ate her meals standing up.
She could not walk for long. Even pouring water from a jug caused her pain. Once, when putting on her pants, her body froze. She was unable to turn and had to be sent to hospital in an emergency ambulance.
“I felt like I lost my life in a way. I cried every night for more than a year,” the 36-year-old recalled.
A behind-the-scenes look at Sunnystep’s shoe construction. Each shoe is engineered to be lightweight, comfortable and provide arch support. (Photo: Sunnystep)
It was when she was least mobile that she designed a pair of shoes to support her recovery. These shoes grew into a company, which she named Sunnystep – “an uplifting name created during the darkest period of my life”, she said.
Today, the homegrown brand has 12 outlets in Singapore, three in Malaysia and two in Indonesia.
How did she even conceive of creating a shoe brand while struggling with excruciating pain and reduced mobility?
“After I got injured, I couldn’t move my body,” Mao said. “I was lying down most of the time. All I had was my mind. I had a lot of time to think and reflect on what I wanted to do and why. Thinking gave me something meaningful to focus on while going through recovery.”
Mao found her thoughts wandering to shoes. While researching musculoskeletal issues, the topic of what kind of shoes to wear for injuries frequently came up.
“I used to have a very comfortable pair of sneakers. But after my injury, it felt very heavy and was not comfortable anymore,” Mao recalled, explaining that the weight caused additional strain during her injury.
The Balance Runner, S$135, was borne out of Mao’s spinal injury, and designed to reduce the impact of walking, running and standing. (Photo: Sunnystep)
One of Mao’s favourite designs, the Balance Flex Ballerina, S$125, is built with arch support and cushioning. (Photo: Sunnystep)
What she needed were lightweight, stable and supportive shoes. But none of the 20 to 30 pairs in her closet fit the bill.
She began searching for more suitable shoes. She tried running shoes that were bulky and had a forward propulsion not suited for everyday walking, and orthotic shoes that were equally bulky, heavy and did not appeal to her tastes, she said. Flip flops were not even secured to the feet, and out of the question, she added.
Prior to her injury, the former data scientist had left her job in 2017 and
“Because it wasn’t a big factory, they didn’t have a minimum order. They were willing to experiment with me. I just had to pay for the samples,” Mao told CNA Women.
Over long WeChat conversations, and six months of sampling, Mao finally created a pair that eased her pain – a minimalist white shoe without laces or embellishments.
The shoes provided Mao with good support when she was walking, especially at the foot arch, and were lightweight enough to avoid additional strain on her back. Although she still could not sit down or walk for long at that point, they made it much easier for her to move around.
In May 2019, she ordered 20 to 30 samples for family and friends. An aunt’s friend saw it and requested to buy a pair. A week later, she ordered eight more – one for everyone in her family.
“That is literally how it started,” laughed Mao.
This vote of confidence from a stranger gave Mao the confidence to run her first pop-up atrium bazaar in Square 2 in July 2019. She only had two designs then and ordered a few hundred pairs in total.
The Sunnystep store in Mid Valley Megamall Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – the brand opened its first shop at Square 2 in Novena, and now has 17 outlets in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Photo: Sunnystep)
Mao, who still couldn’t sit, made the trip to the mall lying flat on the fully reclined front seat of her dad’s car. He helped her set up at a small corner table. And because she could not stand for long, she left the booth to a student part-timer.
On the first day, Sunnystep sold one pair of shoes. By the third day, they sold eight. By the end of the bazaar about a week later,
Mao ran a few more pop-ups across Singapore, and before the end of 2019, opened her first store at Square 2. About a month later, the pandemic hit.
Retail outlets closed during the circuit breaker, but as the nation worked from home, comfort dressing began trending. When Sunnystep re-opened, the demand for its shoes grew.
Customers said they loved its support and lightweight design that enabled them to walk longer, stand longer, and finish the day with less fatigue, Mao said. They also appreciated that it did not come with the “orthopaedic” look of some more supportive shoes, she added.
As orders grew, the brand shifted their stocks from Mao’s family backyard to a locker room, and finally into a warehouse.
At the same time, Mao also made great strides in her recovery journey. In 2021, she worked with a physiotherapist who suffered from slipped disc herself but was running marathons. Hearing about her physiotherapist’s recovery journey gave Mao hope and inspired her to push forward with her plans to have her second child.
When she was pregnant, the surge in pregnancy hormones helped to ease her back pain, said Mao. She started to take pilates classes with a specialty pregnancy pilates instructor, which helped her regain her mobility and strength.
Gradually, she grew her comfort shoe brand and expanded her business from Singapore to Malaysia and Indonesia.
For Mao, Sunnystep was never just about shoes. It was a deeply personal journey to reclaim her mobility and life.
“Shoes are not just a fashion item. All the joints in your body are connected. If you wear shoes without the right support, the stress on your feet can move up your body to your knees, spine and neck.
“Shoes play a foundational role in supporting your joints, your whole body and your health,” she said.
Sunnystep launched its kids’ range in March. (Photo: Sunnystep)
The kids’ range is designed to offer arch support, stability, shock-absorption cushioning, and a wide toe box for more comfort. (Photo: Sunnystep)
Sunnystep has its own in-house researcher based in Europe who reviews clinical studies and consults professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Boston Children's Hospital, as well as podiatrists to understand how shoe design can minimise stress on the feet and body, said Mao.
Shoes should fit your foot shape, and not the other way round, she stressed.
“Our toes are naturally spread out. You can see this in babies’ toes. But many modern shoes have narrow toe boxes that can gradually alter our foot shape over time,” she said.
“This is especially true for high heels where most of the body weight is placed on the front of the feet. If you wear them every day, your feet may become distorted,” Mao added.
Sunnystep shoes feature a wider toe box for toes to spread and wriggle, and reduce the stress of walking, she said. The shoes also offer arch support, which can help to stabilise and support the foot, especially for people with flat feet, she added.
Despite her spinal injury after her first pregnancy, Mao went on to have two more children, now aged eight, five and three. She is photographed pregnant with her third child. (Photo: Sunnystep)
Mao continually experiments to find the sweet spot between lightweight, durable, supportive, anti-slip, blister-free and beautiful shoe designs.
“I am not just looking for comfort when I try on the shoe. I want my shoes to feel comfortable even after you have walked a whole day in them,” she said.
This incredible entrepreneurship journey also helped to give meaning and purpose to Mao during a very dark period of her life when she was in a negative spiral.
Now stronger and more aware of how to care for her body, Mao is finally able to mother the way she hopes to. She loves taking solo bonding trips with each of her daughters.
The injury has also given the entrepreneur a newfound appreciation for life.
“I realised that life is very short. You never know what will happen the next day. The fact I can move my body is a privilege. I don't want to waste my life, because I don't know what will happen tomorrow,” she said.
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
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It began with a spinal injury one month after giving birth, which caused her back muscles to freeze. Mao believes it may have been triggered by the physical strain of caring for her newborn while her body was still recovering from childbirth.
She saw a doctor and gradually felt better. After a few weeks, she took two private pilates classes after explaining her condition to the instructor.
But after the classes, her condition worsened. Her muscles began to spasm and Mao could not even stand without pain.
In the two years after giving birth, the Singaporean saw more than 20 doctors, physiotherapists, orthopaedic doctors and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. No one could help.
Frozen with pain, Mao could not sit down. She lay on a baby mat to play with her baby daughter and ate her meals standing up.
She could not walk for long. Even pouring water from a jug caused her pain. Once, when putting on her pants, her body froze. She was unable to turn and had to be sent to hospital in an emergency ambulance.
“I felt like I lost my life in a way. I cried every night for more than a year,” the 36-year-old recalled.
A behind-the-scenes look at Sunnystep’s shoe construction. Each shoe is engineered to be lightweight, comfortable and provide arch support. (Photo: Sunnystep)
It was when she was least mobile that she designed a pair of shoes to support her recovery. These shoes grew into a company, which she named Sunnystep – “an uplifting name created during the darkest period of my life”, she said.
Today, the homegrown brand has 12 outlets in Singapore, three in Malaysia and two in Indonesia.
IF THE SHOE DOESN’T FIT
How did she even conceive of creating a shoe brand while struggling with excruciating pain and reduced mobility?
“After I got injured, I couldn’t move my body,” Mao said. “I was lying down most of the time. All I had was my mind. I had a lot of time to think and reflect on what I wanted to do and why. Thinking gave me something meaningful to focus on while going through recovery.”
Mao found her thoughts wandering to shoes. While researching musculoskeletal issues, the topic of what kind of shoes to wear for injuries frequently came up.
“I used to have a very comfortable pair of sneakers. But after my injury, it felt very heavy and was not comfortable anymore,” Mao recalled, explaining that the weight caused additional strain during her injury.
The Balance Runner, S$135, was borne out of Mao’s spinal injury, and designed to reduce the impact of walking, running and standing. (Photo: Sunnystep)
One of Mao’s favourite designs, the Balance Flex Ballerina, S$125, is built with arch support and cushioning. (Photo: Sunnystep)
What she needed were lightweight, stable and supportive shoes. But none of the 20 to 30 pairs in her closet fit the bill.
She began searching for more suitable shoes. She tried running shoes that were bulky and had a forward propulsion not suited for everyday walking, and orthotic shoes that were equally bulky, heavy and did not appeal to her tastes, she said. Flip flops were not even secured to the feet, and out of the question, she added.
Prior to her injury, the former data scientist had left her job in 2017 and
“Because it wasn’t a big factory, they didn’t have a minimum order. They were willing to experiment with me. I just had to pay for the samples,” Mao told CNA Women.
Over long WeChat conversations, and six months of sampling, Mao finally created a pair that eased her pain – a minimalist white shoe without laces or embellishments.
The shoes provided Mao with good support when she was walking, especially at the foot arch, and were lightweight enough to avoid additional strain on her back. Although she still could not sit down or walk for long at that point, they made it much easier for her to move around.
In May 2019, she ordered 20 to 30 samples for family and friends. An aunt’s friend saw it and requested to buy a pair. A week later, she ordered eight more – one for everyone in her family.
“That is literally how it started,” laughed Mao.
FROM ONE SHOE TO A REGIONAL BRAND
This vote of confidence from a stranger gave Mao the confidence to run her first pop-up atrium bazaar in Square 2 in July 2019. She only had two designs then and ordered a few hundred pairs in total.
The Sunnystep store in Mid Valley Megamall Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – the brand opened its first shop at Square 2 in Novena, and now has 17 outlets in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Photo: Sunnystep)
Mao, who still couldn’t sit, made the trip to the mall lying flat on the fully reclined front seat of her dad’s car. He helped her set up at a small corner table. And because she could not stand for long, she left the booth to a student part-timer.
On the first day, Sunnystep sold one pair of shoes. By the third day, they sold eight. By the end of the bazaar about a week later,
Mao ran a few more pop-ups across Singapore, and before the end of 2019, opened her first store at Square 2. About a month later, the pandemic hit.
Retail outlets closed during the circuit breaker, but as the nation worked from home, comfort dressing began trending. When Sunnystep re-opened, the demand for its shoes grew.
Customers said they loved its support and lightweight design that enabled them to walk longer, stand longer, and finish the day with less fatigue, Mao said. They also appreciated that it did not come with the “orthopaedic” look of some more supportive shoes, she added.
As orders grew, the brand shifted their stocks from Mao’s family backyard to a locker room, and finally into a warehouse.
At the same time, Mao also made great strides in her recovery journey. In 2021, she worked with a physiotherapist who suffered from slipped disc herself but was running marathons. Hearing about her physiotherapist’s recovery journey gave Mao hope and inspired her to push forward with her plans to have her second child.
When she was pregnant, the surge in pregnancy hormones helped to ease her back pain, said Mao. She started to take pilates classes with a specialty pregnancy pilates instructor, which helped her regain her mobility and strength.
Gradually, she grew her comfort shoe brand and expanded her business from Singapore to Malaysia and Indonesia.
SHOES AS SELF-CARE
For Mao, Sunnystep was never just about shoes. It was a deeply personal journey to reclaim her mobility and life.
“Shoes are not just a fashion item. All the joints in your body are connected. If you wear shoes without the right support, the stress on your feet can move up your body to your knees, spine and neck.
“Shoes play a foundational role in supporting your joints, your whole body and your health,” she said.
Sunnystep launched its kids’ range in March. (Photo: Sunnystep)
The kids’ range is designed to offer arch support, stability, shock-absorption cushioning, and a wide toe box for more comfort. (Photo: Sunnystep)
Sunnystep has its own in-house researcher based in Europe who reviews clinical studies and consults professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Boston Children's Hospital, as well as podiatrists to understand how shoe design can minimise stress on the feet and body, said Mao.
Shoes should fit your foot shape, and not the other way round, she stressed.
“Our toes are naturally spread out. You can see this in babies’ toes. But many modern shoes have narrow toe boxes that can gradually alter our foot shape over time,” she said.
“This is especially true for high heels where most of the body weight is placed on the front of the feet. If you wear them every day, your feet may become distorted,” Mao added.
Sunnystep shoes feature a wider toe box for toes to spread and wriggle, and reduce the stress of walking, she said. The shoes also offer arch support, which can help to stabilise and support the foot, especially for people with flat feet, she added.
Despite her spinal injury after her first pregnancy, Mao went on to have two more children, now aged eight, five and three. She is photographed pregnant with her third child. (Photo: Sunnystep)
Mao continually experiments to find the sweet spot between lightweight, durable, supportive, anti-slip, blister-free and beautiful shoe designs.
“I am not just looking for comfort when I try on the shoe. I want my shoes to feel comfortable even after you have walked a whole day in them,” she said.
This incredible entrepreneurship journey also helped to give meaning and purpose to Mao during a very dark period of her life when she was in a negative spiral.
Now stronger and more aware of how to care for her body, Mao is finally able to mother the way she hopes to. She loves taking solo bonding trips with each of her daughters.
The injury has also given the entrepreneur a newfound appreciation for life.
“I realised that life is very short. You never know what will happen the next day. The fact I can move my body is a privilege. I don't want to waste my life, because I don't know what will happen tomorrow,” she said.
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...