Nicolle Dean

Nicolle Dean is Co-Founder of QLVR (that’s clever), a groundbreaking athletic footwear brand designed entirely around women’s biomechanics. With 2 decades in the global footwear industry, Nicolle and her team are reshaping how we think about performance athletic shoes.

After co-founding and successfully exiting her first shoe brand, Cushe Footwear, Nicolle saw a major gap in the industry: most “women’s” shoes are just smaller versions of men’s - a practice known as shrink it and pink it - simply scaling down male lasts that ignore the unique shape and biomechanics of a woman’s foot, compromising fit, comfort, and performance.

With QLVR, she set out to change that. The result is the Running Slipper: a laceless, performance-driven shoe for cardio and cross training workouts, built on a women-specific last, featuring QLVR’s patented WingFit™ technology and sustainable bio-based materials.

Nicolle’s mission is to raise awareness of the importance of women-specific fit, not just as a product feature, but as a movement toward better health, performance and injury prevention.