Albuquerque-based Z-Coil Footwear is set to continue supplying pain-relieving shoes after being awarded a hefty investment on Wednesday’s season premier of ABC’s entrepreneurial reality show “Shark Tank.”
Father-daughter duo Andres Gallegos and Lindley Gallegos Bach, a Fort Lewis College alumna, appeared on “Shark Tank’’s” season 17 premier to pitch their shoe company to investors. The sharks were skeptical of the company’s viability at first, but in a dramatic twist, investor Lori Greiner announced she would give $250,000 to Z-Coil with a 50% stake in the company.
That was actually the second time Gallegos Bach and her dad tried to get on “Shark Tank.” In 2024, the pair applied but did not make the cut. But after a lot of tweaking and refining to their business pitch, the pair were selected from a pool of 200,000 applicants to appear.
“It was a hard, hard process,” Gallegos Bach said. “Between January and June, we put in dozens, if not hundreds of hours into our pitch videos and to our scripting. ... You have to get all that stuff together before they accept you. We’re honored. We’re actually on the premiere episode, which is cool.”
Z-Coil shoes were dreamed up by Gallegos Bach’s grandfather in 1991. They feature a spring built into the heel that, according to Z-Coil’s website, can absorb up to 50% of the impact from walking. The shoes are designed to help relieve pain for people who have undergone surgeries such as ankle fusions.
“We’re just going to be looking for the latest and greatest in materials to make the shoe lighter and even more comfortable than it already is,” Gallegos Bach said. “And I think – from my perspective – introduce a lot of new styles.”
With the money, she and her father hope to update their shoe design to be lighter and offer more exciting graphics and fashionable styles. The footwear’s unprepossessing style was even brought up on the show by Shark Kevin O’Leary.
“In my opinion, ugly shoes are really in right now,” Gallegos Bach said. “Platforms are coming back, Gen Zers are wearing orthopedic shoes. Crocs are like the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen. And so people always tell us our shoes are ugly. And I’m like, ‘Well, look around. There’s lots of funky stuff right now, and our shoes are comfortable.’ So we’re not just funky, we’re actually really functional.”
Over the past 30 years, Z-Coil has received millions of dollars in research and design, Gallegos Bach said. With this new investment, they hope to boost sales and create new styles, broadening their market and customer base.
She said 25% of Z-Coil’s customers are in health care, and she hopes to one day collaborate with Fort Lewis College’s nursing program to provide footwear for those who spend long hours on their feet.
Gallegos Bach said her family’s business has seen its share of hardship. In 2020, her mother died, and her father struggled to run the business while grieving. The business declined, and so the two went on “Shark Tank” to revitalize it and bring their product to more people.
“It was almost a 45-minute pitch that they cut into a couple of minutes,” she said. “So of course they don’t get to see everything, but it was really emotional. My dad and I felt like we were as vulnerable as we could be, and we left it all out on the line.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
