DC daily roundup: Figuring out children’s footwear; Arlington’s $1M all-electric school buses; DC’s largest solar farm

A new way to design kids’ shoes

Mike Gugat has always had an affinity for shoes. After working at big-name sportswear brands including Mizuno and Adidas, he eventually caught the entrepreneur bug and decided to start his own shoe company, jbrds.

He’s trying to solve a problem in the footwear industry, specifically for kids: Companies often take their adult shoe design and shrink it down to fit children. But properly designing shoes for kids is much more complicated than that, Gugat explained to me.

“Our vision is to really become, from cradle to eight years old,” Gugat said, “an athletic lifestyle brand for kids.”

In pursuit of this goal, he’s participating in a Towson University accelerator program to develop the company further.

➡️ Learn more about jbrds in my latest report here.

Pursuing equity amid Fearless Fund backlash

The Atlanta-based Fearless Fund’s grant program for Black women underscores the legal and operational challenges in promoting equity, Technical.ly CEO Christopher Wink writes in his latest column.

But on Monday, an appeals court ruled that the VC fund cannot give grants to Black women business owners, claiming it likely violates the federal Civil Rights Act of 1866.

“Our work doesn’t oppress people,” CEO Arian Simone said in another interview. “The work we do is addressing a disparity.”

This is part of a larger trend against racial equity initiatives, even though diversity in the workforce and entrepreneurship has proven economic benefits. So, there’s now more of a movement for programs and initiatives to be community-specific and income-based — a lens that, even without centering race, could still be effective.

➡️ Read more in the column by Technical.ly’s CEO here.

News Incubator: What else to know today

• Catholic University partnered with the Rockville solar energy company Standard Solar on a new 25-acre solar farm, which is now the biggest in DC. [WTOP]

• Arlington Public Schools is set to introduce several new all-electric school buses this year, thanks to $1 million in federal funding. [ARLNow]

• District voters headed to the polls on Tuesday to vote in several competitive DC Council races. Polls are open until 8 p.m. [Washington Post]

• José Andrés stepped down from the CEO position of the restaurant group that he launched in DC more than 30 years ago. He will still be involved as its executive chairman. [Washingtonian]

• Kimberly Bush, the executive director of the DC LGBTQ+ Community Center, said that an upcoming hub for that and other LGBTQ+-focused organizations is about 70% complete. The space in Shaw will feature office and coworking spaces, at rates below market value. [Axios]

• A labor union for workers at Amazon, which maintains its HQ2 facility in Arlington, is pursuing a formal affiliation with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. [Bloomberg]

🗓️ On the Calendar