Denise Dunn was selling a friend’s thongs 15 years ago at Mindil Beach Sunset Markets in Darwin when a customer said to her, “Great thongs, but they have no arch support.” Denise’s original reaction was, “Who even has arch support in their thongs?” But the comment stuck. “I thought to myself ‘traditional thongs on the market have no support, and the orthotic ones are heavy, chunky and ugly. What if I could design a thong that looked good, was comfy enough to wear all day, and actually supported your feet’?”
So, after the kids went to bed, Denise would jump online to research manufacturers. She went to trade fairs in Hong Kong and turned that original question she had asked herself into a reality by launching Slappas thongs. “I never set out to be an entrepreneur – I just wanted a better pair of thongs!” Denise laughs.
Starting out selling her own thongs at markets, the business tracked well for many years. Denise transitioned from her market stall to becoming a million-dollar business, with loyal customers, stockists, and strong word-of-mouth recommendations. “I built all this without investors, influencers or big city backing. Just hard slog and talking to ‘real people’”, Denise declares.
A very rough patch
However, a series of events combined to make life very difficult. COVID struck in 2000, then in 2001 Denise’s son suffered a traumatic accident that resulted in an above-knee amputation. Denise’s daughter was away at boarding school and she was felt burnt out, had sleepless nights and experienced panic attacks. Then, in 2004, after a few years of being in survival mode and forging on despite her health problems, Denise made a pricing mistake with a new distributor.
“The mistake itself was bad enough, but the real damage came from how I was spoken to afterwards,” Denise laments. “I was talked down to, made to feel stupid, hopeless, inexperienced, like I had no right to be in business.”
The ramifications were severe. Denise lost the distribution partnership. She felt lost her self-confidence. She felt embarrassed, numb, angry and humiliated.
“I genuinely thought the only option was to shut the business down,” Denise recalls. “I stopped Functioning properly for a while and I felt lifeless and panicked.”
A low point becomes the turning point
However, Denise found the resolve – within herself and through the encouragement of family, friends, her accountant and her mentor – to fight back. “I decided that one person’s opinion wasn’t going to be the reason I walked away from 15 plus years of hard slog,” Denise explains. “The strength to carry on came from a mix of stubbornness, support, and a deep feeling that my story with Slappas wasn’t meant to end like that – Slappas had more to give.”
In addition to her resolve and the support of those around her the words she had written on the wall of her office years before inspired her. Those words were, “The temptation to quit will be the greatest just before you are about to succeed,” and “Life rewards the courageous few.”
“I’d survived COVID, nearly losing my son, 15 years of business ups and downs and I decided I had to at least try to turn it around,” Denise says.
“The rebuild meant stripping everything back and starting again with clear eyes and a lot of tears.” Denise worked with her mentor, Claire, who went through the business with a fine tooth comb and helped build a proper action plan. She made some tough emotional decisions and said goodbye to people she’d worked with for years and to start over with a new team.
A focus on organic growth
Next, Denise rebuilt her website on Shopify and learned how to use it from scratch. She stopped all paid advertising to focus on organic sales and newsletters. She terminated her external fulfilment and warehousing arrangement to bring packing of orders back in-house until she could find a new, more affordable option. And she raised her prices to reflect the true cost of a high-quality, small-batch product. In so doing she got off what she calls the “endless discount” and “Black Friday hamster wheel”.
Setting firm boundaries around pricing and the value of her product was a priority. As was looking after her own mental health. This included working with a kinesiologist to keep her balanced and clear-headed. Denises’s confidence started to return and the outlook for the business improved.
“The past year has still been a bit of a see-saw emotionally, but the business itself is now on a much healthier footing,” Denise says. “Sales are still coming in, people are accepting the new pricing, and we’re attracting customers who understand value and quality.
“It’s not all ‘fixed’ and perfect, but it’s no longer in panic survival mode,” she adds. “It’s in rebuild and grow mode.”
A desire to make an impact
Alongside making Slappas a profitable business, Denise has always strived to make a positive impact in the NT, nationally and where help is needed overseas. In the 15 years since launch she has donated over $40,000 to causes including breast cancer research, Cystic Fibrosis, local charities and Variety NT. She has donated over 10,000 pairs of Slappas to charities. These good causes include sporting teams, fundraisers, Mission Australia and relief efforts in Australia, the Philippines and Fiji. Slappas has supported people with real health challenges – customers with plantar fasciitis, people going through chemo who find Slappas the only footwear they can tolerate, and amputees who wear Slappas because they actually stay on. Denise has priced her products honestly and stepped away from the constant discount culture and Black Friday frenzy. She didn’t want to encourage overconsumption or devalue what she makes. And she stayed true to being a female-founded, Australian-designed business, run from Darwin. A business with no investors, no influencers and just real customers sharing real experiences.
“For me, ‘impactful’ isn’t just about big campaigns,” Denise says. “It’s about quietly helping people feel better on their feet, supporting causes that matter, and proving that a small brand from Darwin can create something that genuinely makes a difference.”
