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From passion and purpose to products and profits, these businesses are on *** mission to do good. I'm Kelly Rippin and welcome to another episode of Stitch. Today we're going across the country to meet the people and businesses with *** meaningful goal in mind. To start, we're looking at some women owned businesses that make products specifically to help other women. Let's head to Massachusetts to meet *** woman putting *** pep in her step with the shoes she's designed. Here's WCVB's Doug Meehan to tell us more. Inside *** once nearly abandoned Lawrence Mill building. Skilled craftsmen are bringing manufacturing back to life in Merrimack Valley, and they have one very determined local woman with vision to thank for that. We make *** shoe for women who don't want to have to choose between whether to look good or feel good. Catherine Debe is owner of Apropos Footwear. In the early 90s, this former marketing manager of racket sports over at Converse decided to step out on her own and create *** shoe company that catered to women. Her inspiration coming during *** work trip to France. When I was in Paris, I saw *** house shoe and went, if I can only wear this outdoors. This athlete and runner didn't want to create *** sneaker, but rather *** shoe that was comfortable, functional, stable, and supportive, all the while packaged in *** colorful and fashionable way. So feel the interior of this. So that's the first thing *** woman's gonna do is go for that tactile impression of, is there any cushioning? And just by raising the heel slightly. You get more of that balance integration of support laterally and toe to heel. For Catherine, establishing *** footing in *** crowded shoe space meant focusing on *** certain segment of the consumer base that she was quite familiar with. She says she found herself part of *** maturing culture of women who loved the idea of being active, but also who felt they were being neutralized by the fashion industry. My goal was to say no, there's more to this group, this subculture of women. They still embrace who they are. They are comfortable with themselves and they aren't looking at the nearest trend or the latest thing. They're just comfortable with themselves and they want to look and they wanna keep being fashion forward. Another important goal of Catherine's was to have her shoes made in the USA, more particularly in Massachusetts, and most importantly in Lawrence. I don't think you reinvent *** history and try to bring it back. That's romanticizing the past. But if you can find *** way to repurpose what was built and extend that kind of lineage in *** purposeful way, why not?