Sneakers, Stories, & Service: Inside the New Goodie Two Shoes’ Office
Stepping into the Goodie Two Shoes Foundation’s new office, visitors see an old school locker filled with sneakers, randomly stacked and partially falling out. A conversation starter and childhood memory sparker, the space inspires the future partnerships and growth for the foundation.
Empowered to help children through shoe donations, founders Nikki and Tony Berti founded the Goodie Two Shoes Foundation (GTSF) in 2003. They have outfitted over 157,000 Southern Nevada critical needs kids with new shoes and socks. The mission continues and the reach grows, requiring the Bertis to expand into a new office space.
“This new building, GTSF’s permanent home, represents the culmination of two decades of passion and purpose, and was gifted to us by a very generous donor,” said Nikki Berti. “We had the opportunity to build out from [a] grey shell, so the office/warehouse design was created with our specific and unique warehouse needs and uses in mind.”
GTSF’s new 2-story office is 3,600 square feet, and the warehouse is around 7,000 square feet. The office’s open floor plan flows through five defined workspaces—a podcast studio, a lunch/work room, a conference room, an apparel closet, and two storage rooms—highlighted by colors that brighten and energize each space.
“We were in our previous space for 14 years, through immense growth,” Berti said. “Anytime we wanted to do anything, it required the ‘Jenga-ing’ of people [and] equipment. When designing this new space, we really thought about each staff member’s functions, their space needs, and their work style.”
The design flow between the office and warehouse carries school bus yellow-colored railings across the spaces, offering clean horizontal lines leading through the office and warehouse. Yellow is used on the safety bullocks in the warehouse.
A large picture window overlooks the warehouse at the top of the stairs, within the offices—something Berti said allows guests, donors, and visitors to get a glimpse of the warehouse and its operations while walking to the upstairs conference room. The window carries the natural light through the warehouse and amplifies the natural lighting coming from the floor-to-ceiling conference room windows across the hall.
To brand the spaces, GTSF collected specs from Wilsonart and worked with the Geary Company’s graphics team to create a custom laminate design to reface repurposed cabinets within the new warehouse. Original drawings depicted a cityscape with colors mirroring GTSF’s 48-foot shoe-store-on-wheels.
“I suggested using sneakers, particularly Converse, which are one of my signature apparel items,” Berti said. “Geary ran with design and when they presented it to us, including the easter egg ‘B’ which stands as an homage to Tony and I and the work we’ve done in the community, we absolutely fell in love with it.”
Berti decided to further incorporate the sneaker motif in the office to highlight GTSF’s mission and spark conversation for visitors touring the facility.
The laminate sneakers design was used in the warehouse on repurposed lockers and in the janitor’s closet on large storage doors.
Great organizations are fueled by people with passion for purpose and there are nuances to what they do and how they do it,” Berti said. “I say bring that into your space in creative ways that demonstrate not only what you do but the feelings that propel it, drive impact, and create successes.
The Bertis started GTSF inspired to build a better foundation, one foot at a time, and their new office and warehouse prove how effective design is fit with purpose.
About the Author
Lauren Brant
Editor, i+s and BUILDINGS
Lauren Brant is an editor at both i+s and BUILDINGS. Prior to joining Endeavor Business Media, she served as deputy news editor at a daily and editor of a weekly newspaper. She is an award-winning editor and writer.