EPISODE 4: Sonia Levine / Sprong Shoes
Sonia Levine of Sprong Shoes on Rebranding a 20-Year Retail Business with Treebird
Sonia Levine joins Jaci Lund to talk about buying an established children’s shoe store and taking on a rebrand, store remodel and business transformation at the same time. She shares why she chose Treebird, what stood out about the agency’s portfolio and process, and how the new brand helped give Sprong Shoes a fresh identity and energy.
WHAT THIS EPISODE ANSWERS
How did Sonia Levine find Treebird Branding?
Sonia searched a women-in-marketing group to see who marketers recommended to other marketers for a rebrand. She says the recommendations pointed her to Jaci Lund and Treebird Branding.
Why did Sprong Shoes choose an agency instead of a single graphic designer?
Sonia wanted one partner to look at the business as a whole rather than piecing the work together across separate providers.
What made Treebird’s work stand out to Sonia?
She says Treebird’s portfolio felt unique and not cookie-cutter. She specifically noticed that each client brand had its own identity rather than looking like a repeated agency style.
What did Sonia think of the creative process?
She says the discovery questions helped her articulate what she wanted for the business, and that the creative presented by Treebird went beyond what she could have imagined on her own.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TREEBIRD
“Each one was unique. You could tell this wasn’t just somebody [who] went on Creative Market or Canva and used a template.”
“You really see each brand in its own entity, which I like.”
“That’s why you invest money in working with your company... you’re given that which is beyond your wildest dreams.”
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Announcer (00:08)
You're listening to Beyond the Logo. Jaci Lund, founder and creative director of Treebird Branding explores what it means to cultivate a brand that endures actionable branding advice rooted in an audience first philosophy and candid conversations with clients about the challenges they faced and the creative solutions that transformed their business. This is thoughtful strategic guidance for visionary business owners who understand that great branding isn't launched, it's cultivated. If you're ready to invest in branding that creates lasting impact, you're in the right place. Welcome to Beyond the Logo.
Jaci Lund (00:46)
So today I'm here with Sonia from Sprong Shoes and you have been through quite the transformation in the last year. And so what I wanted to do was just kind of chat with you a bit about that transformation of buying a business, doing a rebrand and then a remodel all at once, which is a lot and then just how things are going now. So if you could just go back to the beginning when you bought the business, how you determined the rebrand and what needed to happen.
Sonia Levine (01:18)
Sure. As a customer of Sprong and I wasn't like a big customer. I think that I easily could have been a big customer there. I love shopping for my daughter who's now six. And when I heard that the owner was wanting to sell and I had thought, I think this is potentially a really good business. I didn't know if it was profitable or not, but in terms of location, it's a wonderful location. I knew that they had a good product shoes, children's shoes, and a much needed object in kids' lives. Well,
Jaci Lund (02:01)
I keep coming back for more.
Sonia Levine (02:03)
Right,
Jaci Lund (02:03)
Right.
Sonia Levine (02:04)
So truly it was a business decision. It was kind of at first a business pondering like, "Hey, this could be a really good business." And then the second thought I had was this could be a really overwhelming but also really fun project because I felt like Sprong needed a lot of love. It needed a new brand. It needed a new look. It needed to be brought up into 2025. And so I decided to buy it. It turned out to be a profitable business. So fiscally it made sense to buy it. And the acquisition was September of 2024 and I've truly felt the first piece was the brand and redoing the brand. There was quite a few negative reviews. I didn't have lots of positive associations with it. The store colors were super dated. It was a 20 year business. February of 26 will be the 21st anniversary.
Jaci Lund (03:03)
And was that the original brand from the very beginning?
Sonia Levine (03:07)
I'm not totally sure. There was an original owner 20 plus years ago and then she owned it for a brief period of time and then sold it. And so the second owner had owned it for about, I think about 16-ish years. And so I don't know what it was before she bought it, but I knew I didn't want to change the name. It's a recognizable name.
Jaci Lund (03:27)
That's a cute name.
Sonia Levine (03:28)
Yeah, it's a cute name. It's different and it's unique. And so I knew it didn't need a new name. It just needed a new look and it needed a new energy.
Jaci Lund (03:39)
So you determined that you needed to do a rebrand, you're looking around for agencies.
Sonia Levine (03:44)
Yep.
Jaci Lund (03:45)
How'd you find us?
Sonia Levine (03:47)
Yeah, absolutely. So I knew I didn't want to hire a graphic designer and then I didn't want to piece it apart with different people. I wanted somebody who would look at it as a whole package, a whole piece. And so I interviewed actually quite a few individuals, companies, and I stumbled upon a group on Facebook that was for women in marketing. And so
Jaci Lund (04:14)
These- It's like Marcom of Atlanta.
Sonia Levine (04:15)
Something like that. Yeah. And it was all women who are in marketing, which is not my wheelhouse at all. So they somehow let me in as a sneaky spy. And I basically started searching within the group as to who were all the marketing people recommending to fellow marketers for a rebrand. And they all said, "Oh my gosh, you need Jaci Lund with Treebird." And so I was like, "Okay, who's this Jaci Lund from Treebird?" And so I looked you up and I looked Treebird up and I was astonished initially with your brand with just how unique it was and it was not cookie cutter. And then that was the biggest thing for me is that I looked at all the brands that you had done or worked with or redone everything from Bachanellia to Inland Seafood or Inland Foods and the Four Seasons.
Sonia Levine (05:12)
And what I loved about it was that each one was unique. You could tell this wasn't just somebody went on Creative Market or Canva and used a template.
Sonia Levine (05:24)
This was truly different. And so that really spoke to me. I mean, I still kind of can't believe it because I moved out here from the West Coast, but I've lived in Atlanta since 2007. And so to look at where Bocanelia kind of started and where they are now and is it Anne Quatrano? Yeah. To watch her transformation and she's such a talent. And so to see that you were involved in all of that was just like, oh, seal of approval. So that's how I landed on you and then it was love at first sight.
Jaci Lund (05:59)
Well, obviously when we started talking, I was like, okay, we're sisters. But yeah, what you notic is something that's such a point of pride for us too is that the way we see businesses is they're such a complete unique entity and so we treat the brand as such and that what we built for you is completely unique to Sprong.
Sonia Levine (06:15)
Absolutely.
Jaci Lund (06:15)
And no one else can have that. So thank you for recognizing that in the other work that we do and that they all own a wall. And
Sonia Levine (06:21)
This is like sometimes you see someone's brand and then you see they put that flavor on everything they do and it was like, y'all are funky and fun and I love that, but Strong is not super funky. We're fun, but we're not super funky.
Jaci Lund (06:37)
No, ours is a little wild.
Sonia Levine (06:39)
Yeah. Which is great. And it's you guys. And so I think that's what I loved is that I saw really clearly y'all are different, but that doesn't then mean everybody becomes a little wild. You really see each brand in its own entity, which I like.
Jaci Lund (06:54)
Yeah. I mean, I feel like if everything looks like us, we're not doing our jobs as professional creatives and that there are some groups that are so good at having a specific style and if you want that specific style, you should go to them. If there's something that you really like in that, that's just not us. And so everything we do is so unique there. So okay, you found us, we fell in love. It was a very fast process too. I remember our first conversation being like, "I just love her. And even if we don't work together, I will know her in my life." Exactly. Yeah. So let's talk about how was the creative process for you? We had our kickoff and then we had our presentation with the multiple options and just like talk about how that went and your perspective.
Sonia Levine (07:40)
Sure. I think what was great was we went through that interview process and I still remember you asking if Sprong was a car, what car would it be? And I really took those questions seriously and I would still to this day have the same answer. And so really it helped me as a business owner conceptualize what I wanted to do with Sprong and what I wanted to create and actually say it out loud and get it on paper and then y'all just ran with it. I think there's aspects of my work that's creative, but I've never historically worked in a creative field and so I have creative ideas and I think what I loved about that meeting where you presented was that it is never anything in my wildest dreams I could have come up with on my own. And I'm a really creative person, but there was the garden theme.
Sonia Levine (08:42)
There was a garden
Jaci Lund (08:43)
Theme- Yeah, we were like growing the shoes. That was very cute.
Sonia Levine (08:45)
Yeah, like growing shoes out of a garden. I was like, "Wait, what? " And I come up with some fun stuff, but that was never would I have come up with that. And so I think that's why you invest money in working with your company is that you're given that which is beyond your wildest dreams. No, I truly mean that. I wasn't even working on the floor of the store today. I was just like be bopping around, taking care of a lot and I had three different people be like, "I just love the bunny. We love bunnies." I was like, "Yeah, we too love a bunny." It speaks to people and it's great.
Jaci Lund (09:25)
It does. And what's so fun about it and you came to the table with a very solid vision in what you were trying to accomplish, which is always very helpful. You came to the table being like, "We are going to have such a strong hospitality aspect to the store," which was just speaking our language and it's how you make these emotional connections and making it a really good experience because it's not just about shoes because I don't think buy shoes anywhere. It's
Sonia Levine (09:45)
About relationships.
Jaci Lund (09:46)
It's about relationships and having a good experience and you just came with that and Lauren, who's on the team who I'm just obsessed with, drew that bunny and now the bunny is everywhere and you don't know this yet, but the bunny is going to be jumping into leaves and doing all sorts of stuff in your windows. So it gives us this great character, this tool that now there's a physical bunny for kids, the doll, it can tell stories throughout the space. I mean, I remember
Sonia Levine (10:12)
One of our first meetings you were like, "We could even have a Bunny Stuffy." And I was like, "Wait, what? "
Jaci Lund (10:17)
Yeah, we will have a Bunny Stuffy. I was like,
Sonia Levine (10:19)
"Wait, what? " And now we have a Bunny Stuffy, which is just unreal. We've got Bunny Tush bookmarks. We've got Bunny Wallpaper. It's great.
Jaci Lund (10:28)
So it wasn't just the rebranding, you completely renovated the store. And what I love so much about the renovation is that it's so practical, it's so fantastic in there, it's so open, it's so inviting, but the brand is everywhere, it's so consistent. So you could potentially take this and just copy paste it and it's all on brand. You did just such a great job and going through that then physical transformation of the space and the brand helping to inform those decisions, can you kind of speak to that?
Sonia Levine (10:58)
Yeah, absolutely. So it took me a long time to find the right team to do the design and the remodel and part of that was because I'd meet people and they were residential interiors or they were commercial interiors and they would say, "Well, this isn't my wheelhouse, but I can give it a try." And it was like, "Yeah, no, I don't want somebody who really isn't-" You
Jaci Lund (11:19)
Can give it their best shot.
Sonia Levine (11:20)
And so it took me a while. So I found these great women who this is their side hustle. They are all in retail design but work for big companies and then they moonlight together as a team. And so I did not want to have them move forward or hire them until I had the brand colors defined by you, the style defined by you, basically handed them the brand and said, "Now do a store based on this brand." And so I handed them the brand deck and was like, "Here you go. " And so now they're painting pumpkins with brand colors and we've got the shoelace bows, which were in one of the first-
Jaci Lund (12:05)
One of the first icons.
Sonia Levine (12:06)
They created that into custom wallpaper that's now hanging on the walls and then they found bow lamps that look like the shoelace bows. So it continues to get woven throughout the interior of the store and there's definitely still room for growth around that. The other night I couldn't sleep and I thought to myself, "Yeah, we really should be using shoelaces instead of ribbon to tie packages."
Jaci Lund (12:33)
Yes, we should.
Sonia Levine (12:33)
Yeah. So I was like, "Why aren't we using
Jaci Lund (12:37)
Shoelaces?" Why are we using shoelaces instead of ribbons?
Sonia Levine (12:41)
So it's a process.
Jaci Lund (12:43)
So you've gone through this huge transformation. The new store and brand have really been public for just a couple of months now.
Sonia Levine (12:52)
Our official reopen date was, I think, July 14th or 15th.
Jaci Lund (12:55)
Yeah. So in the last couple of months, how's it going? Have you seen increase in sales? Have you heard back from folks? How are they reacting to it?
Sonia Levine (13:05)
Yeah. Well, I mean, literally yesterday, again, I'm going to be bopping around the store and this woman walks in and I hear her say, "Oh my goodness." And I said, "Oh, have you not been in since we remodeled?" She goes, "No, this is
Announcer (13:21)
Amazing."
Sonia Levine (13:22)
And so sales were bonkers for July and August for back to school and then things have quieted down for a minute, but they're picking back up again as people are getting ready for the high holidays in fall and kids' feet grow every three and a half to four months so there's that. But the reaction is tremendous. I had somebody say, "I love how you did this like a department store." And so my translation of that was like, "It's easy to shop." It's
Jaci Lund (13:47)
Organized. Yeah.
Sonia Levine (13:48)
It's organized. It's easy to shop. People seem really happy. It's funny because there's, of course, a couple curmudgeons, but that's okay, but it's a store I'd want to shop at.
Jaci Lund (13:59)
Well, the space itself is just so joyful.
Sonia Levine (14:02)
People love it. And then the big thing is they think that we got more square footage and I'm like, "I didn't get more square footage." Yeah. They really think I added on in some way, but literally there was no way to add on. So yeah, just people talk about open, airy, easy to navigate. They're able to see things better, shop on their own. They love the wayfinding signs. That's great.
Jaci Lund (14:25)
Yeah. That's awesome. So another thing that we do for Sprong is your social media. So we do all of the photo shoots and then all of the custom graphics. How's that going for you?
Sonia Levine (14:35)
It's good. It's nice not having to think about it. I'm not of the age where Instagram is easy for me and I have enough on my plate and so it's nice to outsource that and know that it looks polished, it looks professional, it speaks to the store. We've been playing a little bit in the stories and I do know we need to do more of that.
Jaci Lund (14:59)
Your team is so good in stories too. Oh, good. Yeah. They're doing great.
Sonia Levine (15:03)
Yeah. Well, people love our Instagram. And then it was funny. I said to somebody, I said, "Are you following us in Instagram?" And they said, "Oh no." And then they went on Instagram on their phone and they go, "Oh wow, you're doing all the things." Because she looked at it and could tell it looked really good. And she's like, "Oh, you're doing all the things." I'm like, "Well, yeah, we're a business. You got to do all the things."
Jaci Lund (15:26)
Have you noticed when we're doing posts for certain shoes or we're announcing certain seasons or sales on there, are you noticing any increase in sales in that regard? Are you seeing traffic that's coming in specifically from social? Well,
Sonia Levine (15:40)
The Love Shack Fancy piece, we had this collab with Hunter Boots and Love Shack Fancy and thank goodness for y'all because I think it would've been crickets otherwise. I mean, we get a tremendous amount of foot traffic. I mean, we had 900 customers come in the store in the month of August. That is insane. 900 people came into our store in August. And so I do believe that the success of the Love Shack Fancy Hunter Collab, which were these gorgeous rain boots was because of social media. We've had people like, I don't know, Emily Griffin, she's like the author, she reposted our stuff.
Jaci Lund (16:21)
That's awesome. Yeah.
Sonia Levine (16:22)
So it's cool, but I just need to dig in more to it, but it's really mostly just because I've been so busy.
Jaci Lund (16:28)
But
Sonia Levine (16:28)
I love everything you guys are doing and I'm actually starting to feel a little less overwhelmed with everything from the remodel and have already started pondering our next photo shoot.
Jaci Lund (16:40)
Oh yeah, we've got some ideas.
Sonia Levine (16:41)
Okay, good.
Jaci Lund (16:42)
Yeah, we've got things. Okay.
Sonia Levine (16:43)
Me too. Good.
Jaci Lund (16:44)
So what's next for Sprong?
Sonia Levine (16:46)
Publish that website.
Jaci Lund (16:47)
Yeah. And then talk about what the plan is with the published website.
Sonia Levine (16:52)
Sell a lot of shoes.
Jaci Lund (16:53)
Yeah. So Sprong did not have e-commerce.
Sonia Levine (16:56)
No, no.
Jaci Lund (16:57)
So that
Sonia Levine (16:57)
Was a
Jaci Lund (16:57)
Profitable business
Sonia Levine (16:58)
With no e-commerce. Yeah. I mean, that was part of my thing was like, they don't have a website. I'm like, how does a business in 2025 not have a shopable website? So we have a Shopify website. It's beautiful. I just need to hit publish. And I think really what I'm working out now is the logistics of e-commerce fulfillment. And I don't think it'll be initially gangbusters, but I'd like to believe it'll be good and I want to just be prepared for that. And so the idea will be that it'll look great because y'all have made it happen. Y'all built the website and it's so easy to shop and it's beautiful and then people can do curbside pickup. They can see what our new offerings are. They could ship to their cousin in Florida.
Sonia Levine (17:51)
I was at the Atlanta Shoe Show, which is actually the largest shoe show in the world and I was talking to a sales rep for the brand Onset and he lives in LA and he's got two little kids and he was like, "There's nowhere in LA to buy kids' shoes." He said, "I buy them on Amazon." And so we just had so much fun talking and he's like, "As soon as you get your website up, tell me. I'll order shoes from you. " And he said, "It would just be so nice to know that the shoes I'm ordering have been hand selected by somebody who actually has a kid and it's a curated collection and I'm getting personalized service and can help me with the fit and the style and that I'm supporting an actual small business versus a large conglomerate."
Jaci Lund (18:36)
Yeah, I think it's important to have this growth strategically. I do think it's going to make a huge difference, not just only in the Atlanta market, but also all of the markets outside of Atlanta that literally come in to the city to shop at Sprong. I know you've got a lot of folks that do that. And then once that's live, we can also make Instagram shopable. Yeah, right.
Sonia Levine (18:55)
I want to do that because that's how I shop.
Jaci Lund (18:57)
Yeah, exactly. I shop on Instagram all the time.
Sonia Levine (19:00)
Yeah, that actually was my ultimate goal was like, I'd like to buy the shoes I sell the way I buy everything else, which is on Instagram.
Jaci Lund (19:06)
We're so close. We're
Sonia Levine (19:07)
So
Jaci Lund (19:07)
Close. Well, we just appreciate you so much. You're just literally one of our favorite clients. We just adore you. We're so proud of you. Thank you. This whole transformation, it's been so moving to be a part of it just because we care so much about you and your family and the shoes and kids. You let us have so much fun with this project. So we just appreciate you so much.
Sonia Levine (19:31)
I'm utterly grateful because this could have gone a couple different ways and I get a lot of positive feedback and compliments and my response to ... And they all want to know, did you do all this and did you design all this and did you come up? And I said, no. You're part of it. I said, no. I said, I have really good ideas, but I'm really good at hiring really amazing people who are really good at what they do. And that would be Treebird and that would be JC and her team and they're absolutely wonderful.
Jaci Lund (20:00)
Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you for coming and hanging out today. We appreciate you. You're welcome.
Announcer (20:06)
Thanks for listening to Beyond the Logo. If today's conversation sparked something, a question, an idea, or the realization that it's time to cultivate a brand that truly reflects who you are and connects with the audience you're meant to serve, we'd love to hear from you. Visit treebirdbranding.com to get in touch with JC and the team. Your brand deserves more than a template. Let's grow something that lasts.
