Moxie Trades products would make a fantastic thank you gift from you – to your Leader -- in appreciation of your past year of Guiding. 

GGC members are active women with an interest in outdoor activities and home renovations who would love to have a chance to win Moxie Trades merchandise made especially for women!

Click here to enter your Leader’s name for a Moxie Trades prize pack of work boots, tool belt, hard hat, safety glasses and t-shirt in her choice of colour.  Good luck - we can't wait to hear about your Girl Guide Leader.

Tomboy Trades is a great success in Canada and is over-the-moon excited to launch their new line of products in the U.S. under the banner “Moxie Trades”.

That's right...just when you were getting used to us, Tomboy Trades is growing up and showing its moxie!  You'll get the same great products, but with a bit more attitude!  Tomboy Trades is changing its name to Moxie Trades effectively immediately, and you're invited to come by our new site!

Meet Moxie Trades

Over the last few months, we have consulted with marketing agencies, we have racked our brains, we have banged our heads against the wall.  What do we call our US brand?

The answer came in one miraculous midnight moment when searching through the online pages of dictionaries “MOXIE.”  From that moment, it was as if we named a first born.  You know that moment when you can’t consider any other name for your beloved?  We read the definition, defined who we are and who we want to be.  We learned that while not every woman is a tomboy...

And now, MOXIE TRADES introduces “Betsy,” the first ever mass produced ASTM (formerly ANSI) and CSA approved PINK work boot – COMING TO AMERICA, MAY 2008.

There's more at Moxie Trades, and we're building not only the site you've gotten used to here, but we're building a community to help the throngs of tradeswomen that are loyal to our brands!

Come be a part of our new contests, sign up for the Tradeswomen Directory on Moxie and get some free stuff for your efforts!

We're loving the new look, and we're feeling our Moxie...are you?

Recently, we've been flooded with blog hits, and we wanted to take a minute to express our thanks to the various bloggers that seem to find our gear worth talking about!  In addition to Springwise, we have new built in bloggers from all over.

We're appreciative to Ladies Who Launch for showing off the Tomboy Trades line, as well as  the ShopToIt.ca Canadian Shopping Search Engine who see our whimsical toolbelts.  The Seeds of Growth and Anthony Pangolos recognized Marissa and Tomboy Trades with their article about Steel-toes and tool belts.

We've been featured with health products (Canadian Health Magazine) and mentioned with the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker (See The RealEstateJournal.com) across the internet, and as the ground swell of attention begins to kick in, we're very thankful for everyone's comments and interest.

We really appreciate the attention, and we're always willing to show some attention in return.  If you have written a blog, or are aware of some snippet of info on the web or in the news about Tomboy Trades, let us know.  We'll take the time to show it off to our loyal customers and site go-ers.  Thanks for all the warm fuzzies! 

Construction Gear for Women

Who says you can’t look good to work hard? Not Marissa McTasney. The Brooklin entrepreneur has successfully launched a line of women’s construction gear in female-friendly pinks, blues, reds and greens.

When Marissa McTasney decided to enter the skilled trades, the first thing she needed was a pair of steel-toed work boots. Dissatisfied with the assortment of mundane tans and blacks, she tracked down a sales manager to enquire,
“Where are the pink boots?”

“I get asked that all the time,” was the sales manager’s reply.

So why, thought McTasney, isn’t someone selling them? The savvy entrepreneur quickly capitalized on what she perceived as a hole in the marketplace by introducing a line of women’s construction gear.

She persevered with her pursuit of pink. She discovered a company in China that would deliver what she wanted. They sent her a picture, and she ordered 30 pairs.

She added baby blue, red and hunter green to the colour spectrum and broadened the line to include colour-coordinated hardhats, tool belts, safety glasses and formfitting, cap-sleeved T-shirts designed for a woman’s figure. She branded her line Tomboy Trades, and stamped them with a slick ‘girl-power’ logo of tool-toting women.

Dec 31, 2007 04:30 AM

Lisa Wright

Business Reporter

Some people think big. Others, like the popular "pink boot lady," just think bigger.

And manage to get there faster.

Featured last summer in the Star's Thinking Big series on small business, Marissa McTasney, the founder of women's work-wear line Tomboy Trades Ltd., has found hers growing by leaps and bounds since her story hit these pages.

Of course when you have the gumption and a great idea that involves fashion friendly gear for the female "fix-it" set in pale pink and baby blue, you already have a foot in the door, so to speak.

Last week the founder of Tomboy Trades, Marissa McTasney spoke at a Bring your Kids to Lunch day.

The event was hosted by the Scotiabank and the Learning Partnership.  The day was dedicated to parents and guardians and their grade nine students.  Marissa was a panelist, along with Brian Colangelo, Manager of the Raptors and Andrew Wolf, Disney animator.

To view the webcast, please visit: http://www.canadianclub.org/do/event?event_id=3017

What does Kimberly Seldon want for Christmas?

RED TOMBOY TRADES WORK BOOTS!  

That’s right – check out the December issue of Style at Home and see what else Kimberly wants for Christmas.

Marissa made an appearance on a great website, recently, and we thought we'd share the story!

Allison Rekus 

Allison Rekus is one of our winners of the "Action Photo Contest" for 2007! She sent us a wonderful email and expressed not only her being "so in love" with our products, but also working with the Habitat for Humanity.

Allison works in IT as a software/web application specialist by day, and uses her time away from the computer to build houses in an effort to give "families the foundation of home and of hope."

"I feel that is so important in life," says Rekus.  "I look at it as a win-win situation, as I found I had a lot of time on my hands, I am a single woman who's had her share of up and downs and needed to feel inspired again and add more purpose to my life."

The 32 year-old got started in the spring with Habitat for Humanity at a woman's build in Cobourg and the Northumberland branch.

"I called it my working vacation," Rekus remembers. "I took time off work to do it and was on-site six full days renovating a semi-detached home (both sides) building a deck, front porch, installing siding, etc."

After her working vacation, she said that she had a sense of purpose and began volunteering with the Toronto branch of Habitat for Humanity .  Her work continued on a row of townhouses and worked on site after work hours sanding floors, painting and "all sorts of crazy cool power tool stuff!"

Rekus looks forward to giving more to her efforts at Habitat for Humanity, as she's volunteering in more areas than just the work site.  She will also be assisting with web work and has been recommended to become a crew leader by a peer and is looking forward to the chance to get more deeply involved in the projects they undertake.

Allison also knows that this is enriching her life as she said, "I wanted to learn and challenge myself...essentially putting myself out of my element. And what I have found in doing this, is that I was made for it and felt very empowered. So, really as much as I am giving to Habitat, they are giving to me as well."

So, congratulations Allison Rekus!  Enjoy your pink boots and keep up the good work for Habitat for Humanity and your trades work for the benefit of the community around you!

Stacey Proudfoot 

We also have Stacey Proudfoot who demonstrates that even the work you do in the mechanical areas benefit a woman's sense of self esteem, as she revamped a delapidated Brokk 250 hydraulic run machine for chipping away brick inside industrial furnaces to service standards and sends us her "action" photo to prove that she was proud of her accomplishment and show off her electriconics talent.

"The company I work for bought this 20 year old piece of equipment recently and it came to us as a mess of wire and hoses, that did not run. I rewired the machine, replaced most of the electronic components for its controls and got the thing powered up and ready to go. One of my more satisfying jobs, to see this thing jump into action and know, that I was a major contributing factor in getting it going again," she beams.

Stacey has also earned a pair of pink boots for her contribution, and she loves the element of empowerment that Tomboy Trades inspires, as she said, "Thanks for encouraging women to be 'women' in the trades instead of them trying to be one of the guys."

You go girl!