Marissa McTasney

Pay It Forward

“In high school I excelled in fine arts and having fun.” shares Marissa McTasney. First she tried the Ontario College of Arts and when that didn’t work out, she pursued the fun angle and back-packed in Australia.

Eventually she came back to Canada, got married and started working in sales at IBM. It was after the birth of her second child that Marissa started to question what she wanted to be. She’d just written and illustrated a book for her children in which she encouraged them to find their passion and follow their dreams when she realized she was doing neither. So after seven years in the corporate world, Marissa traded in her high heels for construction boots.

“I was always handy but spent my time “winging it.” When she saw a course for women in the skilled trades, Marissa signed up, commuting every day for five months from Whitby to Burlington. On the first day of school she received a voucher for a pair of work boots. Half the women in the course had to buy men’s boots because that was all that was available. And so her hunt for pink construction boots began, first as a whim and then in earnest, as Marissa realized she was on to something.

I first met Marissa when we presented her with the Company of Women scholarship as part of our support of the Women in Skilled Trades program. Unlike the other students who were embarking on a career in the skilled trades, Marissa had a kernel of an idea – Tomboy Trades – a line of work boots, hard hats, tool belts – all designed for women. Marissa, now 32, and her husband Taz, so much believed in the business that they re-mortgaged their house to finance the start-up.

Fast forward not even a year, and Marissa’s products are available online through Home Depot. In December, she is launching her line with Zellers in 15 stores, and as we exchanged emails for this article, Marissa was in China talking to manufacturers on how to expand her product line.

I have a sense I will be saying with pride that “I knew her when…” And the icing on the cake - Marissa plans to offer her own scholarship in the future. Now that is paying it forward.

You can learn more about Tomboy Trades at www.tomboytrades.com