Gwen and Brittny Hurt: Shoe Crazy Wine and Spirits

Eat It, Virginia!

Gwen and Brittny Hurt are the mother-daughter team behind Shoe Crazy Wine and Spirits. They started the Richmond-based business after one of the worst weeks of their lives.

"I was downsized from a company I spent 17 years in," Gwen shared on the Eat It, Virginia podcast. "They said they needed to replace my skills with other skills. I have a degree from a historically black college here in the U.S and I was working in China, and they said they needed [someone from] Yale or Harvard or an Ivy League school because our organization was now being reported to the board. So they let me go."

When Gwen flew back to the states after losing her job, the situation did not improve.

"I was going to my office to clean my desk and we were in a car accident. We were at a red light and this gentleman slammed into us at 55 miles an hour," she said. "So we get the bad news at the hospital. My back is injured. My neck is injured. Brittny's bursa sac and her hip were destroyed."

It was during their at-home recovery, that their new life emerged.

"We did physical therapy. It was a year of physical therapy. And after three, four weeks of crying in my room with the shades drawn, Brittny's trapped upstairs with her cane. She couldn't walk, I could barely move. I got on my walker and I just said, I can't stay in this room anymore," Gwen said. "So I kind of took the walker and toddled out into the great room and said, 'Brittny, we're going into the wine business.'"

And with that, Shoe Crazy Wine was born. But the hard work was only just beginning.

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