I’m coming out with my line of shoes and my very first shoe is called ’The Nethia.’ How we came up with the name is that my legal name is Linnethia and we shortened it.

Leakes frames entrepreneurship as an extension of personal identity and brand. By naming the first shoe “The Nethia” after a shortened form of her legal first name, she signals authenticity (rooting the product in her “real” self) while also demonstrating the marketing logic of celebrity commerce: a distinctive, memorable name that ties the item to her persona. The quote also highlights the deliberate construction behind lifestyle products—how naming, backstory, and self-disclosure become part of the sales pitch. In effect, she presents the shoe not merely as merchandise but as a biographical signature, turning a private detail (her legal name) into public-facing brand capital.