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Kristeen Reynolds presents on her DrinKicks brand as part of a Halcyon 2024 Future Builders cohort in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy photo)

Kristeen Reynolds gets imaginative with paints as part of a Halcyon 2024 Future Builders cohort in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy photo)

Kristeen Reynolds displays a DrinKicks model shoe for Port Arthur Newsmedia in 2023. (Monique Batson/The News)

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm reviews a DrinKick sneaker in Houston in 2023. (Courtesy photo)

Kristeen Reynolds culminated a whirlwind three weeks by sharing on social media this month that she was the 2024 NFLPA Pitch Day Winner.

The honor is the latest racked up by the Port Arthur environmental entrepreneur, who is the founder of sneaker brand Drinkicks.

The bio-sneakers are constructed from recycled waste and biodegradable materials.

Reynolds and her team are looking to turn food waste of today “into our kicks of tomorrow,” according to information at drinkicks.com.

“Our mission is DrinKicks wants to be a platform that inspires and empowers individuals to live sustainable lives,” Reynolds said.

The 30-year-old Port Arthur resident said a couple of changes were recently made to the finalized shoe design that will, hopefully, be available to the public by the end of June. However, she notes nothing is set in stone.

Reynolds and DrinKicks are active across social media platforms Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn and happy to connect with community members wanting to learn more about the project.

“Part of that passion came from being from Port Arthur; seeing what so many people in our community were doing from Harvey,” Reynolds said. “So many people from our community are still not back in their homes and we’re coming up on seven years. We need to make sure to educate people on how to make differences to help mitigate storms like that and other severe effects of climate change.”

According to Reynolds, it would be amazing to see her dream come to a successful conclusion.

“It would go to show that being from a small town and tight knit community doesn’t mean you are blocked from making a global impact,” she said. “I would love to be in stores, but we’re trying to be very intentional, as well, with a kind of direct-to-consumer model. We’re still figuring it out a little bit, but we want to be intentional and make sure we’re creating the lowest impact to the environment as possible.”

Recent path

In January, Reynolds was part of a Halcyon 2024 Future Builders cohort in Washington, D.C.

The fellowship included eight ventures led by Black women entrepreneurs solving pressing 21st-century challenges.

The program was made possible by the generosity of partners like Bank of America, Amazon Web Services and Goodwin.

Halcyon welcomed Reynolds as a leader “determined to make an impact on the world.”

Halcyon officials hoped to provide that boost where viability is proven and scalability is achievable, but where barriers could limit a business’s ability to last.

Reynolds followed that opportunity with a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of this year’s Super Bowl festivities.

She was invited to speak at the 8th Annual NFLPA Pitch Day, a flagship event Feb. 7 that served as a platform for cutting-edge consumer products and technology companies to pitch their innovations, aiming for funding, mentorship and exclusive marketing opportunities with NFL players from the NFLPA.

Reynolds later displayed a ceremonial oversized $25K check as the “2024 NFLPA Pitch Day Winner.”