BECAUSE EVERY NEW START DESERVES A SOLID FOOTING

The New Boots Project is a nonprofit giving arm of Morning Oil, dedicated to removing the barriers that keep talented people out of the trades. We provide boots, tools, and pathways to the men and women stepping into skilled-trade careers for the first time.

The trades changed our lives. We exist to make sure they can change yours.

It Started with a Pair of Boots

Phil Rogacki grew up in a trades family. His grandfather, his father, the whole community around him built their lives with their hands and a set of tools. When Phil got into the tree care industry and started his own training academy, he watched people make total life pivots to enter the trade: former Costco employees, Harvard graduates, chefs from San Francisco. All of them came in because someone showed them a different path.

That experience became an obsession. How do you show more people that path? How do you build a support system for the people willing to take it?

The answer started coming into focus when Phil connected with WINTER, a nonprofit supporting women entering non-traditional trade roles. He asked what they needed most. The answer was simple: boots.

The answer was boots. So we got them boots.

Phil partnered with HAWX Boots to make sure every woman graduating through WINTER received a pair, funded and ready to go. From there, the mission grew. A partnership with Grainger generated funding that went directly into tool gift certificates for WINTER graduates. Boots first. Then tools. Then whatever comes next.

The New Boots Project is the formal expression of that mission, currently in the process of receiving 501(c)(3) designation. A giving arm built to grow alongside Morning Oil, reinvesting into the workforce that needs it most.

  • What We Do

The New Boots Project removes the first-day barriers for people entering the trades. A pair of boots or a set of starting tools should not be the reason someone cannot show up.

Boots for WINTER Graduates

In partnership with WINTER (Women In Non-Traditional Employment Roles) and HAWX Boots, every woman who completes the WINTER program receives a pair of work boots, fully funded through the New Boots Project.

Tools for Trade Entrants

Through a mission-driven partnership with Grainger, the New Boots Project converts revenue into tool gift certificates for WINTER graduates entering the workforce. Boots get you in the door. Tools let you do the job.

Pathways for People Starting Over

Not every path to the trades is a straight line. Through Phil’s work with Florida Avenue Main Street, Jacksonville’s only Main Street program, the New Boots Project is connected to organizations working with people building new careers after incarceration. The Home Builders Institute’s Jacksonville academy provides professional trade training and development. The Historic Eastside Community Development Committee puts those skills to work on real homes in the neighborhood, starting with the historic porches that define Jacksonville’s East Side.

The trades do not care where you have been. They care whether you show up and do the work. The New Boots Project exists to help people get there.

Scholarships (Coming Soon)

The long-term mission is to build a permanent scholarship pipeline for trade school enrollment. As Morning Oil grows, the giving arm grows with it. Scholarships are next.

Why this Matters Now

The trades workforce is contracting at the worst possible moment. For every five people retiring from a skilled trade, only two are entering to replace them. Meanwhile, automation is reshaping white-collar industries and increasing demand for the people who build, wire, weld, and maintain the physical world.

The worker shortage is not a future problem. It is happening now. And the people who should be filling these roles often face the same barrier: they do not have the basic equipment to start.

Manual labor is not second-class labor. It is the backbone of everything.

Our Partners

The New Boots Project works with organizations that share our belief that skilled trades are a legitimate, honorable, and essential path forward.

GRAINGER

A mission-driven partnership with Grainger generates funds that go directly into tool gift certificates for program graduates entering the workforce.

WINTER

Women in Non-Traditional Employment Roles. A Southern California nonprofit working to increase the representation of women across skilled trades. WINTER provides training, community, and connection. We provide boots and tools.

HAWX

A mission-driven partnership with Grainger generates funds that go directly into tool gift certificates for program graduates entering the workforce.

Get Involved

Whether you want to donate, partner, or simply share the mission, there is a place for you here. Every contribution goes directly into boots, tools, and trade school support for people entering the workforce.

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