Why the TikTok-famous ‘Boot Girls’ consider themselves Atlanta’s heroes

The Boot Girls are helping Atlantans by removing boot devices that immobilize vehicles. The memorable pair has gone viral on the internet with their flashy ski masks and persistence to remove boots from cars.

One video showed them removing a boot despite an angry Employment Permit System worker trying to stop them.

Some guy tried to stop the boot girls. 👎pic.twitter.com/ye65uR6ipA

— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) May 6, 2023

Their customers simply contact them to come and remove the boots manually, which is allegedly legal as long as the property is not damaged. However, according to 11 Alive, it is not illegal to purchase a boot key but removing a boot on your own is illegal if you’re not permitted and licensed to do so.

This is a similar business model to Christian Verrette, the owner of ATL Boot Key, who spoke to rolling out in October of 2022. His company focuses on selling the keys to people in the city of Atlanta, so they can remove boots themselves.

Now, the entrepreneurs are collaborating to help fight what they are calling a booting issue. 

Boot Baby and Boot Shiesty spoke to rolling out about why they enjoy being called heroes.

How did the collaboration with ATL Boot Key come about?

Boot Baby: [Christian Verrette],helped us get a lot more keys that we did not have.

Boot Shiesty: … So we can make more money and moves across the city and everything. He gave us knowledge that we didn’t know we needed. There’s a lot of stuff he helped us out with.

Why should business owners collaborate rather than compete with one another?

BS: I feel like at the end of the day, everyone wants to “ban the boot.” If we all could just come together, stop the violence. … And really just talk instead of sending workers to communicate with us, then we can ban this boot, and nobody would have to worry about it.

BB: Just work together.

What do you all want to see change in your community?

BB: We want to see the boots gone because if you guys keep them, we’re just going to keep taking them off.

BS: Yeah, every time we’re going to take it off. We want to see them gone. We don’t want to see people coming downstairs not happy when they are ready to go to work or somewhere [else].

Some people are calling you two heroes. Is that a lot of pressure?

BB: Not really, I kind of feel happy to be someone’s hero and help somebody else.

Do you have any other collaborations coming up?

BS: We have merch coming soon. We’ll be working with Christian more and we’re working toward being in the loop.

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