Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear brand takes on the Asian market
Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear company that has received an immense amount of international attention, was recently featured in the December edition of the Chinese Vogue magazine alongside well established brands such
Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear brand takes on the Asian market
Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear company that has received an immense amount of international attention, was recently featured in the December edition of the Chinese Vogue magazine alongside well established brands such as Armani, Chanel, Gucci and wilson. This comes at a time when soleRebels is positioning itself strategically for expansion across Asia.
The company, which opened its first Taiwan store in Kaohsiung last month, has just unveiled its second store in the city of Taichung. “The city is incredible, a must go tourism destination in Taiwan,” said Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, founder and CEO of soleRebels. “The crowds in the area where we are located are fantastic. Additionally Taichung is also a footwear epicentre, home to the Asian design centre for the planet’s largest footwear brand (Nike). It’s probably one of the most visited and watched footwear hubs in Asia.”
Alemu said that the response to both stores has been positive and the environmentally friendly soleRebels brand is regarded highly in the market. “[Taiwan] is one of the top 10 footwear markets in the world,” added Alemu. “Plus it is a gateway market into further Asian expansion including China where we plan to open stores in 2013. We feel very strongly that Taiwan is the perfect place for soleRebels to anchor our Asia wide roll-out.”
SoleRebels, which is the world’s first fair trade certified footwear brand, is also opening its third store in Taiwan this week in Pingtung City. “This opening is even more significant as it puts us well on the way to our goal of 30 soleRebels stores in Taiwan by 2015,” she told How we made it in Africa.
In addition, the company is also expected to soon launch stores in Singapore, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. “We feel strongly that there is immense potential for the brand all over Asia and Southeast Asia and so it’s natural for us to be in these markets,” continued Alemu. “In the United States we will roll out quite a few locations in 2013, beginning with our flagship New York City store.”
Having started in 2005 with just five employees, the company is expanding fast and creating jobs both locally and globally. “We are adding thousands of domestic, full-time, creative and well paid jobs over the next 36 months,” she said. “Through our store openings we will also create 600-800 global jobs by 2016.”
The company is planning on building a new factory in Ethiopia, replacing the current facility. “It allows us to continue to grow community employment to new heights as there will be many new jobs created when this facility is operational,” stressed Alemu.
SoleRebels predicts its global retail roll-out to add over US$15-20 million in revenues by 2015, and by 2020 Alemu aims to have over 150 retail stores worldwide.
Re: Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear brand takes on the Asian market
This relates to my other thread about Asia overtaking Europe in terms of global economic dominance. Very good for Africans to branch out to Asian markets as well as their own.
Re: Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear brand takes on the Asian market
soleRebels began in 2004 as an idea: to bring jobs to our community, Zenabwork, a small village in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a place where there literally were none.
Re: Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear brand takes on the Asian market
this reminds me, i just found about an ethiopian footwear company the other day that i really like called sawa
they also sell in quite a few stores in asia (japan and hong kong) and europe too. too bad they only sell mens shoes :(
eta:
reading up on the company and turns out the founders of the company aren't african unfortunately. it was founded by three european white dudes but the shoes are produced in ethiopia
Re: Ethiopia’s soleRebels footwear brand takes on the Asian market
Quote:
Originally Posted by afro_baby
eta:
reading up on the company and turns out the founders of the company aren't african unfortunately. it was founded by three european white dudes but the shoes are produced in ethiopia
are you implying that Ethiopian sister lying about founding this shoe company?
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