popca:note-a-bear:iambickilometer:panasonicyouth:comingonstrong:itsthe80sinmypants:good:
How Oliberte, the Anti-TOMS, Makes Shoes and Jobs in Africa
Canadian Tal Dehtiar founded Oliberté Footwear, the first company to make premium shoes in Africa using African materials and explicitly linking shoes sold by Western retailers to job creation on the continent.
Read more on GOOD→
you had me at the anti-TOMS
Sold.
wow these shoes look amazing. bookmarking for possible purchase.
check this out y’all. Pretty neat!
1. this is really cool
2. i am legit salivating over these shoes i want them on my body post haste
Loved this pull out:
“TOMS Shoes is a good marketing tool, but it’s not good aid,” agrees Saundra Schimmelpfennig, an international aid expert who blogs at Good Intentions Are Not Enough, where she aims to educate nonprofit donors about effective charity. She’s criticized TOMS for competing with local producers by handing out free goods and for being “quintessential Whites in Shining Armor.” “The idea of creating jobs that pay a fair wage and provide necessary benefits,” she says, “can have far more impact than aid.”
I also love that he’s working with local producers within the products/resources they already produce, rather than plopping down and demanding that new skills and new business models be injected.
Work with, not over. Brilliant in its simplicity.
THESE SHOES BE FLY I WANT EM. ANTI-TOMS, YESSSSSS. also, as a personal side note: i called so many people to try and find someone that would let me be a shoemaker apprentice but no go. they all told me to go to art school. DID I SAY I WANTED TO LEARN TO GLUE PIECES OF FABRIC TOGETHER FOR 50,000 A YEAR?
(via erikawithac)
