How to make high-end products and promoting Ethiopian leather

Initially, the prospect of developing a luxury accessory line in Africa seemed like a contradiction for the global design industry, but that became Afomia Tesfaye’s motivation in creating Fomi, a company specialized in designing and manufacturing luxurious leather bags and related items for the high-end export market.

In early 2011, Afomia made the decision to leave Los Angeles to travel back to her native homeland Ethiopia with the intention of designing a collection of accessories, where she discovered a little known fact--that Ethiopia produces some of the world’s finest quality leather. With no formal design training, she soon completed a collection of colorful yet, sophisticated leather handbags. Although Fomi represents Afomia’s first venture into design, fashion has always played an integral role in her life, according to the high-end designer. From an early age, exposure to diversity through travel enabled her to cultivate her own interests in style and fashion as a daughter of a diplomat. While earning a degree in English Literature from UCLA, she held internships in the West Coast editorial offices of both Elle magazine and Women’s Wear Daily. For several years to follow, she would go on to further hone her skills in the apparel industry by holding positions at several notable sportswear companies, including Triple Five Soul and Juicy Couture.

Like his sister, high-end designer Mikhayel Tesfaye, who studied journalism but could not let go his passion for design, is now doing what has barely been witnessed in Ethiopia’s leather industry, producing a collection of luxurious leather shoes for the high-end export market. The design-dynamo, as colleagues nicknamed or would opt to call him, has lent his creative talent to the development of several prominent brands in today’s market place. Mikhayel, who has had experience in designing a collection for one of the world’s big names in the shoe industry, Adidas, is here to produce and export high-end leather shoes to the export market, thereby accomplishing the double task of further promoting Ethiopian leather to the world and making the best out of the leather industry. Afomi and Mikhayel spoke to The Reporter’s Hayal Alemayehu about their experience in designing in the western and developing world and the what they are doing now here at their homeland Ethiopia after residing in the diaspora over a couple of decades or so. Excerpts:

The Reporter: You are now an expert in designing handbags for the high end market. Could you tell me how it all started?

Afomia: I have worked in the fashion and entertainment industries for ten years in marketing and public relations for many well-known companies in the United States including Triple Five Soal, a big company where I worked as a marketing executive for several years. But I knew I will eventually start running my own company and I knew I will start my own business in Ethiopia. So finally I came here over a year ago now and started doing a research on what resources we have here and discovered that we have [best] leather to produce quality and high-end leather products. Going to different tanneries here I realized that it has been much of the raw and semi-processes leather that has been exported, with many foreign buyers actively engaged in the transactions. So it came to my mind that most of the leather bags and other related products with “made in France or Italy” labels might have probably been made with leathers exported from Ethiopia. So I said to my-self why shouldn’t I be the person to tell the [real] story about Ethiopian leather by using the leather and producing high quality and luxurious made-in-Ethiopia leather bags here.

When did you start the business?

I came here a little over a year ago and developed some 70 high-end leather bag collections to test the demand for those products in the United States. And I got a great response from stores and boutiques in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles where they never expected that such quality leather products are manufactured in Ethiopia. They were much exited to see the bags and to realize that they have ‘made-in-Ethiopia’ labels which inspired me to comeback here and scale-up the volume of my production. Aside from hand bags, I am producing wallets, travel bags and laptop bags and related products.

But what made your products luxurious?

It is both the quality of the leather here which I use to manufacture the products and the design. What we have here is some of the best leathers in the world while my design is in line with the latest fashion trend and of international standard. My products are a combination of hand work and machine. Although I produce in volume, I do not mass produce [as the products are luxurious]. My products are for the high-end market where the sale prices of the leather bags ranges between USD 200 and 1,000.

So have you been able to secure firm orders for your products from the States?

I did. Now I am working with seven retailers in the States. I have a best salesperson in New York. I am being sponsored by USAID to showcase my products at a major trade fare in February. I have already received great responses for my maiden collections and now I have expanded my collections a lot and expect a lot more order from the market in the States.

But what did really motivate you to come here and start your business?

It is an exciting story for me to tell that we live in one of the poorest countries in the world but we have such a rich resource in the leather industry. We have worked in the States for over ten years. It is an exciting time for young Ethiopians [like me and my brother] to come back and be here. There is wealth and development in many sectors. And we recognize the potential [to do business here] as young Ethiopians. And the potential of the leather sector is immense that it could overtake coffee as the major export earner for Ethiopia. It is an exciting story to tell that to the world [through my works]. I am now working with General Leather Goods.

You have told me that you have been working in the fashion industry as marketing executive and you are now producing high quality leather products. Where did you learn to design and manufacture leather products?

I have been working in the fashion for over ten years and I have always had an interest in designing. It is out of that desire that I learnt to produce leather products from the experience I shared in the designing industry as marketing executive. Yet, this [designing and production] is my first-time experience.

So, given your experience, what are challenges and opportunities in the leather sector that is doing much less than is expected here in Ethiopia where resource is abundant for the industry?

The leather industry has so much potential and the government [has actually] labeled it as a priority sector. The government has been investing in upgrading the sector, the leather factories and the workmanship. While that is a plus, there are many challenges in working here. I mean it would probably be easier to work in China but as Ethiopians we [me and my brother] feel it is important to come back and work here. One of the major challenges for me is the absence of accessories. All we have is Mercato and we cannot find accessories. Leather is the second higher export for Ethiopia but the fact that we cannot find basic accessories is challenging. I had ordered a lot of accessories from China a few months ago but they were seized by customs. That has slowed down my production. I had an agent who was supposed to bring the accessories from China but, for whatever reasons, his container was seized by customs. I had to go to Egypt where I heard they have some good collection accessories but it would have been easier to get them here. 

But how could you get the accessories if there is no one who is producing them here in the first place?

I mean everybody is recognizing that the absence of accessories is a big challenge for the leather product manufacturers here. With the leather production increasing rapidly, someone should have an interest to bring in accessories and related materials.

What about financing? Isn’t that a challenge to you as it is for startups?

So far, everything we [me and my brother] do is self-financed. I have so far invest over USD 50,000 in developing my collections--Fomi Collection--in Ethiopia for the handbags export.

Don’t you have support from the government which has promises to provide support and been encouraging Ethiopians in the diaspora to come and do business here?

We have heard about incentives. Right now, however, I believed that what is important for me [most] is to come back before start it all by myself before asking for finance. Moving forward, as I expand in the coming years, I know I am going to seek financing in order to develop the business because at the rate I am getting orders now, I can’t keep finance my production and expand it by myself.

So you still seek financing from the government?

Yes, from the government or from private sources.

As an expert in designing leather bags for the high-end market, thereby making the best out of the leather industry, what do you advice stakeholders to make the best out of the leather sector as you do?

I think, focusing on meeting timelines for international contract is crucial that we have to upgrade our factories to be capable to do that. Placing importance on this issue is so crucial as failing to do so or failing to ship our products on time may damage the image of our business as one that couldn’t deliver. The other crucial issue is the quality think. In China or elsewhere they have [watchful] quality control departments which make sure that every part, every stitch and every zipper is perfect. I think the factories here should focus on quality control that our products are of certain standard and timely supplied.

Could you tell me how and when you started the shoe business and what finally motivated you to comeback to your homeland?

Mikhayel: I have been in the [shoe] business almost for 15 years in New York with a lot of emerging and the largest independent urban brands including big names such as Adidas, Phat Farm, Eco Unlimited, Fubu and Rocawear. I wasn’t formally trained as a designer. I [rather] went to school to study journalism. I always had an itching for design but did not know how to get started. I literally locked myself away for over a year and mastered computer programs and learned digitally how design is transferred and how to work with factories and related stuffs. I took it upon myself to learn by working for other well-known companies around the world including Italy, Spain, England, India, China, Korea, all the major hubs for shoes production around the globe. I kind of have studies how to make sourcing production work in developing countries. When I first started working in China, it was a developing country. I have even seen how they have emerged and definitely have taken a note on what had been happening here in Ethiopia since about 2003, when I learnt about the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the changes that had been taken place in Ethiopia. So as I was working with a company, Rocawear, that at that time had a USD 300 million revenue, my question was why we can’t produce basic staffs like tea shirt and so on in Africa. But at that the logistic system and the shipment process to ship our products from Africa to the United States was unclear. I always had a wish to launch production here in my homeland but that was the time I first tried to launch production here. Then I made a comeback here in 2007, but still the logistic system was not in par with the international standard so I went back and started a shoe producing company called Greedy Genius in the States with three partners, rather than taking the risk. Since then I have been studying the system and when I realized that several conglomerates are venturing in the shoe and other related industries, and watch that the market is progressing, I reckoned that the shipment thing have been cleared. So I sold the company I co-own in the States and launched my own company called Passport and I said it is time for me to go and do business in Ethiopia.

But when and how did you launch your company?

I launched Passport two years ago with collaboration collections I developed for Adidas. So with Adidas helping me and that big-time name behind me, I was able to introduce my product to the world.

So how much pair of shoes are you producing now annually?

My annual production is about 20,000 pairs. Here I am working with OK Jamaica in an impressive new factory they built. I do all the design works while workers manufacture the shoes accordingly.

So are the shoes being exported in the name of OK Jamaica?

No. They are exported with the Passport brand name. I just came here and started working with OK Jamaica for a couple of weeks. In due time I have produced several samples and collections for the export market.

Why do you name your company or brand Passport? How come you succeed in making high-end shoe collections without a formal education?

I was not originally trained in school for product design at all and the thing that allowed me to travel around the world and gain experience is a passport, hence I named my brand Passport. And I started it with young guys in New York who were neither formally educated to do designing. So having travelled around the globe multiple times now on a corporate-level agenda and maturing overtime with ideas, concepts and sketching of the design world was something I could not have imagined as a kid. I was doing this since I was 20 years old. Now I am 36.

Which market do your products cater for?

Of course, it is the high-end market, as my products are a combination of hand work and machine and as the production is not a mass production although we produce in volume. The sales price tags of our shoe ranges from USD 140 to 350, a top bracket of what sneakers and casual shoe could sell.

So what is your plan in the future?

I am now running various experiments, including the collections I produced. When I am done with my experiments, I will be tripling the volume of my export.

Where will you be exporting these made-in-Ethiopia products under the Passport brand?

All over the world including South Africa, New Zealand, Japan, China, Australia, the United States and I believe the distribution and the volume of the export will increase with the made-in-Ethiopia labels inside with the Passport brand.

One of the big names in the shoe industry that most Ethiopians know is Adidas. What was your relationship with the company?

Adidas invited 12 different designer personalities to design 12 collections for it last year. I am not a famous guy or an athlete but, at the end of the day, I am a known and respected designer in the States and other western countries. Because of my work and the movement that I have with my brand, I was invited along with a big-time league including David Beckham and Logia Amomoto and 11 designer celebrities to create a collection for Adidas under my brand name. That was a huge honor for me. I am not an athlete or a celebrity but just a shoes company. So for another shoe company to promote me and what I do; well, it has never been done before.

What do you advice stakeholders in the leather industry to capitalize on one of the world’s finest leather resource the have here as an expert designer manufacturing for the high-end market?

Aside from the quality and timeliness issues my sister raised, communication is another area I have discovered factories here have a problem with. To do away with that problem, it just takes one young trained internist who can sit there for some hours and instantly respond to emails and related messages to foreign customers. I say this because if I were not Ethiopian and do not have that strong connection, I would have probably dropped my idea of doing business here and opt for place like China where doing business is relatively easier. In fact, I don’t even have to go to China; I can email some companies there my designs, specification and have the job done flawless. Now, because I assume it is most important for me to manufacture in my homeland, I have to be manually present here to ensure the products met the standard as I cannot get them to be done via email or so. But I think just even bringing general standard like communicating with the customer and informing buyers of the standard will increase the business here so much.