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An Oliberté holiday story from Uganda…

Last week I was heading to Ethiopia to visit our team, factories and tanneries. Making a quick stop via Entebbe, Uganda, I was not expecting much of the stopover, as it was only a 5 hour stop in the middle of the night, but something a bit magical happened.

After picking up my bags, as I entered the elevator, I saw an airport worker running for the lift, so I held it for him. He made it in a huff and kindly asked me where I was going. I shared that I was going to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia via Ethiopian Airlines and he said to follow him as he works for that airline. Its 1am at this point, and with nothing to do, I follow. He was genuine and nice but as we’re walking to his office, something about his foot candy looked oddly familiar. To confirm what I already knew at this point, I said, what brand are you wearing and he says “I don’t know but it was a gift recently by the Ethiopian embassy in Uganda for our work in moving cargo for Ethiopian Airlines.”

So I ask him if I can see the inside of his shoe and he quickly looks at my shoes (I was wearing the ADIBO Black Sheep boots) and he says with humble curiosity, “you are the manufacture of these shoes!?!.” So we talk a bit and I tell him about Oliberté, our footwear and our passion to make quality footwear in Africa.

Its interesting that our shoes have become a political gift between African countries. I didn’t have that in mind when I first thought about the impact we would have in making premium boots and sneakers in Africa – but this is amazing. This is Oliberté.

Anyway, Kenneth (pictured above), says he loves the style of the Oliberté boots (though he thought they were safety boots, hence why he is wearing them at the airport) and he went on and on about how comfortable they are and how his girlfriend says they make him look cool-it’s awesome that from New York to Tokyo to Entebbe, the ADIBO chukka is a fan favourite.

Just a nice encounter I thought I’d share sitting in an airport getting ready for the holidays.

Happy Holidays.

This is Africa.
Tal @ Oliberté Footwear

keneth from ethiopian airways in adibo antique brown


Published by: admin on December 12th, 2010 | Filed under Media, Stories
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Behind the Scenes in Ethiopia

Check out our first first with footage from production in Ethiopia.

Music is K’NAAN’s “Waving Flag” which is the official song of Coca Cola’s FIFA World Cup 2010 Sponsorship.
Check K’NAAN and his music at: http://knaanmusic.ning.com/


Published by: admin on January 6th, 2010 | Filed under Factories in Ethiopia, Media
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Why our Leather is so soft and light?

So what makes our leather so special?

As our first supporters begin wearing their Oliberté shoes this week, many have already been asking what makes our leather so special and why our shoes are so light and comfortable?

Here is the scoop:

The average animals used for most leather in other parts of the world only live for about a year. These animals (cow, sheep, goat) are typically injected with hormones to speed up their development, so that they can be used for meat or leather much sooner than would naturally be possible. As such, because hormone-injected animals are put under so much bodily stress to stretch and grow, the leather is generally much heavier and and not as soft.
However, in Ethiopia, where we make our shoes and source our leather, these same animals provide local farmers with their livelihoods for many years.  The cows and goats continue to provide milk to farmers and their families and only near the end of their natural lives, are the animals used for other income-generating activities such as meat or leather.
The average animal used in making Oliberté shoes has lived on average 5-6 years more than similar animals in other parts of the world, and has not been caged or stressed.  As such, each of our shoes is made with the most natural leather available in Africa, and this is what makes it soft and light.
But why leather?
Ethiopia has the largest amount of livestock in Africa, and it and its leather has the potential to bring enormous opportunities to all Ethiopians. Oliberté is about building a better Africa through footwear and that means using resources that are locally available AND that provide the best opportunity for better-wages and better quality of life for Ethiopians and all Africans. This is our leather. This is Africa. This is Oliberté!

Published by: admin on October 29th, 2009 | Filed under Material
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Why get started on Oliberté?

As we were beginning to talk to a number of charities interested in acquiring mbas without borders, I kept thinking what’s next – I talked to a lot of contacts and friends in the industry particularly in Africa and it came back to one thing – that they said “we don’t need another charity – we need jobs – we need something the world is willing to buy (i.e. a product) from Africa. A product that we can be proud of.

So i strated doing some digging at it turns out that there is not one single company working exlusively in Africa to make shoes for the international market.

You have the largest amount of natural rubber in Liberia and the Largest selection of livestock in Africa in Ethiopia plus a growing manufacturing industry – so why not!?! So that’s how the idea started.


Published by: admin on October 8th, 2009 | Filed under Uncategorized
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Welcome to Oliberté!

We’re on our way.  Almost there. Today we announced the 2 factories (sorry: still top secret) in Ethiopia that we are going to work with to produce our first 2 lines (Rovia and EliKa). We’re super excited as picking these two was quite the process but important.

Quality and attention to detail was important, but equally we were looking at how they pay their staff, how they treat their staff, how many women they hire, what type of glues were they use, etc. etc. etc. While not perfect in every category, we are really happy the 2 we chose. We didn’t expect them to be perfect but what was important was how much they wanted to improve their standards to one day become as perfect with respect to quality and employee and environemntal responsibility.


Published by: admin on July 1st, 2009 | Filed under Factories in Ethiopia
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