Time Magazine
By William Lloyd George

Nov. 27, 2012

Addis Ababa – Call it a small step for a brand, but a giant leap for Ethiopian business. Shoemaker soleRebels, whose funky footwear is entirely designed and made in Ethiopia, set up its second overseas outlet in the Taiwanese city of Kaoshiung last month. The brand already operates a store in Vienna.

Boosting its international profile is a distinct possibility for soleRebels, which sells the world’s only Fair Trade-certified footwear. The fashionably designed sandals, slip-ons, lace-ups and boots are handmade and feature organic cotton linings. They’re environmentally friendly too: many of the products have soles made from recycled car tires, as does a lot of the everyday footwear found in Ethiopia. “We are working for change,” says CEO Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu. She started soleRebels in her mid-20s with five staff and a small workshop in her grandmother’s village of Zenabwork, outside Addis Ababa. Inspiration came from her homeland: poverty and unemployment indicated the need for new enterprises, and plentiful Ethiopian artisanal skills were indicative of unused talent. What won Alemu professional recognition and a string of awards, however, was her determination that soleRebels would subvert the image of Ethiopia so firmly established by the famines of 1984-5, and the international response of Band Aid and Live Aid. The brand’s foundation, says Alemu, is “trade not aid.” She adds: “We can produce and sell, and do it all by ourselves. We are not begging all the time.”

Read more at Time.com.
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Related:
SoleRebels Opens 2nd Taiwan Store (Tadias Interview & Photos)
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