Car batteries. Coffins. Shoes.
These three products are items where quality should not be ignored. Lead acid car batteries are vital in the cranking and performance of your vehicle; a good coffin with an even better seal keeps the buggies off of you after you croak, and most importantly, you are on your feet every day. Your feet deserve something nice.
That is where Nisolo shoes come into the picture. Nisolo makes high-quality, handcrafted leather shoes and accessories in Peru. These Peruvian shoemakers have grown up in the local shoe industry for generations and are the epitome of few artists left around the world who view a handmade leather shoe for what it is—a work of art.
Nisolo is a socially conscious brand dedicated to offering a unique product that fuses quality and fashion with a vision to spur sustainable development throughout impoverished regions of the world. A Nisolo purchase is a direct investment in the future of the impoverished artisan who crafted it. Supporting Nisolo allows the consumer to directly impact one of the most powerful forms of poverty alleviation: job creation. The team at Nisolo follows the general mantra that wearing Nisolo means wearing change.
And Nisolo’s shoe designs happen to look damn smooth, too.
We had the opportunity to sit with Nisolo founder and CEO Patrick Woodyard to ask him some direct questions about the economic impact, style and history of Nisolo.
Paste: How and why did Nisolo start? Who are the founders?
Woodyard: Well, I am the CEO. I work with Zoe Cleary and Nick Meyer who make up the executive team. More importantly, we have a team of 30 shoemakers in Peru, including three Peruvian managers. I spent a few years working in developing countries before Nisolo got started. My passion and experience working with sustainable poverty alleviation programs eventually led me to a year in Peru, where I worked with a micro-finance organization striving to lift impoverished women and their families out of poverty by creating and maintaining sustainable micro-businesses. This experience eventually led to the creation of Nisolo. One of the husbands of one of our clients, Willan, was a shoemaker, and he introduced me to a massive community of shoemakers in Trujillo, Peru. Upon seeing their remarkable talent yet lack of access and inability to provide for their families, I was led to start Nisolo as a means of providing the “access” they lacked to grow their businesses.
Paste: How long has Nisolo been in operation?
Woodyard: The idea for Nisolo was born in November of 2010, and our team did not begin working full-time on the venture until July of 2011. We were able to fully launch our product line in October of 2011.
Paste: What makes a Nisolo shoe better than a shoe made from other countries? Essentially, why Peru?
Woodyard: What sets our products apart the most is the time and dedication that goes into making each shoe. Nisolos are handcrafted by master craftsmen with a lifetime of experience in shoemaking, having been raised in the center of the shoemaking capital of Peru. Almost all of the materials that make up our shoes are natural, and we use no synthetic leathers. Each shoemaker earns a fair wage that is enabling them to improve the opportunities and future of their families.
Paste: Who designs the shoes? With oxfords, saddles and chukkas, do you see yourself targeting the 20-something wanting to add pop to their outfit?
Woodyard: I design most of our men’s products and [co-founder and COO/VP of design] Zoe designs most of our accessories and all of our women’s shoes. However, the final product always ends up being a collaboration between one of us and our shoemakers, who offer a unique angle and style. I would say that my inspiration for the design comes from the difficult time I’ve had in trying to find a men’s shoe that has a nice, classic yet stylish look without it being over-the-top fashionable or extremely expensive. I’m inspired to offer a product line of men’s shoes that are designed in a way that allows the shoes to be versatile—ones that can be worn to both work or out on the town with friends. Zoe wanted to mention that she has always been drawn to beautiful textures and fabrics, especially leathers and unique materials like the ones that you will find in Nisolo designs. She says “I wanted our products to embody the simple and effortless elegance that I grew up admiring in my mother, who channeled the Old-World feel of sophisticated Italian style yet also glorified that free-spirited Californian je ne sais quoi.” Touchable luxury, bold lines and comfort are embellishments that capitalize on the Peruvian stylistic bone structure of the Nisolo line.
Paste: How do you find your artisans? What makes them an artisan?
Woodyard: The original shoemaker we met was the husband of one of the microfinance clients I had been working with in Peru. He then introduced us to this massive shoemaking community. After visiting over 40 different shops, we decided to work with three shops based on the quality of their goods and their need for jobs and a new market for their goods. Decades of experience make each one of our shoemakers an artisan. To them, each product is a work of art that brings a lot of pride and dignity to their persona.
Paste: What positive difference have you seen so far in your employees?
Woodyard: We have created or are sustaining the jobs of 30 individuals. In terms of creating jobs, each shop once averaged around three to four employees. Now, each shop averages 10 employees due to the capital and increase in demand we have created for their products. Another considerable impact worthy of mentioning is all of the micro-businesses we affect in Peru. Our impact not only affects our shoemakers, but everyone else along the supply chain—leather tanneries, rubber makers, etc. On average, the four shoe shops have tripled their former revenue and increased per product profit margins by a minimum of 40 percent in comparison to domestic sales that took place before partnering with Nisolo. This has led to an average income increase of at least 200 percent per artisan over the last year and as much as a 500 percent income increase in some cases. We have seen remarkable home improvements, inaugural access to education for [the artisans’] children and the enhancement of operations and equipment within each shop.
When I first visited the home of Willan, one of our shoemakers, I witnessed how the roof overhead could not keep water from leaking on his children’s beds when it rained. The leaking water combined with the dirt floor of his home was hurting both his product and his quality of life. Due to the work of his own hands and the demand for Nisolos, Willan has since been able to refinish the walls, floors and roof of his home and even has begun adding a second floor in hopes to further grow his shoe shop, and thus a brighter future for his family.
Paste: What is your personal favorite shoe design?
Woodyard: My personal favorite is the Emilio Chukka in Oak and/or wingtip Oxford [release date set for fall 2013].
Paste: Where do you see Nisolo going in the next three years? More designs?
Woodyard: In the near future, we’ll be introducing a beautiful line of women’s tote bags. They’re high-quality and constructed from rugged leathers and bright-colored Peruvian woven fabrics. Our spring footwear line will have a few new styles, like a men’s boat shoe. Next fall, we are releasing a line of wing-tip and traditional dress Oxfords, mid-calf men’s lace-up boots, a women’s traditional pump and full-length women’s boots.
Over the next few years, we plan to continue to develop our line of leather shoes and accessories while creating more jobs in Peru in this sector. In addition, we plan to empower more artisans by developing further high-quality handmade products such as a line of alpaca wool sweaters and scarves as well as line of handmade jewelry.
Paste: Roughly what percent of cost is landing in the hands of the artisan? Does Nisolo work directly with the artisans or through a third party distributor?
Woodyard: Nisolo works closely with our artisans on a daily basis in all aspects of the production side of our operations including organization, design, training, business development and exporting the products from Peru. Better than the industry standard, around 35 percent of the retail value of our shoes returns to the shoemakers. Hand-making goods for Nisolo’s market allows our artisans to make between two and six times as many shoes as they were once able to produce.
Paste: How do you plan to effectively move Nisolo to larger markets?
Woodyard: In order to build a brand that has the ability to create thousands of jobs in impoverished areas around the world, we will need the help of magazines, bloggers and journalists, and we will need our clients to not only be loyal customers but committed brand advocates. We need everyday consumers to realize that their purchases make big differences, and a tangible one at that. Will we choose to support traditional brands that support mass production through cheap labor and low wages or will we support a brand that is creating jobs in impoverished areas, allowing inaugural access to education and a stable roof over someone’s head?
Paste: In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges to running a unique and up-and-coming business like yours?
Woodyard: The greatest challenge we face is striving to build a world-class footwear brand and dealing with the challenges of manufacturing in the developing world. Our products are not mass produced in far-off, low wage-paying factories. Our belief in empowering the human face behind each product prohibits us from operating through a simple point-and-buy process like many brands out there. Each handmade product is a work of art to the shoemaker who crafts it. Behind each product are hours and hours of thoughtful design, planning and at times difficult resourcing on our part leading up to the “perfect pair” you see on the shelf. Operating a formalized business in an underdeveloped micro-economy in the developing world presents a plethora of difficulties that are impossible to foresee or understand until you have experienced them yourself. Nonetheless, our advice to social entrepreneurs hoping to do something similar to Nisolo would be to just do it. You’ll learn a whole lot in the process.