Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is the founder and Executive Director of soleRebels footwear, an international footwear company based in Addis Ababa that uses traditional fabrics, leathers and recycled materials in updated designs to create modern environmentally conscious footwear. The company attracts Internet customers via its website and social network websites such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
In addition to creating a worldwide brand that meets the global demand for ecologically sustainable products, soleRebels footwear aims to provide jobs at livable wages for artisans whose work had not previously been recognized by the global market. Just 34 years old in 2014, Bethlehem has been named one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2011, one of Africa’s Most Successful Women and a Woman to Watch by Forbes Magazine in 2012. In 2014, Ms Alemu was named to Oprah Winfrey’s annual Power List.
The name soleRebels signifies that they are a shoe company using recycled materials for soles and doing things in a different way, in the spirit of creating a new world that is ecologically sustainable and that offers those who do the work a fair livable wage, the opportunity to learn and grow, and recognition for their work.
They are also rebelling against the image of Ethiopia as a charity case and instead showing that an African company can become a global brand, creating employment not just in Ethiopia but across the world. soleRebels is the first footwear company in the world to be Fair Trade certified by the World Fair Trade Organization.
Starting with a small crew of five people in her father’s house, it took the team about a year to develop the initial designs and the manufacturing process (largely by hand) before they took their products to market. Sending samples through DHL to three American retailers (Urban Outfitters, Whole Foods, and Amazon), they received an order for 2,500 pairs of shoes from Urban Outfitters; at first, the size of the order overwhelmed them.
Today soleRebels creates its shoes and growing product line in a factory located in the Zenabwok area. The workforce has grown to 90 people, and draws its inputs from a network of more than 200 suppliers; the factory can produce up to 800 pairs of shoes a day, all still lovingly hand-crafted, though the usual daily production is between 250 and 500 pairs.
On April 9, 2014, Bethlehem announced the creation of a new business venture, The Republic of Leather. She identified the luxury leather goods industry as being “ripe for a total re-imagining,” along similar lines to what she had accomplished with soleRebels and the footwear industry.
Besides espousing the same ideals of ecological and economic sustainability as soleRebels, The Republic of Leather is centered on principles of customer choice–customer choice of the design of the product, customer choice of the artisan-producer, and customer choice of the recipient of the charitable donation–5% of the product’s purchase price