Adaaku does not just make any kind of shoes, she makes them compelling with a solid grip on the foot. Her talent also spans other crafts, including teaching the knotting of women’s head gear, popularly known as gele, fascinator, Ankara craft and bead making.
By Ishaya Ibrahim
With a Business Education degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University gathering dust and job offers in sight, Mbamara Adaaku Stella took matters into her hands. She chose shoemaking as a business – a practical choice driven by a simple truth: everyone wears shoes. It was a pragmatic choice.
“I was motivated into shoe making business after I left school. There was no job for me to do in the job market because jobs were very scarce, so I decided to add handwork to my academic skills”, she told TheNiche in an interview.
The choice of which handwork to go into was not so difficult for Adaaku. “I went into shoemaking because I noticed that there is nobody in Nigeria today who does not wear shoes and these shoes often do not last long in a wet country like Nigeria.”
She added: “There are about eight months of rain every year and the roads are always flooded. Since shoes are worn under these conditions, it makes them necessary to be repaired or to be changed so the turnover will be very high. That’s how I found the business to be good. So, I went to learn it and I found that it was not a difficult skill to learn.”
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Other crafts
Adaaku does not just make any kind of shoes, she makes them compelling with a solid grip on the foot. Her talent also spans other crafts, including teaching the knotting of women’s head gear, popularly known as gele, fascinator, Ankara craft and bead making. “l go by the name Starcrfties because I’m into many other crafts, one craft leads to the other,” she enthused.
Gender not a barrier
This young entrepreneur who became a professional shoemaker three years ago after starting learning the art some seven years earlier, says she never saw shoemaking as a male dominated industry. “I did not make a distinction of whether the profession belongs to male or female. Everyone wears shoes, children, adults, men and women wear shoes as a commonplace thing. So, I do not see any distinction. It is like asking me as a teacher how do I feel being a female teacher? I do not feel anything about shoe making being a male dominated profession. If it was male dominated then, it meant that at that time women had not known that they could be in it. And since the profession has opened its doors to women, I feel very much at home.”
Start-up capital
Adaaku’s initial start-up capital came from savings made while operating from home to cut overhead costs. She said: “Yes, sourcing of capital was a challenge initially, starting a business requires investment in equipment and materials. To overcome this, I saved and started small, working from home and saving profits to reinvest in the business.”
Challenges
As a new brand, the initial challenge for the young entrepreneur was penetrating the market already dominated by other brands. But Adaaku isn’t scared. She has quality on her side. She listed her initial challenges: “I had some challenges. (a). The established competition: the market already has established shoe repair and shoe makers. (b.) Balancing quality and pricing to compete with the existing business brands.”
According to the creative footwear designer, although it took time to penetrate the market, consistent quality and customer satisfaction helped her build a loyal client base. Adaaku said as a business owner in Nigeria, some peculiar challenges faced include: poor power supply, market competition, fluctuation in exchange rates, and many others.
Breakthrough moment
She recalled one particular experience that stands out for her. A customer had approached her to make Ankara Silpas design for 50 persons. Although the deadline was tight, she was able to deliver the job.
Japa?
Adaaku isn’t thinking of Japa because her business is already grounded with a customer base. Besides, she’s not interested in traveling to a country only to face being relegated as second- or third-class citizen.
She said: “I decided to stay in Nigeria because, here I already have a customer base and am familiar with the market environment. Secondly, I do not want to go where I will be regarded as a second- or third-class citizen.”
Adaaku’s brief profile
Mbamara Adaaku Stella is an industrious young Nigerian blessed with the gift of hand craft. She taught bead making, fascinator, auto gele, and Ankara craft at Sure Success Mission Street by Abule-Ado Bus Stop from 2015-2019. Born in Imo State, she has a B.Sc. in Business Education from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State. She had previously taught Economics at Isu High School in Imo State from 2011 to 2012.
