Starter Kit. Idea 447 of 500. Cluster 23
A footwear industry on the garment industry's model: shoes and sandals soled with Sri Lankan rubber, made for the world's brands first and then under a brand of its own
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home. Much of what keeps it there (childcare, safe transport, working hours) can be sold as a service, and the industries that would employ it can be built.
The first step
Talk to two shoemakers and one sole maker about making a single sandal design together, with soles from local rubber. Make twenty sample pairs, test them for wear, and show them to a buying agent who sources footwear for brands abroad. Ask what quality, price and order size they need. The proof is a paid sample order.
- Who pays first
- A buying agent for a brand abroad who needs a new footwear supplier and pays for a sample order first.
- What leaves today
- Rubber leaves raw at a low price; soled into shoes here, it leaves as a finished product worth far more.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which footwear buyers and trade fairs it can introduce a new maker to.
- Board of Investment of Sri Lanka. Ask what a small footwear workshop making for export must register.
Check before you spend
Confirm the safety and labelling standards the buyer's country sets for footwear, and the quality grade of the rubber in every sole.
Find out these three numbers
- What price per pair does a brand's agent pay?
- What order size does a first buyer expect?
- What does a sole mould cost to make?
A comparison from the book
The apparel trade. Appendix
"Sri Lankans make the world's underwear to the world's standard"
The skill of making to the world's standard is already here; footwear puts it to new use.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.