Page 41 - Start Up_Genesis

blown away by the quality of the leather
produced and the craftsmanship employed. I
knew there and then that I wanted to create
my own leather accessories; interpret my own
personality and message into my crafts, make
other women fall in love with the beauty that
I had discovered and in the process, tell our
African story.
We started producing handbags in 2016
after much research and market analysis.
We currently employ skilled craftsmen
from Nigeria and Senegal who have learned
traditional methodologies and techniques
of leather works which they acquired from
indigenous vocational trainings. Between
then and now, I have personally traveled
across East and West Africa, picking up
inspiring cultures and leather processing
techniques of bag-making and other local
accessories.My travels have helped me to
adopt a taste of these African cultures and the most difficult times in business have
infuse them into our design collections. been because of a lack of capable hands or skills
to help run and manage business activities.
I have learnt to always view my challenges As a business woman, I’ve created a whole
as an opportunity to grow and learn vision for my business; we aspire to operate on
better ways of tackling issues or providing the global market and be one of Africa’s finest
solutions. Less than a year into launching artists. It’s important to me that we constantly
Lamide Samuel, I had my first child and work to reach our goals, so I push myself and
running the business remotely (because my team to keep working and aspiring to be
I was overseas) was really hard. It was like better.
nursing two babies at the same time. Also, I look at Africa as a continent and where we
are currently in the fashion industry. When I
see what Africans are getting up to in terms
of creativity and the recognition that we are
beginning to get internationally, it inspires
me a great deal. My dream is to have Lamide
Samuel hit the main stores on Oxford Street,
London and Time Square, New York but most
importantly, to make my products available and
accessible across Africa.

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