The original idea of Bethlehem Aleman was rather humble. She just wanted to provide a decent living for herself and her family in their village, the Zanampegkourk , about 30 kilometers fromAddis Ababa .
Having the side of her husband-"my support," she says-her little brother Samuel and two artisans, opened a family shoemaking, in an area that lent her grandmother.
"He had no idea how shoes are made," describes today Samuel. "The first we made reminded more beds miniatures!". But thanks to the imagination and perseverance, Bethlehem Ethiopia quickly got wind of a young businessman.
He made plans, choose colors, decide the materials to be used by the crafts of all-organic and recyclable-photographed handmade products and began to sell to Amazon .
We've noticed our Barcelona store getting lots of attention, so we've gathered the best comments from articles for you to read.
dezeen writes: "Spanish firm Dom Arquitectura and Rwanda-based Asa Studio renovated the narrow interior by stripping away the tiles that used to line the walls then painting over the rough plastered surface and blobs of leftover adhesive with a grey glaze"
Located in Gracia, in one street with high pedestrial flow, we had a very small place and a very limited budget.The place was an old butcher with white and bright tiled walls. The coating did not fit with the brand and with the image that we wanted for the store. So we took out the tiles, but decided to leave the plaster gobs that held them, and paint in that textured walls with a stone grey with a gray glaze, so we keep alive part of the place history.
Ahead the walls, as a new layer, we proposed a number of recycled items, such as pallets, ropes and wheels that fit with the brand image and the idea that we wanted to convey. With minimal resources we bet for a sustainable and original design.We decided to use natural materials and neutral colors to highlight the product. The colorful shoes should be the element that attract and stand out the street walker and future client.One iron piece in "U" form wrap the space and allows us to exhibit the most outstanding shoes. One store side is lined with pallets, which helps to increase exposure while gives warmth to the space. Some ropes tied to the pallets go up by the ceiling to come down to the other store side, where they also hold several wheels, reused to promote featured shoes.Everything is held between both sides and generates a sustainable tension.
Hailed for their model of equitable and sustainable growth, soleRebels will be showcased to World Economic Forum delegates including international executives , leading entrepreneurs and global investment managers in a series of interactive site visits to the company’s artisan driven factory and soleRebels' innovative flagship retail location.
bethlehem tilahun alemu , founder and ceo of soleRebels and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader will lead the tours. Forum delegates will have the chance to interact with company founder + ceo and see+experience how she built both the fastest growing African footwear brand on the planet and the worlds first fair trade footwear company
“I am honored that the World Economic Forum has chosen to showcase soleRebels at this important global gathering which itself serves to highlight the DYNAMIC OPPORTUNITY that IS Africa! soleRebels represents an Africa replete with the ideas, creativity, people , energy , and resources to create world class products and companies . I am deeply excited to share what we have been achieving with soleRebels and show how companies like us can continue to shape, define and position African development as a living and breathing reality that is reflective of the voices of African peoples AND is driven by their talents, their aspirations , their desires and their dreams.” stated Bethlehem.
Among the delegations scheduled to tour soleRebels is The Global Leadership Fellows Programme (GLFP) a unique World Economic Forum leadership development programme. Run by the World Economic Forum the programme finds the next generation of leaders both for the Forum’s own management and governance and also that of the world as a whole.
“The world is on the cusp of major changes and emerging markets are increasingly important as a source of incredible innovation and growth . Seeing and understanding bethlehems vision and her achievement of equitable and sustainable growth is an URGENT MUST for anyone seeking to engage with these evolving dynamics in real time ”, commented Prof. Gilbert Probst, Managing Director of the Leadership Office & Academic Affairs at the World Economic Forum.
The 22nd World Economic Forum Africa gathering brings together 700 global and regional business leaders, heads of state/government and ministers, as well as leaders from media, academia and civil society.
Under the theme Shaping Africa’s Transformation, the programme will focus on three core pillars to address key issues and opportunities:
Strengthening Africa’s Leadership
Accelerating Investment in Frontier Markets
Scaling Innovation for Shared Opportunities
Over the past decade, Africa has become one of the fastest-growing economies worldwide. Ethiopia is a prime example of Africa’s frontier economies. Home to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa is the perfect setting to convene global and pan-African leaders to shape the region’s transformation.
The Co-Chairs of the meeting are Kofi Annan, Chairman, Africa Progress Panel (APP) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Switzerland; Gao Xiqing, President and Vice-Chairman, China Investment Corporation (CIC), People’s Republic of China; Bekele Geleta, Secretary-General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Socie ties (IFRC), Geneva; Doug McMillon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart International, Wal-Mart Stores, USA; and Tidjane Thiam, Group Chief Executive, Prudential, United Kingdom.
soleRebels has just been featured in an article on News24 titled, Ethiopian shoes find world market. Check out an excerpt from the great article below:
"The shoe brand name is soleRebels and the success story behind the company based just outside the capital Addis Ababa is testimony to the belief that products made in one of the poorest countries in the world can establish themselves in the global fashion marketplace...."
This video feature was played at the Gala Night for the 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship, held in Nairobi.
The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship are sponsored by Legatum, the Omidyar Network, and Google, and this year's awards were selected by an elite group of judges, including Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson.
soleRebels was selected as a Winner at the Awards, and received a prize of $50,000 USD.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, founder & managing director of soleRebels, Africa’s fastest growing footwear brand, has been awarded the prestigious Most Valuable Entrepreneur (MVE) award during a special event at the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Week [GEW] in Ethiopia.
“I am honored to be given this award. I accept it with the full knowledge that not simply hard work, but good fortune and having a great team beside me, have allowed me to achieve my dreams. That is the true power of entrepreneurship - it involves not only an idea and a single person, but also those who will follow that idea, dedicate themselves to it and make it a living and breathing reality. It is within this process that greater shared prosperity for the many can be achieved.”
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011, the world's largest celebration of entrepreneurship, features millions of people participating in thousands of events in more than 100 countries and all 50 United States. Events are held November 14-20, 2011, to celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity. Now in its fourth year, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) will bring together aspiring and inspiring entrepreneurs, helping them embrace originality, imagination and ingenuity through local, national and global activities.
GEW has grown exponentially since its inaugural event in 2008. Last year more than 7.5 million people took part in an estimated 37,000 events across 104 countries and this year more than 10 million people in 102 countries are expected to participate. Co-founded by the Kauffman Foundation and Enterprise UK, a business-led, government-backed campaign in the United Kingdom, GEW helps develop young people's knowledge, skills and networks to inspire them to grow sustainable enterprises. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and others will participate in a host of activities that are virtual and face-to-face events, large-scale competitions and intimate networking gatherings.
Ethiopia joins 119 nations to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship week from November 14 to 20. Michael Fekade, Chief Executive Officer of Empact Capital Partners, LLC, the host of the weeklong event, says it will give young people an opportunity to network. Aspiring entrepreneurs will be encouraged to foster creativity to build businesses.
Bethlehem received the award in front of a packed audience of over 300 at the GEW Ethiopia forum on "Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia" , held today at Addis Ababa University .
Addis Ababa University Faculty of Business and Economics hosted this event where Bethlehem spoke alongside fellow Ethiopian entrepreneurs Ermias Amelga founder of Access Capital , about the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship based on their personal stories and experiences. Girma Wolde-Giorgis, the president of Ethiopia, expressed his excitement for the country's first-ever celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – soleRebels, Africa’s fastest growing footwear brand, has inched one step closer to the prestigious 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship with its selection to THE FINAL 15 companies who will proceed to the final round of judging.
“At our core, we at soleRebels are creative artisans who aim to craft the coolest and most comfortable footwear. We do this by combining our heritage artisan crafts with modern design sensibilities, while pouring our creative selves into our shoes. The final result is that when our footwear is bought, the purchaser can SEE, FEEL and enjoy all the elements of heart, soul and creative craftsmanship that have gone into their construction. We are deeply proud that that this ethos has carried us to the top 15 of this amazing competition!” stated soleRebels founder and managing director Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu.
The Awards, dubbed the Nobel of Business Awards in Africa, honors Africa’s best entrepreneurs who work to create businesses that meet the needs of those around them and by doing so raise the living standards of their communities while also creating something of lasting value for themselves, their employees, their communities and their nations and rewards them with prizes of $350,000.
This years Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship received more than 3,300 applications from top companies in 48 African countries, the most ever received. soleRebels selection to the final 15 puts it into an elite category of achievement for the companies selected.
The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship is owned and founded by Legatum a private investment group, based in Dubai, with a twenty-five year heritage of global investing. They manage a multi-billion dollar fund of proprietary capital which is allocated to businesses and programmes that promote sustainable development.
Legatum is joined by Omidyar Network as a major sponsor of the 2011 Africa Awards. Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $400 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including microfinance, property rights, government transparency, and social media. To learn more, visit www.omidyar.com.
Google is also a partner of the 2011 Africa Awards. Their mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google's strategy in Africa is to get more users online by developing an accessible, relevant and sustainable internet ecosystem.
Reducing access as a barrier to all potential users
Making the Internet relevant and useful to Africans
Helping strengthen an Internet ecosystem in Africa that is vibrant, and sustainable and self-sufficient in the long-term
The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship is collaborating with Google in exploring a number of initiatives to promote African entrepreneurship within the scope of the Africa Awards programme.
Ten Finalists will be honored at this year's invitation-only Gala Awards that will take place on December 8th, 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya. The Gala Awards event will lead into a high-profile conference on entrepreneurship - CONVERGENCE Africa, which will be addressed by business luminaries like Sir Richard Branson. One Grand Prize winner will receive US $100,000 to invest back into the business and employees, and five others will receive awards of US $50,000.
The World Economic Forum has announced that Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, founder and managing director of trailblazing footwear brand soleRebels, will be a featured speaker at this years Annual Meeting of the New Champions.
In 2007 the World Economic Forum established the Annual Meeting of the New Champions [AMNC], held annually in China and alternating between Dalian and Tianjin. The AMNC has since become known as the “Summer Davos”, and provides a platform for emerging, high-growth companies to work alongside already established global companies and top political and academic leaders to identify fresh new ideas and innovative new technologies that will lead to further global growth. This year's AMNC will take place 14-16 September in Dalian, China. Premier Wen Jiabao will deliver the plenary address.
This year's meeting takes place under the theme MASTERING QUALITY GROWTH. An intensive and interactive three-day program will explore the following four elements of this new business matrix:
Embracing Disruptive Innovation
Pursuing New Frontiers of Growth
Shaping New Industry Models and Policies
Sustaining a Creative and Entrepreneurial Culture
Bethlehem’s session is titled New Frontiers of Consumption and will examine how consumer priorities are evolving across new economic, demographic and technological frontiers. She will also address the following core issues:
Emerging and frontier market consumers
Young consumer attitudes
The role of technology
Satisfying demand for quality and sustainability
“I am honored and excited to be addressing this forum . It will give me a chance to share what soleRebels has been doing in regards to creating a global footwear brand while simultaneously promoting a very dynamic model of sustainable development. It will also be a great forum to hear what others think of this model and discuss where elements from this model can have meaningful + global impact,” stated Bethlehem.
Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab described Bethlehem’s upcoming speech in the context of the meeting:
“Complexity, interconnectivity and sustainability are emerging as the dominant new realities of the 21st century. A consequence of these realities for industry leaders and policy-makers is the rebalancing of the global economy, which in turn requires recognition of both the qualitative and quantitative measures of growth. To master quality growth at the global level, leaders must discern various policy priorities of multiple government ministries and industry regulators. At the regional level, leaders need to determine the next frontier for growth. At the organizational level, leaders must determine if the entrepreneurial and creative talent is in place to work across all these levels. Bethlehem is extremely well positioned to address all of these interlinking realities in a comprehensive manner, most of all with an authentic voice , one that comes from her experience of having implemented this exact type of vision.”
Tadias Magazine has just featured soleRebels and our new website in a great article on their website. Read an excerpt of what they had to say about soleRebels below:
SoleRebels, one of Africa’s leading green-footwear brands, has announced the launch of its new e-commerce website. The Ethiopia-based company’s eco-fashion shoes – nicknamed the ‘Nike of Africa‘ – are produced using indigenous practices such as hand-spun organic cotton and artisan hand-loomed fabric. Recycled tires are also incorporated for soles. The end result is environmental-friendly and top quality, vegan footwear.
Industry State Minister Tadesse Haile said SoleRebels, an Ethiopian factory that entered into international market is promoting the country’s image.
The founder and managing director of SoleRebels factory Bethlehem Tilahun has been named Outstanding Businesswoman at the 2011 African Business Award.
In a press conference he gave with owner of the factory, Bethlehem, in connection with the award here on Friday, the minister said the factory is enabling the country earn foreign currency.
He said the factory has put in place modern market system and secured international rights.
Tadesse said the factory,which is environment friendly, makes use of more than 95 percent raw material locally available.
Bethlehem on her part said the award is a pride for Ethiopia and a pioneer for other African countries.
She said the award is also a good indication for the effective implementation of the five-year Growth and Transformation Plan.
This video feature was played at the Gala Night for the 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship, held in Nairobi.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – soleRebels, Africa’s fastest growing footwear brand, has inched one step closer to the prestigious 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship with its selection to 
does it get better than this....a few days after winning outstanding business woman award for 2011 , i am being