Francis Otanga

My name is Francis Otanga. I'm a shoemaker who back in the day informally entered the art of shoe making after experiencing a few setbacks from cobblers and shoe sellers of that time. The setbacks included buying shoes for my child to go to school with, but then later discover that the material used wasn't leather as indicated but synthetic. Some shoes were dyed black and within days the shoes would revert to the original brown or other colour which created frustrations. Other times, I fitted shoes and they would on average be done to very poor finishes. So overtime I observed what cobblers did and in the process I acquired a few skills that enabled me to make a few shoes for myself, my family and for sale. As I continued in my pursuit of improving on my skills in the industry. Kenya leather development council came into the picture and the situation was catapulted to new heights. They organized seminars where I met other cobblers and deliberated on the challenges we faced. A few of the facilitators had skills in the shoe industry and they shared some of those skills with us. There were a couple of subsequent seminars that I wasn't invited to but whenever I knew of it I would liaise with some of the attendees and share a skill or two and this in itself propelled my skill-set to much better levels. Personal pursuit of excellence in this industry has had lots of positive impact. Over the years as I continued to challenge myself, some clients would urge me on and my confidence grew in leaps and bounds. Later on I observed that most ladies boots were not made in our country. Most boots were sold as second hand, the new boots were on average made of synthetics. The few new good quality leather boots were sold in a handful of boutiques of which this was beyond reach of the general populace. This observation generated interest in me and I decided to try my hand in this area. A long the way there were lots of failures and a handful of successes. Now the failures have drastically reduced and there are notable successes.