We make shoes in Djibouti.
Two plants, our own component workshop, and the people who run them.
We built the parts of the factory nobody wanted to build.
For the first years, the answer to "why is the order late" was almost always the sole. A supplier slipped, a compound came in wrong, a mould correction took a month.
So we brought compounding, moulding and tooling inside our own walls. Today the sole under a shoe leaving here was mixed, pressed and cut a couple of hundred metres from where it was lasted.
Where the work happens.
One plant handles injected and moulded footwear — slippers, sandals, clogs and direct-injected athletic. The other handles cemented, Blake and welted construction, which is slower, more skilled work.
Between them sits the component workshop: compounding, moulding and a tool room that cuts its own moulds.
On the Red Sea, on the route the ships to Europe already take.
Four reasons buyers come to us.
On the route to Europe
Djibouti sits where the shipping lanes to Europe already pass, so our goods are not starting from the far side of the world.
Everything under one roof
Cutting, stitching, moulding, lasting, finishing — and the workshop that makes the soles they all depend on.
A young workforce, trained here
We run our own school for cutting, closing and lasting, and most of our supervisors came up through it.
One place to talk to
Four product lines, one contact. You are not managing four suppliers.
The roles behind your order.
Chief Executive
The company, and the customer relationships that outlast a season.
Chief Operating Officer
Both plants and the component workshop.
Managing Director, Europe
European sales and the buyer relationship.
Technical Director
Lasts, tooling, compounds and development.
Director, Production
Scheduling, capacity and getting orders out on time.
Director, Responsibility
Working conditions, energy, water and materials.
Come and walk the floor.
Both plants and the workshop fit comfortably into a single visit.