Africa’s top entrepreneur follows last month’s successful U.S. launch in Silicon Valley by bringing her WALK NAKED ethos to Athens; launching in the famed Kifissia area home to iconic luxury retailers GUCCI, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel.
“The entire soleRebels family are super excited to open our newest soleRebels flagship store in Kifissia. We couldn’t have dreamed of a better place to plant the soleRebels flag and engage with people who want to experience the soleRebels WALK NAKED vibe! ” says bethlehem tilahun alemu, soleRebels founder & ceo.
Located in the heart of the famed Kifissia shopping district , the soleRebels store is nestled amongst GUCCI, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel.
The 1,100-square-foot store brings to life soleRebels awesome walkNAKED® brand vibe . At the exterior entrance to the store fans of the brand are immediately greeted by a WALK NAKED welcome mat!
Once inside an array of merchandising allow people to jump inside the brands walkNAKED® spirit while also highlighting the brands unique, colorful, and cool artisan heritages! The store features more than 800 unique soleRebels sandals, slipOn, and laceUP styles, and with price points ranging from $50 USD to $95 USD, the products represent amazing value.
The soleRebels store also features:
[] gorgeous hand-crafted flooring made form reclaimed + repurposed wood that showcase the footwear in an awesome AFRICAN – ZEN surf look and feel .
[] Incredible handcrafted shelving made from recycled and repurposed metals
[] a customSOLE allows customers to customize ANY soleRebel style they see in the exact colors of their choice. soleRebels artisans in addis ababa will custom craft their shoes according to those specific choices and deliver them within 48 hours
[] a full soleRebels kids section that offers every single one of soleRebels in kids sizes
[] soleRebels signature stools covered in soleRebels color*FULL famed hand loomed fabrics. They are a great place for customers to try on their soleRebels or to just chill and soak in the vibes of the store!
[] a dedicated b*knd section, featuring footwear products created + crafted for vegans, veggies + everyone who cares deeply about what they wear and who doesn’t want any animal related products making up their footwear.
[] the hanging sandal section is highlighted by soleRebels revolutionary sandal and shoe hangars, which are 100% crafted from leftover production materials, providing another layer of color and texture. Covered in the company’s signature super cool and colorful hand loomed fabrics, the hangars are a visual nod to soleRebels focus on creating true waste-free production while finding creative uses for all production leftovers.
[] a walkNAKED® lounge that lets customers come and chill while enjoying multi-media and merchandising that highlights the company’s heritage, unique artisan production techniques, and footwear. The lounge also encourages customers to upload photos of them wearing their soleRebels shoes to the soleRebels website and rewards them for doing so with a free soleRebels walkNAKED tee !
[] your soleRebels style now + always: Unlike any other footwear brand on the planet , soleRebels keeps ALL STYLES THAT THEY HAVE EVER created open + available for purchase on its website. All soleRebels stores have an online kiosk that lets customers go online on the soleRebels website and order from any of the over 4,000 [and growing] unique soleRebels styles they see.
soleRebels maintains these styles because we know that for people style is a personal issue and that should not be dictated by seasonal changes. soleRebels believes that its customers know best what they want and gives them the freedom to ALWAYS find any soleRebels that have ever been created!
[] All products sold via every soleRebels outlet are covered by soleRebels unique happySOLES guarantee. The guarantee is groundbreaking for the footwear industry and guarantees 100% customer satisfaction by promising to replace any shoe bought from soleRebels NO QUESTIONS ASKED UNTIL the customer is 100% SATISFIED!
AND the happySOLES guarantee also guarantees ANY soleRebel shoe no matter where a customer bought it for the life of the sole. if anything on the shoe goes wrong BEFORE the sole has worn through, soleRebels will replace the pair for free, no questions asked!
soleRebels is in the midst of a massive global retail rollout via company-owned and licensed stores. This retail expansion is forecast to open more than 150 stores globally and generate over $250 million USD in REVENUES BY 2018/19 and over 500 global stores and $1 billion in revenues by 2022!
This new soleRebels store expands the company’s global retail store rollout. soleRebels has stores located worldwide, including its flagship store in Addis Ababa and additional locations in Silicon Valley, Barcelona , Nyon Switzerland, Vienna, Kaoshing, Ping Tung City, TaiChung, Tainan, Singapore, and Japan. The opening continues the historic push soleRebels is making as the very first African consumer brand to ever open its own stand-alone branded retail locations in the United States.
The company feels strongly that people all over the planet want comfy, stylish, and totally unique value-priced footwear that has a unique point of view. As company founder Bethlehem puts it, “ I imagine there are quite a few folks in Athens and Greece who are super pumped to be able to walkNAKED ! “
About soleRebels
What is soleRebels?
Great question: we like to say that soleRebels is handcrafted LOVE for your feet, and LOVE is how we got started. We wanted to find a way to share our LOVE for the amazing artisan heritages of Ethiopia with the world.
So we embarked on a quest to hand-craft stunningly creative footwear by fusing Ethiopian artisan heritages with fantastic design, and the LOVE flowed from there.
The brand has created passionate fans around the planet who love how soleRebels lets them walkNAKED, enabling them to express their creativity, uniqueness + positivity through their footwear!
soleRebels was founded by Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu , a kick*$$ entrepreneur that FAST COMPANY Magazine named as One of The Most Creative People in Business. soleRebels retails though our growing global network of branded soleRebels brick and mortar retail stores, our ecommerce platform soleRebels.com, and our many fantastic retail partners.
At soleRebels, we love, embrace, and encourage creativity. In fact, we consider it our lifeblood — both as a company and for those who enjoy what we make. That’s why soleRebels is so proud to have been able to channel the immense creative talents of our community in a way that allows the world be enriched by our products, while letting the folks who work at soleRebels enjoy world class jobs and prosperity.
And doing what we do as the planets 1st and ONLY WFTO Fair Trade footwear company, just makes it that bit sweeter!
Experience more about soleRebels at www.soleRebels.com.
about bethlehem tilahun alemu
bethlehem tilahun alemu is the founder and c.e.o of iconic footwear brand soleRebels , the planet’s fastest growing footwear brand from Africa, and the founder & creator of Republic of Leather a super cool new company that is changing the way people around the world buy & love luxury leather goods .
From the humblest of beginnings, Bethlehem has risen to global acclaim building soleRebels into the very 1st global omnichannel consumer brand to emerge from an emerging market country. In the process she has forever shifted the discourse on African development from one of poverty alleviation orchestrated by external actors to one about prosperity creation driven by local Africans maximizing their talents and resources.
CNN recently named bethlehem one of the 12 greatest female entrepreneurs of the LAST CENTURY alongside COCO Chanel and Sara Blakely, calling her “ an entrepreneur who has redefined markets “ for her ground-breaking influence; FORBES Magazine listed her on their World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list – Woman to Watch ; Business Insider ranked her #1 of The Top 5 Entrepreneur’s in Africa ; Fast Company named her to The Most Creative People in Business.
Bethlehem is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader [YGL] and was recently named by President George W. Bush as his organization’s Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon Ambassador . She also serves as the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Entrepreneurship .
RELATED: 2014 FACE List Honorees: Bethlehem Alemu
