Footwear production is one of those ventures that address a basic need. It is very lucrative and can be a source of wealth creation to anyone venturing into this business. Everybody wears shoes; they are basic fashion accessories necessary to complete an outfit. For this purpose, there is a large market and big opportunity for you to make money in shoe manufacturing business. Shoes come in various shapes and sizes, and are worn for different purposes. Producing footwear requires hard work, skill, effort and creativity. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or craftsmanship. Shoemakers may produce a range of footwear items, including shoes, boots, sandals, clogs and moccasins. Such items are generally made of leather, wood, rubber, plastic, jute or other plant material, and often consist of multiple parts for better durability of the sole, stitched to a leather upper. Today, shoes are often made on a volume basis, rather than a craft basis.
Getting started
There are two ways you can start a footwear production company. One way is to start solo, making the shoes yourself . You would need to be trained by someone who is skilled in shoe making. A common practice is to stay under someone for sometime as an apprentice. You would gain skills, experience and a take-off pad to launch your business. This way requires less capital and more time. Most young entrepreneurs start like this. Another way is to open a factory and employ skilled staff to handle production while you handle management. You will need the services of creative shoe designers, production staff, marketing staff, etc. This is usually large-scale and requires more capital because you will need a factory, machinery etc.
Most people who start by themselves usually find it easier expanding into a large factory with personnel and everything. Even if you have the capital to launch a big factory, it might be important to get some skills in footwear production and know exactly what the business is about. So to start this business, get some training first.
1. Choose a Niche-:
Decide to choose which kind of shoes your company will be manufacturing. Will it be for both sexes or just for male or female? Or will you focus on making children’s shoes? Other things to consider are what type of footwear will you be making ie will it be sandals, formal shoes or informal shoes? Answers to these questions will help you know the niche your shoes will dominate.
2. Develop a Business Plan for Your Company-: After deciding the aspect of the shoe industry you wish to dominate, it’s time to draw up a business plan. The major content of the business plan is to set goals you wish your company to achieve and the step by step guide on running the business ie budget, marketing, production, operations, staffing etc and actions you are going to take to achieve those goals. The goals should be clear and very achievable, so that it will not be intimidating or overwhelming for you. For instance, planning to sell over 2 million pairs of your shoes in the first three months for a company that just started out looks overwhelming and unachievable.
3. Define Your Brand-:
Your brand is what unique features that will make your shoes stand out. It could be your logo, quality, style and fashion. This will make anybody that sees your shoes anywhere be able to instantly identify it as produced from your company. For example, a popular shoe company’s branded its shoes with red soles; so anywhere you see a shoe with red sole, you know that it’s coming from that company without even looking at the company’s logo.
4. Register your company/ Business Name-:
Register the business as a legal entity. Why? The reason is because people will prefer to deal with or buy from an incorporate business organization than buying from a private individual running a business without a legal backing. A registered business also has the advantage of doing business in other countries.
5. Get a Location for Your Business-: You need a location for production, warehouse storage, sales etc. After this is done you need to build your team by employing staff . The main team of employees you need will be the; production staff to be in charge of the design and creation of the shoes, marketing or sales team, to be in charge of coming up with creative ideas of the best ways to market your shoes and get more sales. If you are starting off alone you will need to do all these tasks till you obtain more funding to scale-up and expand your business.
6. Production-: Modern footwear is usually made up of leather or plastic, and rubber. In fact, leather was one of the original materials used for the first versions of a shoe. The soles can be made of rubber or plastic, sometimes having a sheet of metal inside. Roman sandals had sheets of metal on their soles so that it would not bend out of shape. Other components of production include the following: adhesives, buckle, counterfort, eyelet, heel, hook, insole, laces, shank, sole, tread, welt etc. The raw material will depend on the type of shoes you wish to produce. If it’s leather shoes, then you will need a bulk quantity of leather supply constantly. After you produce the first batch of shoes that will be introduced into the market; you can start with the first one hundred pairs, so as to know how customers and shoe lovers will react to your product.
7. Making the shoe
Step 1: Cutting the pattern
Almost every pair of shoes is unique and so requires a unique pattern to be cut. Pattern cutting involves creating the shape of each component of the shoe. An upper is the part of the shoe that sits on top of the foot. The other parts of the shoe that need to have patterns made include; the sole (the core of the bottom of the shoe); the insole (the internal part of the shoe that sits directly under the foot); the outsole (the outer layer that directly touches the ground) and the heel.
Step 2: Tools of the trade
One of the most important tools for making a shoe is the last, something which customers never normally get to see! The last is a foot shaped piece of material over which the shoes are molded. A different last is used for each shoe size and style. For example, a shoe with a pointy toe will be molded using a last with a pointy toe. The last is so important because it determines the fit and feel of the shoes.
Step 3: Edging
Edging is the process of flattening the edge of the pieces of leather that have been cut to the pattern so it is thinner than the rest of the leather piece. This makes for crisp, neat joins between pieces of leather giving you a much more comfortable fit as well as the quality finish you would expect from a pair of hand crafted shoes.
Step 4: Stitching
The different parts of the shoe are then carefully stitched together.
Step 5: Trimming preparation
The next step is to prepare the trimming before it is added to the shoes.
Step 6: Selecting the heel
Step 7: Trimming the excess
This involves carefully putting together and making the finishing touches to the decorative upper for another pair of hand made shoes.
Step 8: Preparing the sole
The core pieces of the sole of the shoe are then covered either side by the insole (the piece that sits against your foot) and the outersole (the piece that sits against the ground).
Step 9 : Finishing
The final cutting, cleaning and polishing of the shoes. The shoes are then boxed and shipped straight to your waiting feet!
7. Sales and Advertising-: The best way to advertise your shoes is through word of mouth to friends, family members, former colleagues and display racks at supermarkets. Another way to increase your sales is to sell your shoes online by designing a website or offer the shoes on popular shopping sites that allow individuals to display their products for shopping or drop shipping sites. Sites like Amazon.com, Ebay.com for those in Europe or America, or Alibaba.com and Aliexpress.com for those in Asia, and Jumia.com for those in Africa.
John F Fowler is a business consultant, entrepreneur and youth entrepreneurship development trainer. He has produced books on various SME business start-ups . For business advice contact him on [email protected] , www.startabusiness.com.ng, whatsapp +234 802 325 4577.
Monday November 20, 2017.
ADVERTISEMENT