UZURI K&Y

Kevine Kagirimpundu is the co-founder and CEO of UZURI K&Y, an African inspired eco-friendly footwear brand with a mission to craft viable solutions to recycle old car tyres.She was born in 1991 and in Kigali and grew up with a passion to contribute to abolishing a global waste challenge while leveraging her creativity to create jobs for her community. So far she has lead a team that made a direct impact on more than 1000 people through employment and skills training. In addition to obtaining her degree in creative design,she has also participated in numerous entrepreneurship programs to enhance her skills in business development.In 2019, she was recognized as a top 10 business hero by the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative. 

• Problem

It takes up to 80 years for a rubber tyre to decompose while polluting our water,air and taking up a significant space from communities.The old car tyres are some of the most critical sources of wastes;in Africa they are mainly being disposed in the streets and landfills of the most vulnerable urban communities inhabited by people who are socially and economically left behind.

• Solution

We  add value by manufacturing innovative footwear with recycled tyre outsoles while leveraging the knowledge and equipping the youth,women with tangible,steady technology and soft skills.

• We elevate humanity in two ways:

1.By recycling we are reducing emission of carbon dioxide while producing sustainable footwear.

2.We enhance access to jobs for the youth and women with no access to formal education while creating entrepreneurship opportunities & contribute to the growth of the economy.

The key issue we are addressing is the excessive number of car rubber tyres.Briefly, it takes up to 80 years for one rubber tyre to decompose while polluting the water, soil and air. These old tyres are mainly disposed in the streets of urban neighborhoods in Africa and they remain one of the most problematic sources of waste in the world. It is also reported that the global wastes will increase by 70% in 2050 from 200M of tones as the 2012 report by the global waste management. In addition to this, the people from these unsafe communities lack skills to tackle this issue and the leverage it to their advantage. 

In  Africa 60% of the total unemployment rate is made of the youth where  presumably young women are more likely to be unemployed even more often than young men.In addition to that the unemployment rate is expected to exponentially go higher as a result of COVID-19. Therefore,the minimal access to necessary skills results into missing chances to secure jobs among the youth from the less privileged communities while enduring a life in unhealthy lands and polluted environments. 

The project tackles the removal of car tyres that were dumped in urban communities' landfills, while leveraging technology to add value and create eco-shoes for the global market. In addition to that we created the TVET program for Sustainable Shoes Industrial Based Training “SIBT” to equip the youth & women with technical, soft skills, steady tech and Computer Advanced Design (CAD). The knowledge acquired also increases the production quality of eco friendly footwear. So far we have reached 1060 young people who have acquired the techniques, and soft skills whereby at least 10 young people have created small businesses while also teaching other young people like them. The solution can be expanded across Africa by associating with existing youths & women centers to equip them with the sets of skills through digital platforms and leverage our existing facility to provide the technical skills.  

• The youth of Africa who most likely live in urban areas where these problematic wastes are dumped, in usually less privileged communities and where people can't simply access formal education, whereby our project puts an emphasis on women who are severely affected by the consequences of lack of education. We are equipping them with soft & technical skills to learn shoe making as a profession at a very insignificantly small price to increase their chance to get jobs or create small businesses.
• Working women are the main consumer, they are customers who are looking to shop responsibly and through establishment of retail spaces and ecommerce we are able to reach them across the world by offering them authentic and socially responsible brand of shoes created locally with a reusable outsole made of recycled car tyre. 

The project relate to elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind whereby the "SIBT"creates opportunities for the less privileged to earn a viable income and live in safe, healthy neighborhood.

My co founder Ysolde Shimwe and i met in 2012 at University of Rwanda, we engaged in deep conversations and realised our desires diverged into the same direction. We saw an opportunity to support our community by using our passion of creative designs & environmental built.Therefore we started collecting old car tires and making shoes from home while learning; in that same year we sold only 87 pairs made by us and one old man who repaired shoes from the street and later became a senior shoe maker. Additionally, we reinvested the revenue, the following year, we registered the business and invited more young people kike us to learn our craft in the first year 50 people were trained from scratch with sewing, assembling, recycling and CAD techniques. We continued the program while also producing shoes that are locally celebrated with a global vision.

At university, i was training to be an engineer, but while i was there i was passionate about design as a tool to solve problems around me.I quit engineering to join "creative design & environmental built" department where i met my co founder with whom our passion converged in the same direction. We understood that as young people we are part of the 60% of the youth with no jobs by the time. We decided to join the entrepreneurship journey with an intention to involve more people like us whereby we started from people who benefitted strongly from recycling the old car tyres, they felt that they were also cleaning their neighborhood. They joined us through the training program that we called the sustainable shoes training program "SIBT". My team and have the drive to continue lifting and empowering the communities by making skills accessible to the youths and that will lead to jobs creation and generation of income.  

For a period of seven years we are running an entity that is for profit with a yet complex non profit mechanism. The resilience my team and i learned from this time has put us in a position to make it a sustainable program and even better with access to necessary resources. Furthermore, as the CEO, i have attended several entrepreneurship education programs and the team continue to train and update itself on new technology and innovation on a global scale. Finally, in 2015 my business partner of seven years and i o graduated with honors from the design school & environmental built, whereby the knowledge acquired increased our confidence to take the project on the international level. 

Within 3 years of our project my team and i continued funding the project where all trainees were studying for free. Certainly, later on, we decided to start charging around $10 in installments from each trainee. The project was not generating any income rather taking money rather supporting the less privileged to acquire knowledge. That tough period helped increase the level of trust in the project by the trainees who worked tirelessly to transform their lives after they graduate. Finally, after three years the project was funded by a local institution for a period of 6 months and opened more doors to external resources. 

In 2010 I obtained my diploma in sciences and in 2011 as i was admitted into university of Rwanda under a scholarship i was strictly instructed to follow the same path and continue my studies within Civil engineering. However, i decided i had to change to "creative designs" and follow my passion of design which i believe strongly that it (Design) is a problem solving process. Even if this was a daring decision it helped shape my path to solving challenges in my community, created jobs and helping tackle some of the global most pressing issues.

The communities we come from have been purchasing expensive imported and second hand footwear; for years where the art of shoemaking was mechanised in 1800s and has played a role in local development of countries; in Rwanda it had not happened yet until we introduced this project. The idea of making shoes is a passion and we innovated the systems to manufacture them locally while recycling old car tyres that would otherwise take up to 8 years to decompose, thus we are re-creating and using it for a greater purpose in our community. 

Activities

• Leveraging Technology & CAD to recycle wastages of old car tyres and create authentic, innovative and eco friendly footwear 
• Providing Technical of Vocational Education & training through sustainable shoe industry training (SIBT) to the  Youth and especially women from vulnerable communities 
• Keeping trash of the old car tyres out of the incinerators and landfills which reduces the emission of carbon dioxide and save up the energy used in production. 

Outputs

• By recycling we reduce the emission of carbon dioxide polluting the air by at least 500 tonnes per month
• Youth and women are equipped with skills which enhances their potential to secure jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities
• Availability of more sustainable footwear on the global market 

Short term outcome

• Happy families and 
• Jobs are created and families’ lifestyles change, more kids have access to formal education

Long term outcome

• Break the pollution of air, water, and entire environment in general for healthier future generations
• Local development through job creation and entrepreneurship opportunities
• Small businesses are born with a global vision to create sustainable products and make their communities self-reliant

Paying customer: 

• Paying Customers: 25000
• Projected paying customers in one year: 45,000

Social impact: 

• Number of graduates in the SIBT (Education program: 1050
• Number of people the project will have an impact in 5 years: 10000 
• & 100 small business created from graduates of the program. 

There short term goals (1 year) are as follows: 

• Expand the customer outreach through ecommerce by 25% online & generate its revenue on a scale of 15% of the total revenue
• Use technology to reach 1500 youths and women to access the SIBT in one year across 4 countries in Africa 

The long term goals (5 years) 

• Use technology to reach more than 10,000 youths and women through digital platforms from 20 countries across Africa
• Start 100 small businesses through the SIBT
• Expand through retail to reach 100,000 users to generate at least 50% of revenue via ecommerce. 

We reflect on at least 3 barriers  currently solving as challenges:

• Access to finance as a small business with a complex social impact built in our business model
• Skilled labor especially in the technical or "know how" field
• Market research and entry which is hardened by the COVID-19 outbreak

We reflect on the at least 3 barriers that we may also be currently solving as challenges:

• Access to finance as a small business with a complex social impact built in our business model
  • The availability of our products on affordable prices by offering multiple avenues for payment modes and accurate digital marketing with ecommerce platforms available
  • Raising money from angel investors who has an interest in the life cycle and changes of our organization. We have also raised a pool of money via grants forms which played a significant impact in the development and sustainable of growth of the business

• Skilled labor especially in the technical or "know how" field
  • We overcome this by training people to become professionals in our field by leveraging international experts in the field. 

• Market research and entry which is hardened by the COVID-19
  • In this area we are using the digital platforms to reach potential customers by creating our organization real life experiences   

We have partnered with Senior Expert Services (SES) to provide experienced trainers in footwear industry, IDIEGO for various consultation purposes. We have worked with the Rwanda Work Development Authority in the TVET & SIBT program to train the youth and women in Rwanda. 

Our business model is based on simply making availing the local produce of sustainable,footwear to the working women with an average price of $35 and a margin of 45% in a proximately $38B market size in Africa alone. We have established 4 retail stores in Kigali,selling in one store in Nairobi and we reach the global market via two ecommerce platforms with one owned by our company.Furthermore, our production facility carries out the education program (SIBT) by transferring the technical,soft, and digital skills on a price as low from $0-$15 per month where most revenue is generated through donors and non profit organization to run series of trainings.Finally, the footwear market is overwhelmed with imports and second hand shoe companies that hold up to 80% of the market. With our competitive advantages on growing demand of handmade, authentic and sustainable products  on the global market we are able to grow our market share. 

The business model is sustainable and achievable through the following strategies: 

1. The retail stores that distribute the shoes where the existing 3 retail stores have reached over 25,000 customers
2. Digital platforms where all products are found, shopped and easily delivered across the world with an outreach of over 100,000 users across our digital channels. 
3. Offline & Online SIBT (education program) courses that subscription fees
4. Grants & donations to operate the SIBT (Education program)
5. Franchising model where investors partner and buy licenses to operate physical stores while buying directly from our production units
6. The SWOT analysis & values give us a viable structure

The below numbers are the funding image in the company which took a turn in 2019 when we won the Africa Netpreneurship top 10 Prize making $150,000 total raised over the course of 3 years. 

• Funds raised

• Revenue streams

We are seeking to raise $500,000 through different channels including grants, loan and equity. The company is looking to invest heavily in digital platforms to upgrade the SIBT program whereas the graduates will have access to a larger learning platform while leveraging our existing training center equipped with tools, machinery, and materials to enable the education program to run. Furthermore, the created platform will also allow graduates with small business owners to sell final products to the world and earn income independently while the brand will also be expanded worldwide through diverse ecommerce channels. The funds will be raised in 3 phases within 13 months and projects will be raised and first phase of implementation starts by October 2020.

The estimated costs are as follows: 

Fixed Costs/Overhead

• Digital platform & ecommerce platform: $126,700
• Digital Equipments & tools: $118,300
• Training fees: $138,400
• Utilities & communication fee: $5500 
• Legal/insurance/licensing fees: $15500

Variable Costs

• Consumables: $83000
• Program tracking & impact measurement: $5600
• Accounting & auditing fees: $7,000

Pre COVID-19 our organization was thriving to a middle scale level to start climbing to the international stage. However, amid covid night, we step back; and this prize will reset us back and even boost our effort to higher grounds by helping us reach many more youth and women who in fact would not get a chance to secure a job.  The elevate Prize will drive us to overcome the following constraints: 

1. Strategic attainment of the TVET for Sustainable shoe Industrial based SIBT program 
2. Successful product viable development
3. Access to technology and digital platform for the youths, women from urban communities

The elevate Prize will enable us to reach to our potential of impact and briefly by eliminating financial and strategic barriers to reach the following 3 important goals: 

1. Reach over 10000 young people where 70% of them are women across Africa in 3 years by transferring technical, soft & digital skills in order to increase their potential to securing sustainable income while serving their own communities.
2. Create platforms whereby youngsters will sell their sustainable shoes to the world and reach 1M customers within 5 years combined with the UZURI K&Y brand
3. Serve over 1M kids across Africa by 2022 with school shoes 

• The international Labour Organization, to enhance the capacity of the TVET for the Sustainable Shoe Industry Training "SIBT" to deliver high quality, demand-driven training programs in the development of footwear industry across Africa.
• Create a partnership with international senior experte services whereby we leverage knowledge of retired skilled men & women in similar industries
• Tangible partnership with the Rwanda Education Board to develop fashion calculus in TVET schools.