OUR STORY
Umòja, which means "unity" in Swahili, is a shoe brand that combines artisanal know-how and innovatives materials in an attempt to provide green alternatives in a very opaque textile industry.
The Umòja venture was created in 2017.
The Umòja venture was created in 2017. At this time, Dieuveil was a student at the University of Brest and Lancine was working for an insurance company in Paris. On a quest to find a meaning and answers to our consumption patterns. We have become more and more aware, that our way of consumerism has become largely and too influenced by industrial overproduction and small producers can't compete.
Before to embark on this venture, we had no idea of the financial and social sacrifices that our new venture would bring.
Having become aware of our world of consumerism, we decided to embark on this venture of unknown territory. In leaving our careers behind, we had no idea of the financial and social sacrifices that our new venture would bring. All the more striking it's the fact that Lancine gave up his career for a project that might never have seen the light of day.
Our aim is to ensure that our production is environmentally friendly.
Naively, we set ourselves the mission of experimenting with an alternative economic model that would allow all the actors in the production chain to be remunerated at a fair price, while respecting the ecological and social issues of our time. The objective was clear: to ensure a production that respects our environment (ecological, economic, human) in every respect.
GENESIS
With our backpacks on, we set out to discover West African crafts: Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, and we also took the opportunity to visit Congo and Uganda. We could never have imagined the richness and plurality of the craft skills we were about to discover.
Craft skills are an opportunity for local development.
Through our travels and meetings with textile craftsmen, we identify the great wealth: social, economic, historical, traditional, vernacular of this know-how. Very often underestimated, artisanal know-how is an opportunity for the development of local economic policies, because it calls upon several trades in the creation process. The making of a woven textile requires the involvement of farmers, spinners, dyers and weavers.
We have learned to give visibility to the artisans and to offer them access to new markets.
Consumption patterns have been changing significantly over the last ten years, mainly in Europe and the United States, which could be a real niche for the craft sector. The desire of consumers to favour quality, by investing in sustainable, ethical, responsible and ecological products, now enables our craftsmen to do well. We are working with them in this direction to give them visibility and access to new markets.
TRANSPARENCY
Today we are confronted with a linear industrial system that prioritises the manufacture of the product and its delivery at the lowest cost. This hyper-production system is designed without taking into account the origin of the materials, their ecological and human impact and the end of life of the finished product.
Deconstructing without destroying to offer positive production alternatives.
We develop products by taking into account all stages. From the design of the raw materials to the end of life of the finished product, we collaborate with nature to follow its logic. Deconstructing without destroying to offer positive production alternatives. For us, a transparent project is above all the consideration of all partners involved in the production process.
We are able to guarantee full transparency and traceability of the production of our sneakers.
Between fibre cultivation, production, spinning, dyeing, weaving, assembly of the finished product and marketing, a finished product goes through between 15 and 30 stages. These steps are often hidden by all brands in their communication. Due to the large number of intermediaries operating in the textile industry, there is a lack of transparency regarding the origin of the materials used.
We go to the farmers, weavers and workers to check the origin of each material used.
By working in a direct circuit, we go to the source, in contact with the farmers, weavers and workers to check the origin of each material used. Working in a short circuit allows us to have total transparency on all the materials used in the production process.
REALITY ON THE GROUND
One of the main difficulties we face in the field is the variability of the price per kilo of the raw material for our textiles: organic cotton.
In Burkina Faso and Mali, cotton plantations only produce "in season" and yields change from one season to the next. Umoja makes it a point of honour to work only with farmers certified by the Ecocert label. In order to ensure a constant salary, independent of market fluctuations, we have decided to ignore the prices set by the world cotton market, preferring to give priority to local realities. We pay the asking price.
We always work directly on site with our intermediaries to ensure the origin of the materials used and that the working conditions of all are in line with the values defended by the brand. It is also a way for us to keep an eye on the evolution of the local sector, the materials, the production techniques, while continuing to feed our ideas and experiments.
