2. Changing the perception of Africa through the
production of high quality and well-designed footwear.
our mission
3. who we are
Christian Ward
CMO & Head of Sales
Sam Imende
CEO
Jawad Braye
Chief Designer
Azariah Mengistu
COO
4. ENZI was officially established in 2011, but the idea has
been in the minds of the founders for almost 12 years.
It was mostly birthed out of frustration. Jawad and
I grew up together in Kenya and after graduating
from high school we went our separate ways (he to
England and myself to the US) to continue our edu-
cation. The ignorant perceptions we both encoun-
tered in the “west” deeply frustrated us. It’s a story
almost any African living abroad can relate to. The
offensive questions, jokes that aren’t funny and as-
sumptions that formed from a 30 second news clip.
A few years into our studies we met back in Ken-
ya during a summer break with several other class-
mates, and almost all of us experienced the same
frustrations. There was a difficult balancing act—Be
African, but don’t act African—that some of us had to
manage if we wanted to be accepted socially in our
new environments. It never felt right.So this group of
former classmates started talking about how amaz-
ing it would be to start a brand that represented us,
how it all started
and the Africa we were proud of. Something to chal-
lenge the stereotypes, and would show the external
reflection of your inner pride. We had no idea how
we’d do this, in fact we didn’t even have name, but
passionate discussion began nonetheless.
The real vision for ENZI began years down the
road when Jawad and I were living together in Lon-
don. Over the next two years of living together we
formulated what type of brand we wanted to create,
and what the mission would be. A few years later, I
had moved to Ethiopia, and Jawad came to visit me
and we discovered Ethiopia’s amazing leather. It took
a little over a year of R&D to settle on our local part-
ners, and once we had that in place we reached out
to our business partners Sam Imende and Christian
Ward (Sam is a childhood friend who grew up with
Jawad and I, Christian is also a longtime friend Sam
and I met in DC 8 years ago).
“ —azariah Mengistu
5. We LOVE our logo! It is inspired by a full stop in Am-
haric, a language that dates back to biblical times
and is also the national language of Ethiopia. The
same way a period comes at the end of a complete
thought or sentence, our logo is the mark of a com-
plete creative process. It’s our mark of quality and
completion. We love the logo not only because we
think it looks cool, but it’s inspired by the deep and
rich history of Africa.
our logo and “made in ethiopia”
The label “Made in Africa” can be annoying. You nev-
er see a product that said, “Made in Asia” or “Made in
Europe” on the tag. It says “Made in China” or “Made
in Germany”. Why shouldn’t we receive the same
distinction with our products? We do recognize our-
selves as an African brand, but we are also are very
cognizant of how often people refer to Africa as if it
were one large country. The heart of our vision is to
change people’s misconceptions of Africa, and we
feel that being specific about where are products
are made we do that in a small way. As we expand
our production in the region we will continue to rec-
ognize the country and people that are making the
products. We have already begun integrating artisan
designs from Kenya and talking to textile manufac-
tures in Uganda. Each country has unique offerings
that will help us build our brand to which we will
communicate to the market.
Inspired by a language that
dates back to biblical times
Four dots represent
a full stop, in Amharic.
6.
7. As we were coming up with the concept, we start-
ed to see other brands coming to Africa to produce
footwear. We thought to ourselves “if they are do-
ing it, why can’t we?” It was really that simple. Yet we
didn’t want to create a “pity product”.
so why are we doing this ?
had envisioned all those years ago. When the first fi-
nal samples were done it was a real “pinch yourself”
moment for us. The other huge blessing for us is the
people we are working with, the local communities
in and around Addis Ababa and the projects/NGOs
If we were going to tackle the negative perceptions associated with the
African continent, we knew we had to create a high end product that could
stand toe to toe with well-respected brands on the market but at the
same time have an unwavering commitment to the local communities and
environment. We knew we would have access to some amazing
leather, but we wanted to make sure we create an
aesthetically pleasing shoe with an emphasis on
craft. It took time to find a local partner we could do
this with, but once we did, we really began to take
the steps to launch ENZI. It’s still amazes us how the
shoes we are producing now are exactly what we
in Ethiopia we are committed to support. We have
come across some of the most beautiful, humble and
hardworking people in this process. We have made
genuine relationships. These people are a part of
the Africa we want to show case to the world and we
hope our product does them justice
