How I became a footwear designer and started my online business.

It started in December 2015 I saw an ad from a shoe manufacture out of Le Marche, Italy called Alive Shoes. They offered a platform for designers to design up to 70+ pairs of different footwear. From sneakers to flats to stilettos to Ugg type boots they have a wide selection.

So at that time they required protential footwear designers to submit an application and why you want to design footwear. Now entry onto the site was pending on approval from the company. I get an email from them in January 2016 saying that I've been approved to design 1 pair of footwear. Once my design was approved to provided me a web address to promote and presale 6 pair. At that time they gave the designer 30 days to presale 6 pair and they made the 7th pair for the designer for free.

So I needed to figure a name, type of footwear, graphics for the logo and box but Alive Shoes had everything else. Each pair is custom made from high quality Italian leather and suede. Le Marche, Italy is the Mecca of quality footwear. They offer free international shipping to the U.K. and the States and they have a love it or return it policy for any reason. The name, I came up with Viatu Vyetu (Swahili for "Our Shoes"). I did this collection to represent all Africans across the diaspora. I did these in the color scheme of red, black and green, the colors of the Pan African Flag as given to us by the Honorable Marcus Garvey. I launched on February 2016 and the first pair I did was the Abibifahodie (Twi language for "African Liberation") and I presold 9 pair in 12 days. At that time they were $139 USD.

I've had people order the wrong size and Alive Shoes is on it. Their customer service is superb. I designed more for the Viatu Vyetu brand but I wanted to make something also with different colors for everyone. So being a New Yorker I started Fahgetaboutit Footwear. This collection is inspired by NYC.

I also designed 2 special pair for 2 special boys, our sons. Both our boys have special needs and I wanted to do something to bring awareness to they're diagnosis. Our oldest Zach is on the spectrum of autism and together we designed Spectrum. 1 in 77 chindren are on the autism spectrum it's like an epidemic.

Our youngest Aaron was born with Dandy Walker Malformation it's a neurological disorder. He's wheelchair bound but we're working on walking, baby steps lol (pun intended), he's non verbal but you'll know what he's saying. 1 in 2500 children are born with DWS.

I enjoy designing footwear it's differnt then just tee-shirts (I have those to lol) and to be able to do it without the headache of making them yourself and inventory and different sizes (6-14 women, 8-17.5 men), etc, etc.

Alive Shoes gave me a way to design my own footwear and share it with the world. Thanks for reading.