How We Give

From Unemployed to Business Owners

From Unemployed Artisans to Workshop Owners: 30 years ago, Colombia was the main leather producer in the world, until the importing from Asia started taking over, many leather experts, artisans were left without a job. These master artisans who used to make delicate leather goods had to work as cobblers again, fixing soles, making laces, or selling shoe cleaning products around the poor areas.

When Handmade Matters ® first started, we walked around in disadvantaged areas to find these master artisans, showing them our design and way of working, while seeking collaboration. These artisans were really happy to have the opportunity to go back to their roots and start making leather shoes again.

When they decide to join, Handmade Matters ® would give them a seed capital for them to get shoe trees, machines, and other tools. This way, they transformed the little shops used to fix shoes, into a workshop, where they started to handcraft amazing shoes.

From Workshop Owners to Business Leaders: Instead of employing the artisans, Handmade Matters ® supports them to set up their own workshops to achieve independent growth. By offering them continuous purchase orders, this project encourages these workshops to hire new workers and thus create new jobs. For every workshop they create for master artisans, around 15 new jobs would be created by each of the workshops. As they grow, they become registered companies, and the master artisans become business leaders at their companies.

Handmade Matters ® Impact: From 2011 to 2015 the brand created 11 workshops in Colombia, which created 112 jobs. Since 2016 the network is continuously growing and spreading now to the founders origins in Cataluña and Menorca (Spain), another two forgotten areas with an amazing capacity to produce the best artisanal leather shoes. 

 

Revolutionize the Leather Industry

From Black Shops to Official Companies: Starting with a micro loan and with the support offered by the customers who are purchasing their products, the artisans who used to work at unregulated black shops become legitimate company owners. These new leather manufacturing workshops keep creating new jobs for the community, paying taxes on their gaining and providing health insurance to their employee. In doing so, these companies create a positive environment within the community.

Sustainable Growth of the Artisan Network: Each workshop we create usually has 1 or 2 master artisan, who then hires medium/non-skilled workers. They receive a training to learn the new skills, bringing back the art of traditional leather shoe making. In some cases, these new workers become master artisans after some years, then open their own workshop, hire new workers and pass on the training. This expanding entrepreneurial artisan network has introduced a new way of working to the traditional leather industry.

Preparing Artisans for International Market: After making the shoes for Handmade Matters ®, the artisans learned how to use the finest leather and the best practices to make luxury shoes. Therefore they are prepared to use these skills and work for other renowned luxury brands. 

Handmade Matters ®'s Impact: We help artisans with building workshops, hiring workers, creating registered companies and even with managing more than 20 employees. In this way, this project not only creates jobs, but also creates companies which on their side create more jobs for the community.

 

Fair Trade, Fair Business

No Children, More Women: We make sure that the workshops don't use child labors and that they hire as many women employees as possible. Many of them are trained with stitching skills.

Flexible Working Hours: We don't have time schedules for the workshops. They can decide when they want to work more for one day and less for another, as they only need to fulfill the monthly production goal, they are able to work as flexible as entrepreneurs.

50% Higher Payment:  This brand pays 50% more to new created workshops for the production, to ensure that they have more to invest in new machines and employ more workers. To ensure high product quality, we pay for finished product instead of salary, which is a healthy incentive for the artisans.

Self Sustainability: By supporting artisans to create workshops and registered companies, Handmade Matters ® helps them to become self sustainable in the long term.