Entrapov launched in early 2020 as a self reliance group without borders. I chose Dalisey Brooks of Cape Town, South Africa for our first entrepreneurial startup grant.
The team fell in love with Dalisey’s own brand of unique and colorful handmade sandals. Her personal story captivated us, so immediately we shelled out several thousand dollars to run our first batch of sandals.
Putting the Cart Before the Horse
Rather than researching the US women’s sandal market, we spent hours creating a Shopify page and blogging about Dalisey’s story…
“Even as a little girl who owned only 1 red dress and no shoes, I loved fashion. Village life in Malawi inspires my sandal designs. As a little girl, I loved to walk barefoot on cool, soft sand. I want that same feeling to caress the feet of my customers when they wear my sandals. The colors and materials reflect the plants, animals, and land over which I walked barefoot as a child. Many times it was over long distances on hot tarred roads or uneven surfaces to get firewood or go farming. For that reason, it has always been important to create a comfortable sandal with cushioning that feels like walking in soft sand. The fabrics are 100% cotton to cool the feet on hot days. The rope is soft and vibrant like the animals and plants of Africa.”
How the Sandals Are Made
Dalisey explains, “First, I check the leather and cotton fabric for quality. I have to see and touch the materials, so they speak to me about quality. Soft, colorful rope for the straps, are then cut into pieces and tied. I love the uniqueness of rope and how it complements the fabric on the sandals.”
A local artisan in Cape Town, named Thabong, makes the sandals by hand with more than 35 years experience.
The soft foam cushion and cotton fabric are attached to the rubber sole. The insole and outsole are then attached to a “last” (the green foot mold shown below) to ensure that straps are the right length. Dalisey then seals the rope to form a toe strap. Buckle straps can be moved up or down the rope to adjust for maximum comfort.
Fifty pair of sandals are now in my family room awaiting orders! One of the interns who helped us had used Facebook ads and Instagram posts to launch a small drop shipping business, so we decided to do the same. During our first meeting with him, I asked if he could show us his Facebook ads dashboard. He then informed us that his Facebook ads account was blocked. That was an omen of things to come.
I proudly set about creating YouTube videos and Instagram posts highlighting the features and benefits of our sandals. It was like throwing your heart into a black hole.
To all 5 of our followers we bragged, “the soles are made from the same material used in running shoes. So, when you are walking you can feel the support throughout your foot because of the padding. The leather sandal is durable and helps the foot breathe. It’s water resistant, comfortable and timeless. The buckle of the sandal is rust resistant. To test that, I submerged a buckle in a jar of salt water for three months. It retained its color and shine.”
No one listened. No one cared.
After pouring nearly a thousand dollars into Facebook ads, a guru from Facebook met with us to create a custom audience for our ads that he guaranteed would generate at least a few sales. Excitedly we launched. Crickets…
We pivoted and dropped price. We pivoted again and tried selling on Amazon, but couldn’t even get our sandals to show up in search results using the exact sandal name and the Amazon seller ID as key words. We’d hit yet another brick wall.
We pivoted again. Now we are setting Dalisey up as a virtual assistant on Fiverr. The market for selling sandals is just too crowded. We’ll probably never generate enough views of Dalisey’s product to convert some into sales.
Did we have fun? Yes!
Will we keep helping Dalisey? Absolutely!
The good news is that Dalisey is succeeding as a virtual assistant! Business owners hire her regularly to research topics for articles and to help with social media posts and data entry. She’s fantastic, so if you need this type of work, she comes highly recommended. Just click HERE to go to her page.
At Entrapov we are all volunteers and learning a lot. 100% of revenues (not profits) go to budding entrepreneurs like Dalisey.