Hey y’all, after much anxiety we finally launched on Kickstarter (see the campaign here). Tuani shoes began while I was in Nicaragua teaching entrepreneurship to the poor. I stumbled upon a tiny, primitive shoe shop and wondered if they could make a type of shoes that I had been looking for but couldn’t find in the U.S.
I was super surprised when I first saw the shoes–they were low-profile with thin, leather soles and made of real leather uppers. They were exactly what I wanted: classy casual shoes.
After wearing them for a couple years I decided to make a business out of it and now our Kickstarter campaign is launched. I have two goals: 1) Enable people to look great and feel great, and 2) Provide good jobs for people in Nicaragua and help increase their quality of life.
The bigger Tuani Shoes gets, the more Nicaraguans we can employ–I will also continue to teach entrepreneurship courses. The shop is behind Jairo’s humble home. It’s all made of concrete with wooden tables and light bulbs hanging from the ceilings. Their tools are old and worn, proof of years of hard work and experience making quality shoes. Every step of the process is done by hand–the cutting, stitching, gluing, forming, etc.
The men listen to traditional Nicaraguan music, sometimes drinking a Coke, and often not wearing a shirt. It’s hot in Nicaragua, very hot, and the only time it’s not hot is when it’s pouring rain.
Tuani shoes aren’t necessarily a Nicaraguan style. I designed the shoes to be classy and casual. I wanted shoes I could wear with jeans, shorts, or slacks and look nice but not too formal. Every other shoe I found was either too casual looking and somewhat juvenile or over formal and clunky. Tuani shoes are casual shoes for the classy man.
