I am super excited to introduce you to this amazing ethical shoe company called PANAFRICA. I had the pleasure of interviewing them to find out their company values and to find out how the current COVID-19 crisis has affected their business. I was also interviewed on their blog – click here to read. I hope you enjoy learning more about this amazing ethical shoe brand.

Wearing PANAFRICA’s Harmattan-Pastel Sneaker (sold out, similar here) in size 41 (US 10). I was gifted these shoes in exchange for this post.

Who is PANAFRICA?

PANAFRICA is a brand of ethical and colourful sneakers. Our models are inspired by Africa and
produced on the African continent. For this, we work with a network of partners, from the purchase
of materials in Ivory Coast, Ghana and Burkina Faso, to the assembly in Morocco.

Concerned about our social and environmental impact, we strive to question ourselves to make
tomorrow’s fashion more responsible.

Today it means using recycled materials, giving a second life to our products, and working with our
partners according to a fair trade scheme. We put human beings back at the centre of our
production, from partners to consumers. We communicate in a transparent way on our successes
and challenges, but also on what we still have to build.

Why did you start PANAFRICA?

PANAFRICA was created 5 years ago by three associates Hugues, Vulfran and Hélène. Each one had a
very strong link to Africa: origins, professional career, travels… and this ambition to change their
career to add more meaning to it.

Our main inspiration was from the colours and the fabrics we could see in West Africa. The idea was
to highlight all the great know how and find a way to wear it everyday and to combine it with our
love for shoes and sneakers particularly.

Also, we wanted our business to have a positive social and environmental impact. That’s how we
created a brand that matches our values.

What are PANAFRICA’s values?

PANAFRICA’s values are the brand ‘s goals. Everything is thought, made or changed according to
these values. Everything must fit with them.

The first one is to design shoes with a bold and optimistic style, different from what you can already
see in the streets, and a lot of uniqueness.

The second one is to create a whole ecosystem to have a positive impact on human and
environment. Therefore, we’ve decided to rethink the sneaker ‘s value chain and to build our own
model and scheme. Our inspirations are African, then our shoes have to be produced and developed
on the African continent. For that, we work hand in hand with our partners in Morocco, Ivory Coast,
Burkina Faso, Ghana. With them, we place the human being at the heart of the PANAFRICA project.

How has the COVID-19 crisis affected you as a company?

At the beginning we weren’t too concerned about the pandemic has it didn’t really affected the
countries where our partners are located. We had just started a crowdfunding campaign that
received a great success and, we can notice it now, helped us to maintain our activity. At the
moment, we’re behind schedule on our production but our customers are very comprehensive and
we should manage to catch it up, without of course pressuring our workshop.

Driven by our optimism, we have chosen to see this situation as an opportunity to reinvent ourselves,
to get closer to our partners and consumers, to take a step back.

The big challenge will be for next year as we work with retailers that are struggling this summer and
they might not place new orders for the next season. We’re trying to anticipate this problem, and
we’ve decided to review our strategy and to focus on our online sales via our website.

You may also like: Ethical Fashion Dictionary

How are you facing tomorrow?

We look at tomorrow the same way we’ve always done, with optimism.

We aim to take part in change for a more sustainable fashion and that means being hopeful and
challenge ourselves. Our latest model released is an example of what we do to fulfill that goal.
Questioning ourselves and going further in order to stick to our values is key.

We plan to keep it that way no matter the difficulties. Our values drove us so far and they will keep
driving us.

What are your values?