PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND THE BUSINESS YOU STARTED.

How we started:

Hi, my name is Jinae and I’m an American from Seattle, Washington.

While living in South Korea / traveling Asia, I met my now-husband and business partner Christiaan. Before I ever knew that we would be married, he told me about his mom’s shoes factory in South Africa. At the time, it had been struggling as the dance industry had seen a lot of changes in SA. Before ballet and dance were prerequisites in school, now they are more of a luxury than a part of the normal curriculum. She needed more help back at the factory, and basically, after a very long story shortened, we decided to move to South Africa and do just that- help in whatever way we could to keep the business alive.

After aiding in the digital marketing side of the business (that was my career before), I began to fall in love with the manufacturing and factory lifestyle. I loved the ability to create something from my head and see it come to life on the other side.

Christiaan’s mom was very supportive of letting me play around in the fabrics and be a part of the process, which I’ll always be very grateful for because as an American the option to ever be a part of a factory was not in my realm of possibilities. It was enchanting. I also loved the factory team and their genuine and honest ability to speak frankly. They were cheeky and fun then, and they still are now, and really do feel like family.

After hearing their stories and knowing what areas they come from (most from quite harsh areas in the townships), I also wanted to do anything to ensure at very least their jobs were secure.  My mother-in-law has cared SO much about keeping the business alive- she has spent 15 years of her life dedicated to it day in and day out on her own and I knew it would be devastating for her to lose it.

Because the factory already had ballet footwear and Latin/ Ballroom line, making shoes was the obvious choice. Further, Christiaan’s mom had always wanted to make shoes because she saw the potential as the barrier to entry the footwear industry was high and there weren’t a ton of options to buy locally made footwear.

After another long story short, and two years of deliberation on whether or not to start a footwear company (plus leaving a job after a year that I didn’t exactly enjoy), it was finally time.

I spoke with my husband and mother-in-law and asked if they trusted me to start a brand… and that was the beginning! We started our venture in May  2017.

Origin of the name:

Matsidiso is Sotho, meaning ‘comfort after difficulty’. Seeing as I am not Sotho, and an American at that, and Matsidiso is quite a specific name that many South African’s aren’t familiar with, I’m not exactly who our customers are expecting when they first meet me.

The origin of the name started with Christiaan’s mom. She told me a story from her childhood. She was the child born after a miscarriage, and her Sotho family named her Matsidiso (comfort after difficulty). She grew up in the Free State during the apartheid era, unfortunately. However, she told me about how she walked to school with her Sotho friends, (she is Afrikaans), and there wasn’t the same segregation at the time as there was in the cities. In fact, learning Sotho in school was mandatory. 

Her story gave me chills. I loved the idea that in such a dark era in SA there was still hope, and in some places, real friendships between people that otherwise would have been divided.

Matsidiso was an obvious name, and thereafter developed into a whole movement within our company about creating hope, possibility, and essentially freedom (what should be an innate human right).
The fact that the factory was failing, and we had an opportunity to turn it around with footwear gave us hope. Creating a safe workplace for a team meant liberation for members that sometimes fear going home.

I also wanted to create a brand that celebrates the diversity of South Africa instead of creating a brand about myself. South Africa is full of such beautiful cultures, and people really do make a place. South Africans are warm, loving, humble and compassionate. I wanted to create a brand that celebrated that, and that hopefully, builds a community around the education of each culture so that individually we can understand one another better, which is where I believe the healing in SA will ultimately come from. If we can understand each other, we can work together.

This is where ‘Shoes For The Liberated’ began. It was a slogan that supported the name Matsidiso. We ultimately want to create a brand that brings liberation to our team, our community through social impact, and to our brand community by showing compassion and appreciation of each other’s cultures. Ultimately, we don’t care about just ‘selling beautiful shoes’ but we actually want to make a real difference.

Liberty, freedom – they are such powerful concepts and our innate human rights. Freedom is what we all seek. Our brand is about exploring the word and really digging into ‘what is real liberation?’. From exploring the concept within our business to externally speaking with our Matsidiso community, we want to use liberation as a tool for empowering others long-term.