VARSITY STUDENTS EARNS MONEY BY SHOEMAKING

A Maseno University student earns money by making shoes out of used clothe material in Kisumu.

Cleophas Dok, a fourth year Education Arts student uses used ‘vitenges’ from his mother’s shop to make shoes and sandals which he then sells at fair prices with orders coming from Nairobi, Kisumu and from campus where a majority of customers are his friends.

The price of each pair of sandal ranges from Ksh. 350-500 depending on the material used and design while men’s shoes range higher from Ksh. 1000.

“In September I made Ksh. 5000 out of shoe sells only. I usually spend all my weekends at home because I have no classes then and that is when I make the shoes that have already been ordered. I can make 8-10 pairs a day depending on the complexity of the design”. Cleophas explains.

He was impressed by shoes advertised by models in local magazines and developed the desire to create similar ones. “After I finished form four, I read magazines and I admired pictures of the shoes I saw there, but the compulsion to design my own shoes came when I saw a friend put on similar shoes. I tried and it worked”. Cleophas narrates.

Interestingly, he uses little and most times no capital at all to make these shoes after using Ksh. 500 to make his first shoe. He uses worn out vehicle tires, waste clothes, laces and gums to make his shoes. He also plans to make phone covers and umbrellas using vitenges in future.

He advertises his shoes online via his Facebook page (CLEODOK) and Instagram (@dok254).

In addition to being a shoemaker, he is a model, designer and he dressed himself in the Mr. and Ms. Maseno University pageant 2014/2015 where he was the first runners position up in the competition.