Gbemi Olateru-Olagbegi Floats Shoe Line

On air personality with Beatfm, Gbemi Olateru-Olagbegi has
become the first OAP to float a shoe line. Gbemi has also explained why she
ventured into the shoe business, and her explanation is quite interesting. Read
below…

Hands up if you were ever taken to Balogun market or any
other market as a child to find new school shoes or ‘Christmas shoes’. My mom
would hold my hand tight and we would go from stall to stall looking for nice
shoes.

I did not like the process at all. The market was rowdy,
noisy and the shoe seller would always push my feet into the shiny, patent (and
almost always tight) shoes and say ‘it’s your size! Fine girl, Fine shoe!’

Meanwhile my poor toes would be crying. I also had lovely
aunties who lived abroad and they would send me beautiful shoes BUT they never
fit! I guess they just never asked what my shoe size was, they would buy the
shoes thinking I would ‘grow into them’ not knowing that my feet were ‘already
grown’.

When I turned 12, I refused to go shopping with mom for
clothes or shoes. I went with friends or my young Aunt Lola. Clothes shopping
were a breeze but shoe shopping in Lagos was very annoying and disappointing.
There were lots of pretty shoes but they never had my size or they would have a
size smaller. The shoes they had in my size were usually ugly and looked like
canoes.

When I traveled to the U.S for school, one of the things I
was extra excited about was going to the mall! I would spend hours at the mall
looking for the perfect shoes. As usual, finding clothes were easy but shoes
were still tough to find. Many times I would end up buying shoes that were a
size smaller all because I liked them and they didn’t have my size. I would
stuff my feet in the shoes and endure pain.

At least the shoes were pretty. When I did find shoes in my
size, I would buy them in every color I could find! The hassle of finding cute
shoes when you wear a U.S11 in shoes! It was much easier in the summer because
I could buy smaller sizes and get away with them because they were open toe
styles or sling backs.

The winter months were not funny. When I moved back to
Nigeria, I faced the shoe issue again. I would go to boutiques and see shoes
that were easily $30 in the U.S (N4, 000 – N4, 500 due to the dollar rate at
that time) being sold here in Lagos for N20, 000!!

When I would travel for work or vacation, I took an extra
suitcase for shoes. Yes! An extra suitcase! And I would hit the mall to look
for all the colors available in my size and buy! In 2012, I started buying and
selling shoes for women with big feet like me. I sold those through Twitter,
BBM and Facebook mostly.

I knew that I would one day start my own shoe line but I had
no idea how to start. For two years, I did a lot of research, traveled a lot,
spoke to lots of women and I’m happy to say Gbémisókè was born!…