The last time you ran a mile your high school gym teacher was shouting in the distance, beads of sweat rolling down your face merging with your tears, as you swore to yourself that you’d never run another mile post-graduation. You’ve actively avoided taking a pace any faster than a casual stroll ever since. You own exactly zero sneakers (except the trendy kind you can’t actually run in).
But even you know Kenyan runners are among the fastest, the most enduring, the best.
And you’ve got all sorts of reasons why. It’s genetics. It’s the altitude. It’s their work ethic. It’s their “barefoot running style.”
Each Olympic Games is followed by a new swell of the same stories - magazines promising to reveal how to “run like a Kenyan,” journalists who have figured out “why Kenyans make such great runners” - and big corporations like Nike rolling out products inspired by Kenya’s topography and its runners’ barefeet. But while these publications and companies profit from propagating this image, Kenyan runners have benefited little.
In fact, Nike, a long-time sponsor of Kenyan runners, found itself in the hot seat earlier this year for payments made to Kenyan officials. Nike contends that these funds were intended to support and train Kenyan athletes for whom running represents a path out of poverty; however, the payments largely ended up in officials’ personal bank accounts and look an awful lot like bribes.
But the world’s best runners don’t always have the world’s best options - see: this Kenyan runner’s custom Nike shoes literally coming apart as he runs. High performance footwear options are mostly limited to large multinational corporations like Nike. Even though there’s clearly a market for local footwear producers, few have ventured into the arena.
Until now.
Shoe inspired by Kenya's elite runners, made in Kenya @FastCoExisthttps://t.co/fDI9roJW1Cpic.twitter.com/28NT3Le9TJ cc: @4bSpeaks#design
— Jay S Daughtry M.Ed. (@ChatterBachs) May 24, 2016
Kenyan company Enda Athletic (enda means “go” in Swahili) wants to reverse the narrative. Co-founders Navalayo Osembo-Ombati and Weldon Kennedy worked with Kenyan athletes and design studio Birdhaus to create a high-performance running shoe actually inspired by Kenyan runners and made in Kenya. The sleek shoe, called Iten, after the town that is essentially Mecca for serious marathon runners, is “worthy of the Kenyan running tradition” and intended to appeal to the global market. The shoe has subtle ties to Kenyan culture, featuring a logo that represents a spear tip, a historically significant symbol of Kenyan identity, and comes in the three colors of the Kenyan flag.
It’s an example of entrepreneurial instinct meeting combining with local, experience-based knowledge. And it shows people around the world that the status quo of consumer choices doesn’t have to be complacently accepted. There’s room to change the game.
Enda’s recently launched Kickstarter campaign aims to fund production of “the world’s greatest running shoe” made in “the home of running.” To start with, the shoes will be assembled in Kenya with parts made in China, as the resources necessary to produce all the components are not currently available in Kenya. Osembo-Ombati and Kennedy hope that, over time, Enda’s success will enable them to move full production to Kenya and will allow them to create jobs and generate income for more Kenyans. Enda also plans to donate a portion of the profits to community initiatives.
And this truly would be a game-changer. For many Kenyans running presents an opportunity to escape poverty - particularly in the Rift Valley, where Olympic athletes train and many of Kenya’s best runners come from. But aside from running, there’s not much in the Rift Valley. There aren’t any factories and not many secondary schools. Those growing up there have two options, run or farm.
For those that become great runners, running is a job, not a hobby. Even the captain of Kenya’s Olympic team runs for the money. While Kenya’s economy has been on a recent uptick, 42% of its population lives below the poverty line. The country's main economic activities are agriculture, forestry, mining, and manufacturing. And Kenya plans to pursue a manufacturing growth strategy, but currently its textile and apparel manufacturers largely produce for foreign corporations. In order for its economy and employment opportunities to continue to grow, Kenya needs to see investment in infrastructure and capacity building. Enda’s dream of bringing its the full manufacturing process to Kenya would work contribute to building the Kenyan economy and creating more jobs.
Kennedy hopes to one day establish “made in Kenya” as a hallmark of good running design and craftsmanship. You’d be hard pressed to find a better excuse to buy a new pair of kicks.