So for the past several months, Max and I have been working on a collaborative project with the women's weaving cooperative in the South Hebron Hills, in A'Twanei (OPT). We're working on stunning dress shoes we are calling Resolute (temporary name, got any suggestions? let us know in comments :))
It's been a great experience that brings together the skills of the amazing folks in the cooperative and our combined experience at Nisnas to work across disciplines and borders.
The shoes we're focusing on are a blend of new dress-shoe styles in Oxford and Oxford-Spectator themes with the fabric from the cooperative as a main feature in the shoe, making it a unique piece that tells the story of the cooperative while being an exquisite shoe that anyone would want. We are aiming for a premium market to showcase the craft of the cooperative and our shoe-making partners in Italy, Turkey and in Tel Aviv. This really is a cross border initiative that has us travelling to the South Hebron Hills, then working with suppliers worldwide, it's super interesting and lots of fun to work on.
At the same time this project gives us a window into area C in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and allows the project to tell the story of the occupation from the inside out, and we're letting the craft speak for itself. Our aim is to tell the story of a community struggling under the occupation to a larger crowd that will be able to buy their product and tell the story of the occupation by wearing it, loving it and talking about it.
It's a direction we hope to expand on in the coming months. Anyway, at this point, final samples are being completed in Italy after all the work in the South Hebron Hills has been done and the fabrics are STUNNING! (See images below).
We hope to have a Kickstarter project up, later this year and at that point the shoes will be available to the public. We truly see this project as a nexus of activism, product design, eCommerce and fashion, I have a feeling it will surpass our Kickstarter goals of selling 300 units but we'll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed...
Anyway, keep up with updates on the project as we gear up for final samples, filming in the South Hebron Hills and launching Resolute Shoes worldwide.
Checkout below some images of the shoes with the fabrics in early stages of production and a video of us talking our close supporters though the process from the village from a few weeks ago:
