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Laura Viveros started Soles For Change after an eye-opening trip to her homeland, Colombia.
Viveros, the co-founder of Soles For Change was born in Colombia, but she spent her last 14 years living in Miami. When her family finally decided to visit Colombia to explore their home country, their trip brought them to Curiti, Colombia.
As Viveros was walking around Curiti, she realized that her feet hurt. She decided to duck into a shop, in search of flip-flops or sandals, and she ended up finding the perfect pair of shoes.
The shoes she found were alpargatas, more commonly known in the U.S. as espadrille-style shoes, and they’re made of light canvas, usually with a plaited fiber sole.
As she was buying her alpargatas, her brother asked the workers about where they were from. Viveros and her brother learned that the shoes were made by local artisans, many of whom were single mothers.
This inspired Viveros, her husband and her brother to think of ways to help these artisans, ultimately creating Soles For Change.
Viveros and her co-founders decided to slightly modify the alpargatas, adding a rubber sole, and then they created a business model that would benefit the artisans.
The way that Soles For Change helps single mothers and single artisans is two-fold. Firstly, Soles For Change provides these Colombian artisans with jobs, but Viveros wanted the organization to go a step further. Soles For Change also gives the artisans 25 percent of the Soles For Change sales, making the deal worthwhile for these workers.
Though Viveros runs Soles For Change, she never quit her day job. From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., she works as a banker, but after work she focuses on Soles For Change from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Viveros said that it was incredibly hard to balance both Soles For Change and her job for the first few months, but she encourages other entrepreneurs to persist. Even when it felt impossible, Viveros pushed through. By relying on the support of the people around her, Viveros propelled Soles For Change to succeed.
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