Meet Africa’s “rebel” Fashion Entrepreneur – Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu

Born into a community where people worked day and night for meagre pays and lived in abject poverty, Bethlehem decided early in life that she was going to build something that would engage the locals’ productively whilst creating a sustainable wealth for them. She has done exactly that with SoleRebels. Interestingly, hardly did she know from the beginning that her dream/vision was going to cause a huge disruption in the African fashion industry.

Today, Bethlehem is the Founder and CEO of SoleRebels, the very first global footwear brand to ever emerge from a developing nation! Her company is also the world’s first and only World Fair Trade Federation (WFTO) FAIR TRADE certified Footwear Company and the first truly African brand to become an international job creation powerhouse. SoleRebels’ international stores are projected to create hundreds of jobs in the countries where they are currently located.

A Look at her early years

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu was the first child and only female of the four children born to her parents. Zenebework, where she grew up, was a small, impoverished rural community in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city. But there was something unique about this place, and that’s the fact that it had lots of hardworking artisans whose remarkable skills were, unfortunately, not being adequately maximised…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Read the rest of this interview on page 8 of our latest magazine edition- 15 Entrepreneurs Disrupting Africa’s Fashion and Beauty Industry. Click here to read now.