Africa’s iconic footwear brand soleRebels launches its 1st German store in Hamburg’s legendary St. Pauli district

Africa’s top entrepreneur brings her version of CREATIVE DISRUPTION to the German fashion footwear market; plants 1st German location of fastest growing African footwear brand in Hamburg’s legendary St. Pauli district

• soleRebels celebrates quest to let the world walkNAKED^® by opening 1st German store in Hamburg’s legendary St. Pauli district
• Located in the heart of Hamburg’s legendary St. Pauli district at Neuer Kamp 3 20359 Hamburg, St Pauli
• Company projecting over 150 stand alone soleRebels stores worldwide by 2022!
• soleRebels is the planet's first and only ORIGIN TRADE footwear company, the fastest growing consumer brand from Africa and the first African consumer brand to ever open standalone branded retail stores around the globe.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia / Hamburg, GERMANY, Aug 31st, 2018 8 am: Tomorrow, iconic footwear brand soleRebels, the planet's first and only ORIGIN TRADE footwear company and the fastest growing African consumer brand, will celebrate getting the world to walkNAKED^® by launching its first German retail location in Hamburg’s legendary St. Pauli district!

soleRebels was founded in 2005 by Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, a kick*#$$ entrepreneur who FAST COMPANY Magazine named as One of The Most Creative People in Business.

“I am so excited to open our 1st German soleRebels store in Hamburg’s legendary St. Pauli district. We have waited a while to open our first German store because we wanted to find the perfect place to open in – a place that epitomized the creativity, innovation, craziness, disruption and the overall walkNAKED^® ethos that soleRebels is all about. The St. Pauli district is the epicenter of all these things and so it’s the perfect place to launch our German retail store business!”, stated Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, soleRebels founder & CEO. 

Located in the heart of Hamburg’s legendary St. Pauli district at Neuer Kamp 3 20359 Hamburg, St Pauli, the 175 square meter store brings to life soleRebels awesome walkNAKED^® brand vibe. At the exterior entrance to the store, fans of the brand are immediately greeted by a fully tagged out exterior covered with ground-to-sky soleRebels brand signage!

Once inside, an array of merchandising allows people to jump inside the brand's walkNAKED^® spirit while also highlighting the brands unique, colorful and cool artisan heritages! The store features more than 600 unique soleRebels sneakers, sandals, slip-ons and lace-up styles.

With price points ranging from $55 EURO to $105 EURO, the products represent amazing value.

The soleRebels store also features:

• Gorgeous hand-crafted full walk around displays made from repurposed shipping pallets that showcase the footwear in an awesome AFRICAN – ZEN look and feel while nodding to the creative recycling ethos at the core of the soleRebels brand.
• A hanging sandal section highlighted by soleRebels revolutionary sandal and shoe hangars which are 100% crafted from leftover production materials, providing another layer of color and texture. Covered in the company’s signature super cool and colorful hand loomed fabrics, the hangars are a visual nod to soleRebels focus on creating true waste free production while finding creative uses for all production leftovers.
• A customSOLE offer that allows customers to customize ANY soleRebel style they see in the exact colors of their choice. soleRebels artisans in Addis Ababa will custom-craft their shoes according to those specific choices and deliver them within 48 hours.
• A full soleRebels kids section that offers every single one of soleRebels in kids sizes
• soleRebels signature recycled car and truck tire stools – made from recycled car and truck tires, these amazing stools are covered in soleRebels colorful famed hand-loomed fabrics. They are a great place for customers to try on their soleRebels or to just chill and soak in the vibes of the store!
• A dedicated b*knd section featuring footwear products created + crafted for vegans, veggies + everyone who cares deeply about what they wear and who doesn't want any animal related products making up their footwear.
• A walkNAKED^® lounge that lets customers come and chill while enjoying multi-media and merchandising that highlights the company’s heritage, unique artisan production techniques and footwear. The lounge also encourages customers to take photos of themselves wearing their soleRebels shoes and tag them #soleRebels for a chance to be rewarded with a free soleRebels walkNAKED^® tee!
• Your soleRebels style now + always: Unlike any other footwear brand on the planet, soleRebels keeps ALL STYLES THAT THEY HAVE EVER created open + available for purchase on its website. Customers go online on the soleRebels website and order from any of the over 8000 [and growing] unique soleRebels styles they see. soleRebels maintains these styles because we know that for people style is a personal issue and that should not be dictated by seasonal changes. soleRebels believes that its customers know best what they want and gives them the freedom to ALWAYS find any soleRebels that has ever been created!
• All products sold via every soleRebels outlet are covered by soleRebels unique happySOLES guarantee. The guarantee is groundbreaking for the footwear industry and guarantees 100% customer satisfaction by promising to replace any shoe bought from soleRebels – no questions asked – until the customer is 100% satisfied! And the happySOLES guarantee also guarantees any soleRebel shoe – no matter where a customer bought it – for the life of the sole. If anything on the shoe goes wrong before the sole has worn through, soleRebels will replace the pair for free – no questions asked!

soleRebels is in the midst of a massive global retail rollout, occurring both via company owned and licensed stores. This retail expansion is forecast to open over 150 stores globally and generate over $250 million USD in revenues by 2022, and over 500 global stores and $1 billion in revenues by 2025!

This new soleRebels store expands the company’s global retail store rollout. soleRebels has opened stores worldwide including its flagship stores in Addis Ababa and additional locations in San Jose/Silicon Valley, Barcelona, Nyon Switzerland, Vienna, Kaoshing, Ping Tung City, TaiChung, Tainan, Singapore and Japan. The opening continues the historic push soleRebels is making as the very first African consumer brand to ever open its own standalone branded retail locations in Germany.

The company feels strongly that people all over the planet want comfy, stylish and totally unique value-priced footwear that has a unique point of view. As company founder Bethlehem puts it: “I imagine there are many people in and around St.Pauli who are very excited to be able to walkNAKED^® in their soleRebels!“

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About soleRebels

What is soleRebels? GREAT question: we like to say that soleRebels is handcrafted LOVE for your feet.

And LOVE is how we got started. We wanted to find a way to share our LOVE for the amazing artisan heritages of Ethiopia with the world!

So we embarked on a quest to hand-craft stunningly creative footwear by fusing Ethiopian artisan heritages with fantastic design. And the LOVE flowed from there.

The brand has created passionate fans around the planet who love how soleRebels lets them walkNAKED^®, empowering them to express their creativity, uniqueness + positivity through their footwear!

soleRebels was founded by Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, a kick*#$$ entrepreneur named to FORBES World's 100 Most Powerful Women List and named by FAST COMPANY Magazine as one of the most creative people in business.

soleRebels retails though our growing global network of branded soleRebels brick and mortar retail stores, our ecommerce platform soleRebels.com, and our many fantastic retail partners.

At soleRebels, we love, embrace and encourage creativity. In fact we consider it our lifeblood – both as a company and for those who enjoy what we make. That’s why soleRebels is so proud to have been able to channel the immense creative talents of our community in a way that allows the world be enriched by our products, while letting the folks who work at soleRebels enjoy world class jobs and prosperity.

And doing what we do as the planets 1st ORIGIN TRADE footwear company, just makes it that much sweeter !

Experience more about soleRebels here at www.soleRebels.com

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is the founder and CEO of iconic footwear brand soleRebels, the planet's fastest growing footwear brand from Africa. And just as she changed the way the world enjoys shoes she is doing the same for another beloved Ethiopian gift to the world, coffee, via her brand Garden of Coffee which launched in July 2016.

From the humblest of beginnings, Bethlehem has risen to global acclaim building soleRebels into the very first global omni-channel consumer brand to emerge from an emerging market country. In the process, she has forever shifted the discourse on African development from one of poverty alleviation orchestrated by external actors, to one about prosperity creation driven by local Africans maximizing their talents and resources.

CNN recently named Bethlehem one of the 12 greatest female entrepreneurs of the last century alongside COCO Chanel and Sara Blakely, calling her “an entrepreneur who has redefined markets“ for her ground-breaking influence; FORBES Magazine listed her on their World's 100 Most Powerful Women list - Woman to Watch; Business Insider ranked her #1 of The Top 5 Entrepreneurs in Africa; Fast Company named her to The Most Creative People in Business.

Bethlehem is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She also serves as the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Entrepreneurship. In May 2018, Richard Branson invited Bethlehem to join the BTEAM, a group composed of the top 25 global CEOs and leaders from the public, private and civil society sectors on a mission to reimagine capitalism as the force for good.

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soleRebels Contact

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu - Managing Director
soleRebels [bostex plc] box 21033 * Addis Ababa * Ethiopia * Abyssinia
e : rootsculturetires@gmail.com
t : 251-0911-11 08 48
website : www.soleRebels.com
facebook : www.facebook.com/soleRebels
twitter: twitter.com/soleRebels
instagram : http://instagram.com/solerebels
pinterest : www.pinterest.com/soleRebels/
youtube : www.youtube.com/user/soleRebels1

soleRebels - proudly fair trading since we started + now proudly the ONLY ORIGIN TRADE footwear maker on the planet!!!