Michelle Ekure Narrated How Her Shoe Company Got Attention From Alibaba
Michelle Ekure started her life as a model and later went into acting. After she graduated from the University of Benin, she got a job at a firm in Lekki but she wasn’t well paid, so she decided to leave.
But before leaving, Michelle was buying sandals from a company that produced in large quantities and re-sold them. She eventually left the firm, where she was working and started to find another job while still selling her sandals.
When the job wasn’t forthcoming, she prayed about the situation and she felt led to concentrate on the sandals she sold.
As time went on, she met with the producers of the sandals she bought and asked if they could make some sandals with her own label and they said yes. Later, she was able to raise money to start her own shoe company and once again approached the company she bought shoes from and asked them to teach her.
While learning, Michelle’s aim was to sell to people of high caliber in the society, so, she decided to approach veteran comedian, Alibaba.
She narrated,
I called Alibaba that I wanted to make shoes for him. At first, he observed that I buy shoes to resell, so he was somehow reluctant, though he gave me his size, he said “Okay send me pictures.”
I sent him some pictures and he picked 2, he then asked for the price, I said I didn’t want him to pay, but do a promo for me in return. I later called him that his shoes were ready, it was on Sunday, he said, “when you are back from church, let me know, I would come and pick it.” I was like, “bros are you for real?”
He came to my house, I couldn’t control myself when I saw him and when he saw the shoes, he said “wait, you made the shoes?” I said yes, and he said “I thought you buy and resell.”
I said I’m a shoe maker. At that point, he told me how to make the shoes look better and more attractive. Alibaba revealed that he also learnt shoe making when he was young.
He took me through the process of shoes making and I was so surprised and from that day he shared my pictures on his twitter, facebook and so on, he introduced me to many people.
