Meet Navalayo Osembo | Co-founder & CEO of Africa's first running shoe company

Nava, as she is affectionately known, is a tenacious entrepreneur who left her comfortable UN job in New York to start Enda Sportswear. Africa's first running shoe company - Proudly made in Kenya. Interview by Ras Mutabaruka and originally published in TAP Magazine Issue 13.

Please introduce yourself to the TAP family.

My name is Navalayo Osembo. I am the co-founder and chief executive officer of Enda sportswear. Enda is essentially a company that’s working with Kenyan athletes to share Kenya’s running culture with the world.

Tell us a bit about your early years growing up in Kenya and your favorite memories

I grew up in Nairobi, my dad was in the Air Force so we spent a fair share of time in the Moi Air base but I’ve pretty much lived in almost all military barracks. I think favorite memories growing up  were definitely Air force days! This is where they’d do all these stunts with planes up in the air and other activities - those were the good old days, Jeshi (army) was Jeshi (laughs).

Tell us about your educational background and career journey

I studied law for four years but before I actually went to law school, I did my CPA and I became a certified qualified accountant. So from my second year of law school to fourth year, I was pretty much working and studying at the same time. It really gave me a chance to work with professionals in risk management, accounting, auditing and we did get a lot done. The variety of experiences it exposed me too was really great, so by the time I finished law school I was ready for the workforce. 

And how did you end up at the London School of Economics (LSE)

There was this one random time I was trying to figure out what I would do with my life and I was looking on the internet and then I saw this brochure of people in universities looking so happy. I saw one for LSE and I was like I really want to go to LSE. So we took a loan as a family and that’s how I ended up in a program called the program for African leadership. It was a three week intensive course that was just basically giving you an overview of Africa, the challenges, the potential, the future, things to be thinking about. It included thirty five people from different parts of Africa, people who to date are very dear friends but that thing just blew my mind away. I’d never had that in-depth academic experience - I think the nerd in me just exploded. 

The next year the program for African leadership converted from a summer program to a masters’ program and I applied for it and that’s how I basically got into the LSE on a full scholarship which was amazing.

What did you think of London as a city and the UK in general?

London was amazing, it is an amazing city. It’s very cosmopolitan. You meet almost every nationality there. The UK was a great experience, great eye opener. It was really difficult also because I’d left- my daughter who was about three and a half then and I think she just could not understand why I was appearing and disappearing at certain moments. Thankfully she’s forgotten (she laughs) but at that time she used to cry all the time. Every time I used to talk to her she’d cry and cry and cry and obviously I'd feel super terrible. 

From the UK to the UN, how was your first day at the UN like?

I still remember the first time I walked into the United Nations headquarters. I was so full of joy and also just this feeling of here I am. I’m going to change the world and I’m in the policy seat where decisions are made and this is really me, not anybody else. I couldn't believe it was me walking through these gates and it was a pretty amazing feeling, yeah.

Then how did Enda come about? What led you on this path?

I’d say Enda is a series of many events that kind of just led into one point. I’ve always been interested in sports and once upon a time I started a sports academy in Bungoma that was focusing on helping kids who have really great talent in sports but without the economic background to support their talents - the program basically intended to put them in a place where they can just focus on being their best. That experience, mixed with my experience in international development forced me to start thinking about how we can use sports as a tool for development.

You see, while completing my masters’ in international development from the LSE, one thing that really blew me away was just how people used to talk about Africa. Every case study, it was Africa. If you are talking about dictatorship, Africa! If you are talking about hunger, Africa! At some point I remember people arguing in that class and feeling like you are African but it’s like the world is discussing Africa without even asking you what you think? Coming out of there, I felt as though I needed to change that. Like there is so much beauty, so much grace, beautiful things happening in Africa  that were not necessarily reflected in the development academia and I thought, if I ever did something it would be something that definitely dealt with improving our development and at the same time using sports.

So Enda came about through asking yourself these questions?

Yes. Those were  questions I had when I went to an event where my co-founder was also attending. I was asking myself the question of surely, a country like Kenya with all the famous athletes coming from Kenya, surely we can do much more than just a few of us being recipients of award prizes or being used in marketing campaigns. Like, how can Kenya and Kenyans as a whole benefit from our culture of running? I was also looking at how other economies have flourished based on their reputation. For example the Germans. If you say a machine is from Germany, everybody automatically assumes it’s quality. It’s the same thing with Kenya and running. I was thinking, surely, with our reputation in running, how have we not monetized  this in a way that actually helps the country move forward? 

Once I was discussing them with Weldon (Enda's Co-founder) we realized that running was it if you really wanted to capitalize on sports in Kenya. Then, from there, if you think about the runner, running shoes are just the one thing that everybody needs regardless. You can run in tight shorts or  whatever, but you have to have running shoes and that’s when we had that light bulb moment of, we have to make running shoes - and  we did!

Wow! How did you go from this light bulb moment to having a product? And are you at this point still at the UN?

The shoe idea had just started brewing by the time I went to New York and it was still an idea. We’d just started working on it long distance with Weldon and just talking with different people, but I think I asked myself; here I am, I’m at the UN headquarters, I’m still this young, what's next after this? I always had that question at the back of my mind because I saw a lot of people who walked into that building see it as the end! like they kind of just get there, they stay there until they retire and everyone goes like yaay!!! It’s great to retire and all, but I also took time to speak to people who’d been there for a really long time. I sought the advice and basically asked them if I’m looking at a career here how does that look like and I found an overwhelming number of people basically telling me that, if you have a dream go pursue it. Don’t get golden handcuffs. Go follow your dreams because there is just much more to life.

Also, if your dream is here then that’s great, but if you feel that you have something that you want to do outside here, go do it. I think having that encouragement from such people and at the same time having this idea of Enda… it reached a point I couldn’t sleep and that’s how I always say I knew it was time to move. You sleep and you just feel like I’m not really supposed to be here. You go to work; you’re just feeling I’m not supposed to be here. I don’t know how to say it, maybe that’s what you call it.

You had reached a point of no return? 

It just reached a point in life I knew I had to do something, and that was the moment I basically said; okay, what does it take to move back to Kenya and I just said you know what, I’ve done all the research, I’ve talked to all the people, at this point it is my decision-am I going to stay here or am I going to go back? And of course making sure that you’re going back and not going to be a burden to anyone. That you have mapped out your dreams and you can basically afford some time away to do what you want to do, and yeah, it just made sense to come back.

So, I basically left the United Nations and decided to hand over everything and to just basically take a chance and follow my dreams and see how it would be if I focused on Enda full time. If I came and everyday I woke up and I was just thinking about Enda, without having to think of anything else, how far can we go? I also remember there was an event in South Africa, I think Obama went for that event about some work he was doing with African leadership. He basically said and at that point I actually felt like he was talking to me. I think someone asked a question of what do you tell people who basically want to come back but they are afraid of the climate - by climate I mean economic, political, social what do you tell them? What would he advise someone who was thinking about coming home but is not sure about whether they are able to face the challenges of moving back to Africa. And he said that if you want to change Africa, you have to go to the ground. You can’t do it from a distance. And there was nothing wrong if you wanted to choose a comfortable life and live outside Africa. But if you wanted to make an impact you had to come back home.

But leaving the UN must have been scary? Were you scared and did your close ones support your decision?

I didn’t believe that I’d left the United Nations until when I gave back my LP (laissez-passer). You just don’t realize the effect of having it vis-à-vis   having the Kenyan passport (she laughs). Because you never have to worry about travelling anywhere and now you have to go back to applying for visas. I think I had that moment where I was scared but I kept telling myself, if I have to discover my purpose in life it cannot be in a comfort zone. I have to go out and find something for myself - and one of the things my brother told me, he’s very philosophical, is the story of a roman general that went to a battle and his troops were afraid that they couldn’t beat this other army. When they reached the shores, he told the captain of the ships to burn all the boats! So it’s a quiet joke in my family when we say burn the boats! It means there is no going back, you're going to have to move forward.

Who were the first people you told of your decision to leave the UN and return back home?

The first people I told; I think my husband had kind of seen it coming with the whole back and forth of should we go, should we not? And the good thing is that he saw the vision and was like - okay, if this is what we need to do let us invest in it. Then we broke the news to the family. Of course everybody was like are you sure about this? Is this absolutely the way you want to go? and I think I was like; yeah this is it. And I think also my family is used to me being stubborn. So they were like if this is one of your things just do it but be careful so that you don’t end up in a place where you throw away the one dream that so many people are looking for. 

So in general you received the support you needed from your family?

Yes. We had a great range of supporters but equally there were a lot of people who were like, you are making a mistake. You’re taking this for granted and not taking full advantage. But I always say at the end of it all, I am accountable to me. If I’m okay with that decision, I’ll live with the consequences. Granted, the worst case scenario was I might show up at my family and I’m like; hey, here I am (she laughs). We tried it and it didn’t work. But I think the important thing is to try. I think that’s the driving force. Try. 

I’d say there were definitely a lot of concerns in terms of why are you coming back to Kenya? The politics suck, the economy is on the toilet, a lot of all that. But I always say it depends on what you see. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. What is rugs to one man is usually riches to another, and I think I see the opportunity. I also saw a lot of friends who are non- Kenyan trying to find a way to come to Kenya and live here or find something, and I kept on thinking, wait, why are Kenyans looking to move out and a lot of foreigners are looking to move in. There must be something. That also gave me courage that it is the right time. Also, from the family perspective the kids are small. It’s still okay to move them around a little bit but of course we have an internal agreement that once they reach a certain age that’s it with trying to do stuff. We have to be more established. The combination of having the blessing of the family, having my husband be supportive and having the kids be excited to move back pretty much sealed the deal.

How was it like being back in Kenya?

Adjustments, I would say when you stay out of Kenya for some time; you really start noticing the missed opportunities. For example getting a passport in the US (not that I have a US passport) you never interacted with the government, ever. It was a post office application. Look at what’s going on at immigration right now- the advice is that people literally have to camp early and stuff like that, also the fact that our transport systems are inefficient. Once you’ve seen efficiency it’s hard to go back in the sense that you wonder why can’t we do it right.

I’ve really started questioning the concept of love after that because I’ve been asking myself; do we really love ourselves, honestly? Because it’s just the whole spirit of harambee, the caring for somebody else; for your neighbor, for your brother and if we did care enough for our brothers would we be involved in that much corruption for instance if we knew that we were taking away from the plate of someone who has nothing.

Getting back to Enda, what would you say is Enda’s vision?

I’d say our vision is to basically put Kenya on the map as a source of quality, not just the runners but also running shoes. So, I’d say our overall vision is to ensure that everywhere you go in the world,  whenever a conversation about top running shoes happens that Enda shows up. 

I see it becoming a household name, I see it making social impact like creating jobs, not just for us through the office and making the shoes, but also creating the supply chain because one of the reasons why it’s been challenging to create Enda is the fact that nobody has made sports shoes here yet- a performance footwear before. So that means even when you are talking about the EVA plastic that makes the mid-soles, nobody is doing that. I feel like we are creating opportunities for other entrepreneurs to come up as well. Hence, when I say social impact I mean jobs. Not just for Enda but for the whole ecosystem.

I also see Enda as a channel of change. For every shoe we sell, a portion of it goes into a community fund which allows us to invest in local projects. I see us creating social impact by showing other companies that you can actually make money but still invest in communities. The two can go hand in hand. One doesn’t have to be an afterthought of the other. You can actually rise together. At the end of the day, you want to create business but what’s the purpose of creating business if the people do not have purchasing power? The two go hand in hand. I see this as an integral part of Enda’s vision.

Who would you say Enda is competing with in the marketplace?

As a running shoe company, we are basically in the running footwear industry. So I would say the key competitors are brands in that niche industry. Some people like to compare us to other big brands, but I’m always saying that Enda’s path is Enda’s path. We’re not stopping and looking at the side and saying what’s that one doing and what’s that other one doing? Enda was created with a mission to bring the benefits of running back to Kenya. That is it. That’s our path. So I feel like that’s the driving course. That’s basically what challenges us to do what we do every day. If other people are doing other things, good for them but Enda’s path is our path and we’re not really in a race where we’re competing with other people to get to an end.

But you're not saying that Enda doesn’t care about Nike and Adidas…?

No. I'm saying Phil Knight started somewhere….

We respect those people that paved the way in the industry but I think we also challenge the notion that the industry is “owned” by certain people! - like why? Why should that be and why shouldn’t other brands try? And as I said, trying is the key element. Just get in and try. The worst that you could do is go back to where you were originally but if you don’t try then you have this thing hanging over your head of what could have been. Enda is not waiting for anything. We’ll go till we get to where we are going.

In your circle of colleagues as a shoe company executive, how many people look like you?

(She laughs) well, the running shoe industry is set up in a certain way and people kind of look the same. I think Enda is different because we are challenging that. First by just being daring enough to make shoes in Kenya when everybody else is saying let’s make them in China. We’re saying no! Let's make them in Kenya. If we have to make a change it has to be in manufacturing. Also the fact that this is a woman led company makes us a bit odd, most companies in this space are led by men, white men. So I’d say that’s also audacious enough being in a position to make decisions that determine the flow and the way of the brand and how we relate to our customers.

I would say Enda is different in that respect and also in our story. I think there is a lot to be told in that a little company in Kenya is basically saying okay, I think I can size up these guys - it's the classic David and Goliath story. And am not just saying that, I believe that we can change this industry. I think even for Kenyan athletes sake, it would be great if there was someone alternative to provide competition so that they can negotiate better contracts and we’re not just in a monopoly of a few brands. I think it’s our time.

What are some of the challenges you face as the CEO of Enda?

As the CEO of Enda, one of the things that has been mind-blowing is the perspective of life as an employee vis-à-vis as the person who makes the decisions. In my opinion, based on my experience, it was very easy to show up to work and go back home and it’s a bit different when you are up late at night trying to make sure that things happen the way they happen. I would say my experience has been mixed bags mostly because this is  a new industry here so inherently we are paving a way that has not been paved before in Kenya. This means that we have to encounter challenges that we hadn’t encountered before from policy structures that were not  necessarily set up to envision a company like ours to many other issues.

 An example of that would be, we do exports for instance but we cannot qualify as an export processing zone (EPZ) company because we don’t own a physical factory. And one of the things that make me think from a policy perspective is we are a country with high unemployment, we have very low access to capital, so we should be promoting instances where people actually co-share stuff you know! like you don’t have to own a factory and own it yourself. You can actually share. So I feel like policy is behind us in that perspective, that the future is a global shared economy and we are not there yet, so I’d say I face challenges like that a lot.

I would say funding is also a major challenge.

Funding can be challenging in Africa!

I feel that a lot of funding is available in Kenya and in Africa in general but most of that funding is geared towards businesses that target the bottom of the pyramid, and that is just a fancy term for saying businesses that are catering to a lot of poor people. I understand that from a development perspective and it means that, let us make life as easy as possible for the poor people of Africa and this thinking forgets that we’re also here creating and building brands and businesses something that is essential when it comes to development and this is why it’s important to tell our stories. 

My struggle with understanding the bottom of the pyramid strategy is that everybody is trying to compete for the class that has no money. 

–It’s not bad, I just find it problematic that a lot of funding is too focused here when what builds and sustains a country's development is the businesses. It is the businesses that are creating jobs to make money to add onto that plate, it is the businesses that are earning revenue for the country, expanding the economy. 

So, I would say this is the challenge in funding but there is also the traditional funding where if you don’t have security from the traditional way of raising funds, they won’t give you money.

That said, I’d say the opportunity is there for capital that is local to really go into these spaces that foreign capital is not going to go into either by virtue of not understanding or just by virtue of that’s how things work. Local capital really has to step up and plug those issues if we know we need this and that, and we know that entrepreneurs are facing a challenge to get money so let’s just make it easy for them to get money and try their ideas. This is how we will build our countries and the continent 

When would you say Enda was officially founded?

In Kenya we registered in June 2017 and In the US we registered first for patent reasons, we registered at the end of 2015. So, in the US we registered in 2016 and mid 2017 in Kenya.

How do you feel you’ve done?

(She sighs) I don’t know. I say that because I see the future and I think we are a bit far from it and we need a lot of help to get there but at the same time a feedback that I've received and I agree to is that I don’t take stock of where we’ve come from! I am always like- we need to do this, we need to do that so, I think we have come; no, no, no we have come a really, really long way but I cannot say that’s a measure of success. I don’t think we are successful yet. Not to the proportions I know. There is still a giant mountain ahead of us and just like running, we will keep at it, one step at a time. I think the focus is to just stop looking at that big obstacle and just say, okay, what can we do today? Do what you can for today and then let tomorrow fight its own battles.

What can regular Kenyans and people of good will do, how can they help Enda climb that mountain?

People can help Enda in several ways. The first, most effective way is to buy our products. Every sale makes a difference, the more we sell the more jobs we create and the more we become a sustainable company. Another way is by just supporting us. Buying the product could just be one way of support; the other way could just be supporting our work, talking about us. Word of mouth is the most efficient form of marketing. So, recognizing that a company that’s this small having to fight companies with marketing budgets that are almost the GDP of certain countries, it has to be a people focused - a grass root movement if I would dare call it that. 

Talking about friends, talk to us about "fri-endas". Who are friendas?

Fri-Endas is anyone who is a friend of Enda (she laughs). 

A frienda is a friend of Enda and that could be anyone. It could just be our customers who buy our shoes, it could be people who join us for runs, could be people we’ve never met who defend us online even though we don’t know them. Anybody who supports us as a company and chooses to believe in our mission and believe that we can do it together! People who take part in the community and practice the ethos we do as a company, I would say that person is definitely a frienda. 

What’s your average day like?

My average day is as you have seen very busy. Today, my kids are not in the picture so today is a good day (she laughs). I’d say on average I’m still trying to find a balance of what works and what doesn’t because as I’d said I moved back to solely focus on Enda, so that is always at the top of my mind. You have people to meet. You have to understand the business, you have to be there for the operations and other aspects and you have to make sure that you’re not running broke and people will be paid. Then there’s the regulatory aspects; you try to make sure that we are staying on top of all these things. I’m still trying to find a way to balance everything and thankfully I think i'm talking to the right people who will help me get there. 

But usually, I just wake up, stay with the kids for some time then go to the office and come back probably at around 6pm, then not look at my phone for a couple of hours until when the kids go to bed; ideally I used to be able to put in a few more hours once they went to bed but nowadays I just pass out with them… but I figure the key is to read the book here (living room), not to read the book to them in bed because if you do that it’s morning before you know it and you still have a ton of emails to get to.

What's your biggest fear?

I think one of my biggest fears is to not fulfill my destiny, and I still don't quite know what that destiny is; I wish we had a book that kind of told us- this is what you are supposed to do!

What are you most looking forward too where Enda is concerned 

I'm looking forward to seeing one of our athletes win a major championship or an Olympic medal in Enda's. 

You can find Nava on twitter: @NavalayoOsembo

Interview by: Ras Mutabaruka

Images by: Paul Kidero Exclusively for TAP Magazine Issue 13