Shoe designer aims to tackle poverty one step at a time

Combining a life-long love of art, design and cool trainers with a passion for humanitarian work, Goldsmiths student Kudzi Synos has been invited by the UN to bid for $10,000 to help expand production facilities for his footwear brand into countries in urgent need of industry.

The 24-year-old MA Art and Politics student will represent Goldsmiths at the seventh annual Millennium Campus Conference (MCC15) in New York this August - an annual summit for young philanthropic entrepreneurs from across the world who are working to advance global development.

Kudzi will be bidding for one of the UN’s $10,000 (£6,450) prizes on offer to projects tied to one or more of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals - which includes poverty eradication and a change to unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. 

Born in Zimbabwe, Kudzi grew up in Gaborone, Botswana, and has lived in Ashford, Kent, for the last six years. He studied for a BA in International Relations at Nottingham Trent – with the aim of working for a humanitarian NGO.

Kudzi joined Goldsmiths in 2014 on our innovative MA Art and Politics programme, a multidisciplinary postgraduate qualification launched in 2009 to focus on issues that are key to both art and politics, exploring practices and issues related to public space, democracy, equality, participation, justice and affect. 

After a successful crowd-funding campaign last year raised more than £2,500 in a few weeks, and attracted local press interest, he formally launched the brand KUDZ with a line of lace-up, rubber-soled trainers.

Style, function, versatility, and a decent wage for workers

The stylish, functional, versatile and comfortable shoes, designed by Kudzi, are now being sold through the websites kudzfootwear.com and Not On The High Street.

“I’m really proud to work with factories that provide good working conditions, a decent wage, and help improve the lives of workers. It took a long time to find a viable manufacturer who could guarantee that, whilst creating a really good quality product,” Kudzi explains.

“A lot of people said they’d just produce whatever I wanted if I had the money, there was little interest in the product or ethical conditions for employees.”

KUDZ are currently produced in China, in the same factories used by ASOS and Dr Martens. The manager will, on request, live-stream footage from the production line, via a webcam, so Kudzi can ensure the working environment is healthy.

Building an empowering company

“Winning UN funding will allow the brand to develop new relationships with established retailers and increase distribution options. Once the company’s profitable, I’m looking to expand production to both Ethiopia and Haiti.

“In areas where many people are living on less than £1 a day, KUDZ has the potential to be a really empowering company, providing employment opportunities and skills to communities where there are few other opportunities.”

Even though he’s donated shoes to charities in the past, Kudzi doesn’t believe that organisations who simply donate shoes and clothes to poor areas are doing much to improve the lives of people in poverty-stricken areas in the long term. While people donate to charities with good intentions, many of their items don’t end up where the donator expects them to go.

“These hand-outs don’t empower people in the long-term. If anything, they build a reliance on charity,” Kudzi adds.

“KUDZ will encourage empowerment, rather than focusing on donations. To do this we must be able to have the infrastructure to manufacture in areas of high poverty and provide local people in developing countries with opportunities in production.”

Visit this link to see the available KUDZ product line.

Find out more about MA Art and Politics at Goldsmiths.