The other day I came across an article about a Senegalese shoemaker who had spent DECADES honing and perfecting the art of making the traditional leather shoes, which in the past had been worn only by kings. The beautiful shoes with the pointed toes are now favored by the culturally fashionable of Senegal.

It took the Chinese only ONE MONTH to copy the style, mass produce it using plastic instead of leather and sell it for a third of the price. They have flooded the shoemaker’s local market and can easily take their product global, essentially anywhere you may find a Chinese wholesaler.

So what happens to the Senegalese shoemaker now that his product has been HIGH JACKED? How does he provide for his family and make a living? What happens to his craft, a craft that had been passed down for generations? What recourse does he have?

In my business I market and sell handmade products produced by artisans in developing countries. We buy directly from them, no middle man, and pay them what would be considered a fair-trade price, that they set, for their product.

What I’ve been doing for the past few years is selling this product at events, festivals and shows; on MANY occasions I have had Chinese people come to my table or booth and take pictures of my product, I mean up close and DETAILED pictures. It never dawned on me that their motivation was to copy and mass produce; call me naive.

Over the years of vending you start to recognize other vendors; the regulars. They tell similar stories of Chinese tourists taking pictures of their product. We now give them a firm “no” when they come to our booths to take pictures.

But really, what stops them from simply buying the item and taking it with them? What I have found is that they don’t buy anything, even if they showed interest in it by wanting to photograph it they are usually not interested enough to purchase.

Take the time to read the article for yourself, see attached link.

In Senegalese shoe capital, Chinese not welcome – Times Union.