I had had this idea in my head for several years, but I needed time and someone to support me. Money, at least in principle, was not going to be the main problem because I had a lot of savings: I knew that sooner or later I was going to establish myself on my own and I preferred to tighten my belt with other things, forget about buying a car or getting into one mortgage and have a good economic cushion. I was going to need it.
But what I was also going to need was more than just my enthusiasm and my experience. When I finally started to get serious about the project of setting up a sustainable shoes company, I realized that I was going to need a partner: I couldn’t handle everything. I remembered some old friends from the design and fashion school and I got in touch with someone to probe their situation and their desire to get into a madness like the one I had in mind.
From the beginning I made it clear that I would have the last word (among other things because, at least at the beginning, the money was put by me) but that the person who was with me would not be my assistant, but that we would be at the same creative level. Finally, I found an old colleague who was very interested and who was also working in a shoe company.
We got on quickly and got to work. When we had already outlined the project, the critical moment arrived: abandoning work. You cannot set up a firm of this type by working in your free hours: you have to be with it 24/7. When you quit your job for something that doesn’t pay, you feel a bit dizzy. What if it goes wrong? But sometime in your life you have to jump into the pool.
And we did so with the sustainable shoe brand that painted very well … until the coronavirus arrived. This issue has altered everything, threatening consumption and fashion, among many other sectors. Everything has slowed it down and our brand suffered just when we needed a little boost. Hopefully, little by little, the matter will improve and we will not regret leaving our jobs …