How to use your brand experience and grow your business – Oscar Aboje Amedu, Oscar Shoes.
Let’s get to meet you. Please tell us about yourself and your background
The idea for starting up Oscar Shoes came about when its CEO, Oscar Aboje Amedu took up lessons from a cobbler about four (4) years ago right after finishing his secondary school education. He then decided he enjoyed the feel and satisfaction gotten from his customer’s comfort and appreciation of his skill, customers who at the time consisted mostly of family and friends.
What inspired you into starting this business? Did you face any obstacles in the beginning and did you overcome them?
Therefore Oscar Shoes was birthed to ensure that the same comfort, appreciation and satisfaction shared towards his products by family and friends was extended throughout the Nigerian market and in the nearest future all around the world.
A global community of shoe producers’ inability to reach larger markets and therefore settle for production and supply in a particular geopolitical region.
Lack of a local Home based shoe brand that resonates deeply with socially conscious customers.
Lack of originality and creativity by certain shoe designers and manufacturers.
How do you research and create your latest designs to keep up with the latest trends?
Well I check what’s trending on social media and how it would affect my own market and I go for it and also I use pintrest to get designs also
What would you say is the most challenging part of being a fashion entrepreneur?
Lack of brand equity in comparison to our competitors.
A limited financial base compared to the major players in the industry.
Lack of clear cut channels of distribution.
To satisfy a customer these day requires a lot skill and tact knowledge, Can you share with us an expected brand experience from prospective clients and how you would maintain it
To provide our clients with comfortable fashion. To become the dominant shoe company producing shoes for the Nigerian market and for stores across the globe. To build an online community of Oscar Shoes customers who will spread our business by word of mouth and online.
Become profitable within a year. Build a brand equity that will carry into other business ventures.
Maintain a financially healthy business and validate the trust of other people in support of their consumer purchase.
Leverage the multiplier effect by giving our consistent customers a lifetime guarantee and our platinum card which grants them a free product within each year of production.
Can you think of any examples of how working as a fashion entrepreneur has been personally rewarding for you? If you could work with a popular figure in Nigeria, who would that be?
It has been so rewarding to me because I have my own tome schedule…I make my own decisions and i see my project grow as I want it to. I don’t have to work myself out. If I am to work with a public figure on Nigeria. I will definitely work with someone that is on the same line of business just like me!
One of the biggest challenges facing leather industry in Nigeria is poor quality of output. Many People often complain about the lack of durability of locally-made shoes or bags. How do you intend to change this narrative in future? Do you have any advice to the government on how to support this industry?
Oscar Shoes creates a brand that aims solely at comfort for our clients and empowerment of youths interested in the acquisition of this esteemed skill. Oscar Shoes provides a front-end media company to keep consumers abreast with their ongoing activities. Our products are unique, more durable, have a welcoming grip and last long for the clients. Oscar Shoes uses unique and classy materials, sometimes a mixture of fabrics to create a wow effect for our clients and enable them stand out where ever they show up wearing our products.
Oscar Shoes unique selling proposition is its ability to transform and bring out the beauty in fabrics through intelligent and socially conscious designs. We have what we call a PCP policy which represents: People, Comfort and Profit.
We are in a dispensation where skills have become of great value for career growth, What kind of training or education do fashion entrepreneurs need to excel?
Create seminar where you enlighten young people on what to do. Even if they are in the university…make them see the importance of working with their hands. Like I tell young folks what you do with your hands will pay you more than sitting in an office…school knowledge is and added advantage to an entrepreneur!
What are the key influences on your fashion brand style?
Creativity, tolerance for risk, responsiveness to opportunities, leadership and consistency
What should Nigerians and the world expect from you in the nearest future?
Our vision is to see that we will be able to impact the lives of young Nigerians, and to be able to be called out when manufacturers of shoes are called out in Nigeria, Africa and subsequently around the world.
