Claude: Armando Cabral is the founder of Armando Cabral footwear. He was born in Guinea-Bissau and now lives in New York, where his headquarters are based. His products are inspired by his African heritage, and sold to a global market. He partners with american retailers like Bloomingdales and shoe brands like Allen Edmonds. It’s a real example of Americans and Africans working together for shared prosperity – and that’s why I wanted to speak to him, to find out why an African brand is based in the US and how that helps him export to the world.
Armando Cabral, welcome to Limitless Africa
Armando: Well, that’s a great introduction. Thank you very much. Hello, everyone.
My name is Armando Cabral. Many of you might have known me for many, many years as a fashion model, which I think basically was the catalyst of all of the things that I’m doing today.
I think for me, I wanted to kind of like put together all of these things, all of the places I’ve been to, all of my references, into a storytelling. And in fact, today, if you ask me if I’m a designer, I came up with a title that I think best describes me rather than call me a designer which is a cultural design activist. And what does that mean? What that means is that it’s someone that is well-informed within his story, heritage, background. And that’s where Armando Cabral really came about. And that’s how the brand started.
Claude: And when you mention your heritage, I’m really thinking of your African heritage and really your heritage from Guinea-Bissau. And your name is very similar to the name Amilcar Cabral, right? Who was, you know, the nom de guerre, you know, the independence leader, the freedom fighter for your country, Guinea-Bissau. How, and also actually Cape Verde, to be honest. Can you tell us a little bit about how rooted you are in that African history, African heritage, even though you live in New York City.
Armando: Well, you can’t escape it, you know, it’s who I am. And I have to tell you, this shift in me personally really started during the pandemic. I’m home, couldn’t do anything, couldn’t travel. And so I kind of really got myself into reading again, which is something I’ve always loved, but I didn’t have time for it.
So I bought a lot of books in West African history, which was incredible, insight of my own heritage. Some of the things that I knew, some of the things I didn’t know. And I really, really read into it. And I was so, so excited about telling my story. And that’s where all this shift came about because I feel like, especially today, brands distinguish themselves by being authentic. And I felt like in order to be authentic, who’s better to tell my story than me?
And I think this is where I really started learning, digging into all these beautiful, beautiful historical facts and learning about Guinea-Bissau prior to the Portuguese, by the way, which was the Mali Empire.
And I became extremely fascinated with Mansa Musa’s story. So much so that the first collection that we released right after the pandemic, we actually worked with weavers in Guinea-Bissau to weave the African fabrics, the kente, which you call kente, but for us, we call it pano de pinti, and then ship them to Italy and produce the first shoes.
It was extremely successful, and that led to us to open our first retail store at Rockefeller Center.
Claude: I speak to a lot of Africans all over the continent and the African diaspora, and they’ve never heard of Mansa Musa, who really was the ninth Mansa of the Mali Empire. He was considered to be one of the richest men in the world. And this was in the 14th century, And I’m glad you referenced that because what you’re building is something that is meant for profit. You want to create generational wealth. You want to create something for your children and for future generations, right? Can you tell us a little bit more about the long-term plan for what you’re building with your company, Armando Cabral?
Armando: In order to know where you’re going, you need to know where you come from. And I think that’s I reference Mansa Musa and all the storytelling. And, yes, a business is for profit. I hope that we can have this for 100 years to come. It’s something that the next generation will be able to take it further than I can.
And yeah, there’s ideas of us really, really focusing on the continent. Our market today, if you look at it, Armando Cabral has been sold in over four continents, maybe 50 stores worldwide since we started. And then we had a physical store here in New York. The goal is for us to expand and really try to tap into Africa.
I think it was November, I went to Senegal. I was just extremely excited to go back and walking around and I didn’t even know that people were aware of who I am. And so that gave me some sort of interest in really putting our footing in Africa because it’s the next frontier. It’s becoming accessible in Africa.
Infrastructures are being built in certain places. And then you have young affluent Africans that travel to shop that are submersing in culture. And what I would love to do, is to actually be there, and not just tell the African story without being within the continent.
Slowly we’re trying to build the steps to kind of really be part of the continent because that would be my biggest dream to see around the Cabral retail stores across Africa, for sure.
Claude: That’s a really beautiful dream to have. Why did you choose this U.S. headquarters? Okay.
Armando: We all would agree that, you know, ah the spirit of entrepreneur entrepreneurship is in America, frankly speaking. Coming from Europe, that was the first thing that i understood.
And I felt like there was an opportunity to be based here and focus here because there’s so many people with the same spirit.
And I’ve had many examples of people that I talked to in Europe that for some reason were always skeptical with my idea of starting a shoe brand because they would always go back to well, but have you ever, you know, done anything like this?
And those questionings would always in a way would set you back. And the difference here in America is the excitement, is the enthusiasm that people meet you with when you talk about new ideas. And so for me, it was no brainer that, you know, being set here in the US and in New York precisely was the best decision for the brand and for the future of the company.
Claude: But in reality, who is your current customer? Is your current customer in America or? or is it pretty much also growing fast in Africa?
Armando: Yeah, I mean, I would say Armando Cabral customer is a global, culturally fluent and quality driven individual. Values, craft, identity as much as style. And they can be found everywhere. In terms of market size, of course, America is our number one base.
Claude: But wealthy Africans who are culturally fluent, how do you cultivate them? Because my idea from having spent time with some of them is they’d rather go to Dior or buy something from Paris or Milan than from an African from Guinea-Bissau.
Armando: You touch on a point that is very sensitive, obviously, between myself and friends within the creative world. We discuss this all the time. And we’re hopeful that this will shift one day because it starts with understanding your own history. And this is why for us as a creative,
It’s a matter of really continuously tell our story because for so long, most of Africans believed that everything that is good come from outside, not from within. And I think once you start shifting that narrative and knowing that your history, your heritage, and most of the things that you actually go to buy in France, in Italy, in all these places, some ideas came from us.
The pride I had to know about Mansa Musa’s history, not even because he was the wealthiest man in history, but bringing one of the first universities in the world, at Djenne, you know, like all of that trade, all of the things that he done, the support he gave to Europe during that time of famine. If young Africans knew about that today, they would walk around with much more pride.
We were never taught that. We were never taught that. And that’s the goal with Arbano Cabral, is to continue to tell this narrative and continue to let people know that we are not just consumers. We also can produce to the world, not just for us, by us, but for us, by us, to the world.
Claude: I like it. But I want to push you a little bit on manufacturing. And I’m wondering why wouldn’t you manufacture in Africa on the continent?
Armando: That’s a great question. We’ve attempted, as I mentioned to you, we did buy raw materials, for example, in Guinea-Bissau during pandemic. But I must confess that was one of the most challenging efforts i’ve ever made.
The issue today is still infrastructure I welcome every African to think about those alternatives in order for us to be able to compete. Because yes, you can have great ideas, but if you don’t have infrastructure, the only reason why we don’t produce in Africa for the time being, particularly also because shoes is also one of the areas that it requires… expertise. And for me, the most important thing I want people to know the brand for its quality of what it represents. I remember vividly when I was about to start a brand, people doubted me. One, because I was a model, a male model. Usually they think that models don’t have brains. And then obviously my goal was to surprise everybody to know that, you know, I know what I was talking about. And over the years, I would hear people going, wow. The first thing when they see the shoes for the first time, it’s like, wow, it’s actually an incredible quality
Claude: They’re just not used to a black African launching a high-end brand or luxury brand in this space, kind of with global ambitions. Oswald Boateng, but there’s not that many who’ve attempted to do it. And I think it’s just, people just don’t know that it’s even possible until you’ve done it, right?
Tell us about that journey starting from scratch and establishing partnerships with really big retailers. And then I’ll also add, you’ve had collaborations with major American footwear brands like Allen Edmonds.
So I personally own three pairs of Armando Cabral shoes. and And I wanted to ask you, these partnerships, these brand collaborations that you’ve done with, say, Alan Edmonds, the American footwear brand, is it that they have noticed that American consumers in the luxury market are interested in your African heritage and your African story?
Armando: That is a great question, and I’m glad you brought it up. ah And I will start with Alan Edmund, for example. So when pandemic happened, precisely, i remember I was in contact with the former CEO, Diane Sullivan, you know, was exchanging ideas. And I said, I have the greatest ideas that really define what my brand is, which is my heritage. And started telling her about the story and the books that I mentioned that I was reading about Western, you know, West African history and stuff.
And then when I showed the African fabrics that we developed in Guinea-Bissau, that we’re making shoes with, And her eyes just went like this. She said, Armando, I think this is my favorite thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve been in footwear for many, many years, and I think this is authentic.
I think they saw that African heritage is very unique. You know, ah there’s a uniqueness to that. When you look at the shoes, you can see it’s authentic. You cannot mistake it with anything. And then there’s an identity in there. And she was very excited and said, look, I would love for us to collaborate.
Claude: And so I wanted to ask you, because we always look at getting a really honest perspective on entrepreneurship in this podcast. What would be three tips you would have for entrepreneurs?
Armando: Well, one, you must really be sure about what you get yourself into because you will be
You will be met with doubts and people that don’t understand what you’re saying or what you’re really trying to achieve at first. that can be discouraging. So you really have to love and know exactly what you’re trying to do. That’s one. Second, you have to be persistent. You know, you’re going to talk to a few people. Some of them will listen to you. Some will listen. Some would want to support. And then the ones they’ll come to support are going to be very few. And you’ve got to have that gas to continue to go there and talk to people and
And thirdly is I would say, you know, just figure out whatever product or service you’re going to provide, you are going to be of service. You know, you’re providing something of value to someone because it’s the only way that, you know, you can become successful.
So if you have those three things, I’m sure it’s going to be tough, but eventually you will succeed.
Claude: Thank you so much, Armando Cabral. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.
