CNN Turns the Spotlight on a Former USIU Student .Find Out Why

This week,  CNN International meets Mohamed Awale a former student of USIU.

This will be on their weekly segment African Start-Up’  where they focus their attention on the founder of a company in Nairobi, Kenya, which converts second-hand clothes into trendy bags.

Suave Designs make bags from recycled materials like backpacks, messenger bags, I-pod cases and sleeves.

Awale talks ‘African Start-Up’ through how he works, with some material which was once a pair of jeans: “After cutting it up, we are going to take it now to stich and here we have small pieces of material that we have stitched together. Basically, these were coats, shirts, a bit of denim, and trousers that are now stitched up into a big material then we cut the bag out of it.”

Some of his work   Photo: CNNAfrican Start-Up

Awale graduated from United States International University in Nairobi in 2012, before going to work for an oil company. He then ventured into the fashion industry.

Explaining how his business took off, Awale tells ‘African Start-Up’: “A cousin of mine, who was doing that business before and had stopped, actually encouraged me to start it, but I didn’t do leather, like he did. I found leather to be expensive… I changed and used other materials.”

Suave started with messenger bags: “We started showing our friends, asking them how they looked. As we went on, people started liking them. We changed a few designs whenever they told us they needed changing….as we continued we branched off into backpacks.”

Awale mainly markets his products online, through Instagram and Twitter, though he still experiences some difficulties.

He reveals to ‘African Start-Up’: “One of the challenges that I have is convincing people that the local products are actually as good, or even better, than the imported products. The price is also another challenge because every time you tell people about the bags and tell them they are recycled, they compare the prices to second hand bags. Explaining the whole process of making it from scratch using materials that are readily available and the labor that goes into that…they don’t understand.”

Despite the challenges, Awale sees a big future for his brand: “What I hope for Suave in the next year or two is to be a regional brand…hopefully take over East Africa and start shipping worldwide.”