171 UP AND COMING TITI ADESA sales@titiadesa.com www.titiadesa.com envisioned. For example, Agra took six samples to finally get it right! The design is inspired by ceiling curves of a historical building in India called Agra Fort, and the curved proportions for the design were challenging to achieve. But now Agra is a customer favourite, so the journey is very rewarding. What is it that sets you apart from your competitors? Our conscious fashion DNA has been a differentiator to our peers. We all need to look at being consciously creative, in what we’re making as well as in contributing to the well-being of our communities. I never wanted to create shoes just for the sake of adorning beautifully crafted footwear; I wanted to empower women too, which is why the brand birthed our ‘TA Foundation.’ The aim is to empower young girls in underserved communities within Africa who aspire to build careers within the creative industry, through educational sponsorship and mentorship. For the past few months, we faced the worst of this pandemic, but the picture of education and its future still remains unknown within those communities. Our collections aim to use a percentage of our proceeds to positively contribute towards supporting these young girls to return to school, while staying healthy and safe. How often do you launch new lines? We launch one to two collections per year. What are your current best-selling designs? I would say our S’oke and Agra are our top best-sellers. I think the mule works incredibly well because of its unique and versatile design. Both styles are clean, sharp and can translate effortlessly from meetings to date night, for example. They look great with almost any outfit and with stockings too. Why is the website and social media important to your business? Social media is a powerful tool to connect our audience to our products so it’s an essential piece of our business marketing strategy. There are very few channels that have such a vast platform to increase brand awareness and, in turn, new clients. What have been the key milestones in the business? We’ve had a few amazing moments but launching at Level Shoes at the very start of our brand, was a very proud moment for the team. How have you navigated COVID-19? The biggest challenge has been balancing the need for adaptability in an ever-changing business and market while still ensuring the core elements of the brand remain a key focus. It’s a balancing act for sure as we are still navigating through. How do you view the current market and what trends, both in business and product, do you see emerging over the coming months? I think the pandemic has certainly shifted the customer’s view on trends. People are looking to invest in more meaningful pieces with sustainability at the forefront, which is a very exciting change. What are your future plans for the business? We’re in the works to build a more tailored consumer experience with our DTC retail strategy, which I’m very excited about. We’re also yielding to our client’s footwear demands and lifestyle needs in terms of our style, so we have a few expansion plans in place to reach our client’s needs more directly. The team and I are also working on enabling a full online Titi Adesa experience and some experiential activations for our TA women to enjoy, so I’m really looking forward to it all!
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