Protesting With Shoes In Venezuela

in #venezuela5 years ago (edited)

When Carolina Aguerrevere was looking for a unique pair of shoes years ago in Venezuela, she knew that options on the market were limited.

It was hard, even harder now, but back then [years ago] it was also hard to find different and unique things to wear or to do... I would make a purse, or something to wear in my hair... things that we wanted to wear but couldn't find [we made]” says Aguerrevere of her life living in Venezuela many years ago.

When she couldn't find the shoes that she was looking for, her husband had encouraged her to try making her own. Once they made the first pair they soon started to see a demand for more, many people were asking where they too could buy a pair for themselves.

They founded their company more than 10 years ago, back in 2004, and they were able to produce for several years. However, the cost of the supplies would continue to climb and this obviously made production difficult. To try and keep the shoes affordable for people in Venezuela to buy, they created different sale initiatives that sometimes offered up to 70 percent off the product, a generous sacrifice on their part. Eventually, they had to bring things to a close in Venezuela as the economic situation has worsened. They abandoned production several years ago because prices kept escalating and the limitations being placed on imports were too burdensome, among other issues.

They also got political with their art...

At one point they created a controversial shoe (pictured in first picture above) that was one shoe with a Venezuela flag on it and the other all red shoe was seen stomping on the flag shoe. According to Aguerrevere that shoe started to become embraced by many people in the region and they'd wear them to protests. Aguerrevere says that she got into trouble with the government for the design, to the point that they feared for their life. Eventually, they moved out of the country, but they didn't give up on their dream.

Since they left Venezuela with their Hot Chocolate Design business, they have since launched it on a digital platform back in 2013 and they've been selling shoes on Amazon. It's reported that their business has doubled sales every year and Amazon accounts for a great deal of their success.

Carolina and her husband say they'd like to go back to their home country as soon as possible but they know that it's difficult for people to afford to buy shoes when they cannot afford other basic necessities.

Pics:
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pic2

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Hola doitvoluntarily,

Tu post ha sido seleccionado por el bot de @provenezuela, te hemos dado un voto en apoyo a los autores venezolanos!

Gracias por ser parte de nuestra comunidad!

@doitvoluntarily It's a shame what is happening in this country, it reminds me a lot of Argentina a few years ago, thank you very much for letting us know this touching story dear friend
I wish you a good start, dear friend

Hello @doitvoluntarily, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!

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