KaZo Shoes was inspired by our daughters.
Our family was formed on Nov. 30th 2003 in the city of Changsha Hunan China, and expanded on June 13th, 2004 in the city of Nanning, Guanxi province of China.
It was on our first trip to China to embrace our eldest daughter that I was struck by the playful, colourful footwear of the Chinese children. Their feet were adorned with the cutest shoes I had ever seen. They were red, yellow, green, orange and robin egg blues with cute embroidery stitching, or appliqués in fun whimsical designs. I smiled just looking at them.
I just had to buy these shoes! So my husband and I spent a few afternoons walking and carrying our new bundle of joy around the city to get a feel for the culture of our daughter, and along the way, shopped for shoes. I bought 17 pairs of shoes on this trip, in all sizes and colours, because at the time I had no idea when we would be back to this special country that brought us our daughter.
Well, we were back sooner then expected and 18 months later, we were back in China, to expand our family with our second darling daughter and the shoe shopping continued.
And so it went for 5 years....my girls would wear their shoes, people would stop me on the street, in the park, at preschool, in the grocery store, always with the same question…”Where did you buy your girls shoes?”
KaZo Shoes was founded on the backs of those first trips to China to form our family. Five years from our first trip I took a leap of faith and flew back to China by myself, to source my own suppliers and manufactures. It was the craziest thing I have ever done.
I landed in China where I had interpreters lined up to help with the language translations, and knew where some suppliers were located, but that was it. I soon discovered that the quality and price points are vastly different from supplier to supplier. I searched and searched for the quality and styles I was interested in. After one week searching the city, I had a mini melt down in my hotel, wondering just what I was doing on the other side of the world, all by myself, looking for shoe manufactures anyway. I should be home with my kids and husband shopping for shoes in the mall like every other mother.
Then, a strange thing happened. An experience I was not expecting. An experience I will never forget. I experienced a moment of self- pride. A moment where I did not agree with my self berating, a moment that I did not hear in my head the familiar voice of self doubt agreeing with me, that I was indeed delusional for hoping on a plane and flying to the other side of the world to start a shoe company. No, this was a voice that said, “I am proud of you”. I was so caught off guard with these words.
Normally I am in full agreement with my self assessment of shame and humiliation. But not this time, this time I felt I followed my instincts on cue, and that whatever happened I was okay to go home a winner for the effort. Part of this decision, was based on the desire to cultivate ties to China for the sake of my children. I wanted to have a tie to their birth country. I wanted China to be part of our family, and not just a far away country on a map. I wanted to bring the country a little closer to Canada, and this was a way to achieve that end.
Perhaps this is why the voice in my head was different, why it supported my efforts and actually whispered that I was proud of myself. Proud? Well, this is different.
You know the next day I struck gold……the next day out of exasperation I asked myself the question, “who knows this city better than anyone?” And like they say, the answer is usually staring you in the face, and it literally was. My Taxi Driver! My taxi driver took me to the Mecca of shoe suppliers who had the quality and styles I was hunting for. I now have a hand in all the designs I offer in KaZo Shoes. I have expanded my line of sizes, and styles from my first shipment and with every trip, I have expand my personal network in China in Hong Kong.
Yeah, sometimes you can surprise yourself.