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Transcript/ScriptPLAYBOOK SLUG: Kenya Running Shoe Company (TV)
HEADLINE: Shoe Firm Aims to Capitalize on Kenya’s Culture of Elite Runners
TEASER:
PUBLISHED: Thursday, 04/14/2022 at 7:55 am
BYLINE: Hubbah Abdi
CONTRIBUTOR: Omary Kaseko
DATELINE: Nairobi, Kenya
VIDEOGRAPHER: Amos Wangwa
PRODUCER: Rob Raffaele
SCRIPT EDITOR: BR, Bowman
VIDEO EDITOR: Betty Ayoub
VIDEO SOURCE(S): VOA Original, ENDA Footage (ENDA Courtesy Burned in Video)
PLATFORMS: TV, Web
TRT: 2:08
VID APPROVED BY: Omary Kaseko/BR
TYPE: TV PCKG EDITOR’S NOTE:
((Intro))
[[Kenyan entrepreneur Navalayo Osembo co-founded a footwear company six years ago with the dream of building on the country’s heritage of great runners such as Eliud Kipchoge and Wilson Kipsang. The vision was to manufacture high-quality running shoes in Kenya, as Hubbah Abdi reports from Nairobi. Carol Guensburg narrates the story. ]]
((NAT SOUND – door closing))
((NARRATOR))
Navalayo Osembo is the CEO of ENDA, a company that makes running footwear and apparel.
She aims to build on Kenya’s reputation as a global leader in distance running, by producing shoes while creating jobs.
((Navalayo Osembo, CEO, ENDA)) (in English)
“When you consider how successful we have been in the running space, but then in the backdrop of poverty and high unemployment. … why can’t we as Kenya create economic advantage in the running space, which we are very well known for?”
((NARRATOR))
Osembo co-founded ENDA with Weldon Kennedy, a social activist and running shoe nerd. They met in 2015 and began discussing how Kenyans could benefit from their running culture.
((Navalayo Osembo, CEO, ENDA)) (in English)
“Footwear is really the tool of the runner. … So, if we were going to make a big splash as Kenya on the running scene, it has to be shoes. And also, because it hadn’t been done before, so we had to try and do it.”
((NARRATOR))
ENDA produces shoes for daily training, longer distance and trail running. All are made in partnership with Umoja Rubber Products, a shoe manufacturing company based in the coastal town of Kilifi.
ENDA’s high-performance shoes aren’t cheap, with a suggested retail price starting at $120. Eighty percent of ENDA’s customers are in the United States, 8% in Europe and 12% in Kenya.
One of those customers is Henry Wanyoike, a Kenyan Paralympic champion. The blind long-distance runner has used ENDA shoes for four years.
((Henry Wanyoike, Kenya Runner)) ((in English))
“They have shoes for training like now what I'm wearing today, and also they have the shoes for competition. ENDA is what we can show to the world. This is something that has been made in Kenya. I feel good, because I'm promoting Kenya."
((NARRATOR))
RunRepeat, a U.S.-based website that reviews running shoes, says running has increased in popularity over the last decade.
ENDA looks to expand beyond elite athletes into the recreational running space that is growing both in Kenya and across the world.
((For Hubbah Abdi in Nairobi, Carol Guensburg, VOA News))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Nairobi
BylineHubbah Abdi
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
