Artisans behind every front door in Nicaraguan town
02/10/2014
Mr Enríquez left secondary school after only two years to start work in a local footwear and leathergoods factory. He set up La Pegada to make the most of the skills he had learned and to have more independence.
From selling his first pair of shoes to a neighbour, he now ships regularly to markets in Masaya and in the national capital, Managua, and has even begun to build up business in neighbouring countries such as Costa Rica. He has also been able to invest in some machinery and a set of 200 lasts imported from Guatemala, and to attend a training course on export requirements, organised locally by the European Commission last year, and he is beginning a search for bigger premises.
However, he said in recent comments to local media that he is taking nothing for granted. Footwear makers the world over know it’s a competitive business, but Masaya is reputed to have 500 shoe factories, most of them very small. A friend warned Mr Enríquez in the early days that it would take hard work for him to stand out in Masaya because “there’s an artisan behind every front door here”.
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