MANILA, Philippines – Guia and her classmates learned that coconut husk was one of the top agricultural wastes in the Philippines.
At that time, around six billion husks were being produced every year and 75 percent of these were just being thrown away or burned. They researched further and found out that coconut husks may undergo a decortication process in order to be turned into coconut coir, which is made of exceptionally strong, elastic, anti-bacterial, odorless and water-resistant fiber.
“As we were also into fashion, we thought of using the coconut coir as foot bed because it is cushiony and gradually molds to the shape of your foot, thereby providing comfort to your feet,” she explains.
As fate would have it, they launched their first production in 2013 after winning the Be the Next Gkonomist of GKonomics, which aims to build strong, sustainable and scalable social enterprises in communities rebuilt by Gawad Kalinga.
“We were blessed with angel investors who provided us with P160,000 seed money and mentorship as well. Coconelas became our business, an offshoot of our thesis in our college marketing class,” Guia says.
“However, we decided to stop the business in June 2014 when all of us had full-time corporate jobs after graduation.”
Earlier this year, she and her friend, Lia Chua, decided to revive the business after gathering knowledge and experience from their respective jobs. They relaunched the brand as Cocosuelo.
While the designs come mainly from them, they get inputs from the shoe makers, especially on the materials and details to determine how to best execute what they have in mind. In the future, they hope to collaborate with other shoe designers and release new designs thrice a year.
Most of the materials are sourced from Marikina, but the coconut coir mattresses are sourced from Laguna. Their shoes are priced from P1,099 to P1,199.
Currently, they have nine shoe makers and around six nanays from the GK community helping them out.
They have been told by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) that coconut coir products have a huge potential in the export market.
“The Center for International Trade and Expositions and Missions, the export promotional arm of DTI, is willing to help start-ups like us in penetrating the export market,” she adds.
“Having a start-up social enterprise is definitely not easy, and what really keeps us inspired are the people who continue to support and believe in us and in what we do. We have been blessed with our families and friends who continue to be there for us, mentors from GK who provide us with the necessary guidance, suppliers who have values and principles similar to ours, local shoemakers who inspire us through their hard work, and the disadvantaged communities that always remind us why we started this in the first place,” she says.
She confesses that she and Lia have always wanted to have their own shoe brand since, like most women, they are also fond of shoes “though Lia is more into sneakers and rubber shoes while I go for sneakers and sandals.”
She loves the fact that they get to do what they love, which is fashion and footwear, and the same time be able to give back to society by providing livelihood to marginalized communities.
As social entrepreneurs, they have their fair share of challenges.
“We have the tendency to become too idealistic sometimes as we want to have as much impact as possible to the lives of other people. We lay down a lot of plans, and more often than not, what actually happens is far from what we werehoping for,” Guia admits. “So when we started planning and operating again, we tried to manage our expectations and be practical and realistic with our goals.”
They are determined to make the business grow even more to be able to increase the effect that they have on the lives of other people.
This year, they intend to have physical stores and be able to release a new line that will cater to men.
“In the long run, we will try distributing to the export market once our production has been streamlined enough to be able to meet the volume required in export trading,” she says.
She admits that while diligence and perseverance are key factors in sustaining a business, the one most important character of an entrepreneur is to have the heart to dream big.
“Do not be afraid of trying. Similar to what we would tell anyone who plans to start a business, it can be as challenging as it is fulfilling. But at the end of the day, what matters most is that you never forget why you started in the first place. There will be a lot of ups and downs along the way, but you should be fine as long as the passion and determination remain,” she ends.
Contact Cocosuelo via text or Viber at 0917-8480319 or facebook.com/cocosuelo or instagram.com/cocosuelo