SoleRebels’ meteoric rise from small-scale Addis Ababa shoe shop to Africa’s fastest-growing footwear brand is a unique tale of success — especially on this continent, where opportunities do not come easily to young entrepreneurs.

Since the founding of her company in 2004, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu has garnered much media attention and multiple international awards for her distinctive approach to manufacturing. More impressive, however, has been the sales growth that has propelled soleRebels toward global-brand recognition.

The company currently sells its shoes through numerous retail outlets, including 12 stand-alone stores across Asia and Europe, along with a robust e-commerce operation. By the end of the decade, soleRebels plans to open dozens more retail outlets, with a target of US$250 million in sales revenue.

Although Ethiopia is slowly making a name for itself in the world of mass-produced footwear, the rise of soleRebels does not fit neatly into this narrative. While much of the Ethiopian footwear industry focuses on readily available Ethiopian leather, soleRebels makes its shoes from nontraditional materials such as organic cotton, jute and hemp. These colorful sandals, slip-ons and lace-up shoes are handmade, one at a time, through a low-tech, zero-carbon production process that emphasizes raw beauty over mechanized perfection.

“It’s important to understand that at our core, soleRebels is an artisan-driven company,” Bethlehem says.

Bethlehem, 33, was born and raised in Addis Ababa’s impoverished Zenebework area. Her mother and father worked as a cook and an electrician, respectively, and were a huge influence on her.

“They taught me the value of respect for one’s family and larger community,” she recalls. “The way they treated other people always struck me, as it was always in a manner that dignified and respected the person regardless of who they were.”

Years later, this respect for human dignity would become a characteristic of Bethlehem’s approach to recruiting and training workers. After attending Addis Ababa’s Unity University and working for a time with various local leather and apparel producers, Bethlehem felt compelled to create opportunities for people in the community in which she grew up.

“There were so many talented people there who could do great things if only given a chance,” she says about her neighbors and family members, many of whom could not even find simple jobs.

Yet Bethlehem was opposed to setting up a charity organization. “I saw the devastating effect of aid and charity in terms of making people complacent and dependent,” she says.

“I wanted to show people that if we all worked hard, we could have jobs that pay decently, and we could all start to feel the pride that comes with financing ourselves.”

Bethlehem launched soleRebels on a plot of land owned by her grandmother. The initial designs of the shoes were inspired by the selate and barbasso sandals worn by the legendary Ethiopian soldiers who battled colonial occupation.

The young company immediately began to develop its “green by heritage” ethos — capitalizing on environmentally sustainable practices that already existed in Ethiopia, such as the recycling of car tires to make sandals.

“We are embracing these methods of production not because they’re the ‘in thing,’” Bethlehem says emphatically, “or because we held a focus group, or because some marketing genius told us to be ‘green.’ We embrace these [practices] because they are integral parts of Ethiopia’s cultural fabric; they are by their essence sustainable and low impact; and — best of all — they make amazing products.”

The commitment of soleRebels to sustainability extends beyond its products to its workers and entire production process. The company recently became the world’s first footwear brand to be fair-trade certified by the World Fair Trade Organization (a designation that certifies the sustainability of a company’s entire operation — not just its products).

Today, soleRebels employs more than 100 workers who are paid over three times the industry average. While Bethlehem has achieved her dream of creating jobs for people in her community, she is far from satisfied. On the horizon is the construction of a state-of-the-art facility (to be built with eco-friendly materials and powered by renewable energy, of course) that will include a showroom for buyers and an “innovation center” to further develop the company’s sustainable production methods.

While her company’s growth is just a tiny part of what is happening in Africa’s private sector, Bethlehem believes that soleRebels serves as inspiration to other young people on the continent.

“I wanted to show that it is possible to be a local person, in Ethiopia and in Africa, and also be globally successful,” she says. “It is possible to deploy local resources while creating a market-leading global brand. And to do it all from scratch.”

If the next generation of African entrepreneurs is able to take on the global marketplace with this kind of tenacity, the amazing success of soleRebels could be repeated many times over.