Shimena | weaving friendships

Stories about Shimena

Corporate Culture is the Key to Equality in the Workplace

11. July 2022

Over the last three years, we have seen community trust and respect grow alongside economic security. 60 % of the women in our raw material production and processing as well as our employees are women.

Ethiopian Tradition of Handloom Weaving Passed Down from Generation to Generation

27. January 2022

Traditionally, men are the ones who take on weaving and the production of textiles and garments as a task. Shimena wants to change these structures and also enables women to learn this ancient weaving culture.

Made by Shimena – How We Create Our Natural Dyed Cotton Yarn

2. November 2021

The concept of ‘Natural Dyes’ is by no means a new one and refers to all the dyes derived from the natural sources.

Ethiopia has a long tradition of using natural sources for textile coloration, and Shimena wants to maintain and develop this ancient knowledge.

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The Vision

Shimena aims to preserve the, more than 2000-year-old, traditional handicraft of weaving to make it a sustainable, profitable job opportunity for this and all upcoming generations.
The company and its partners plan to realize that, by connecting talented artisans, and hire unemployed people from the Arba Minch mountains and to provide them with training and education.
The main goal of the founder Firew Konjo is to contribute to the wellbeing and livability of the Ethiopian community by creating employment.

Our Responsibility

Social

Shimenas policy in terms of social responsibility contains fair payment and support of women entrepreneurship and training programs for the local youth to earn income.

Environmental

We take several actions to protect our environment and to minimize our ecological footprint. We source almost all of our materials within 30 km distance and recycle the water and waste of the production.

Craftsmanship

All our products are crafted by our professional weavers, spinners and sewers. Its fabrication requires specific skills, knowledge and a lot of time, but the outcome is worth its efforts. The final result is a product, whose exceptional uniqueness transmits the authentic African spirit and the Ethiopian heritage.

Our Community

Shimena is proud to be a member of the Ethiopian Fashion Community, an association of several fashion brands, located in the beautiful country of Ethiopia.

Initiated by young Ethiopian entrepreneurs and supported by some international brand specialists, they created a network of small and medium-sized textile-businesses, with complementary product categories, to generate employment.

All involved companies share the same aspects and principles: They are crafting distinctive designed fashion out of contemporary textiles, sourced in Ethiopia, and pay special attention to their social and environmental responsibility.

With a long term vision, the project will enable the brands to soon be independent of support and successfully expand their business into the world.

More and new companies might join the Ethiopian Fashion Community and will learn from each other.

This should lead to a successful, independent, organically growing group of businesses in Ethiopia, that improve the living-conditions of many families.

Other brands of the Ethiopian Fashion Community are Kabana and Enzi footwear.