Waterford footwear designer values local support
https://samplafootwear.com/
“Anyone who is selling a tangible product knows how important the local community is when starting out.” Finbarr Power, founder and owner of Sampla Footwear explains how the local market helped launch his business, “Thanks to the great support from friends, family and the local community in Waterford, this really helped with Sampla getting off the ground from the very beginning.”
Sampla makes animal friendly footwear by using apple. Each pair is crafted by skilled hands in Portugal using responsibly sourced sustainable & innovative materials. Sampla Footwear plants an indigenous tree in Ireland for every pair produced.
Local Enterprise Office Waterford launched its ‘Shop Waterford, Support Local’ campaign in early November to encourage Waterford shoppers to support local business in the run up to Christmas. It aims to put the spotlight on the vast array of retail and gift options within our county. From artists to designers, food producers to craft makers and everything in between that makes Waterford the first and last stop for Christmas shopping.
Just because people can and do buy their Christmas gifts online it doesn’t mean they cannot support local businesses. In 2020 the Local Enterprise Offices approved over 13,000 Trading Online Vouchers which enabled small businesses to set up an online trading presence.
“We've enjoyed the process of going from a crowdfunding campaign to a fully functioning online store. We launched our website in October 2020 and now being a team of three we keep motivated and enjoy each day in our journey.”
Finbarr has been helped by the Local Enterprise Office as he developed the business “I have a solid relationship with the Local Enterprise Office. They have shown me support from being a side project all the way through to being a fully functioning business. They have supported me with accessing grants as well as pairing me with an experienced mentor.”
The pandemic didn’t help but Finbarr is looking forward to 2022, “Staying positive was key, it was an exciting year to be honest. Currently we are exclusively online with our elppá collection. In the new year we plan to grow the collection and be featured in retail stores across the country.”
The ‘Shop Waterford, Support Local’ campaign, supported by Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities, aims to raise awareness of the benefit of spending in your local area. This campaign seeks to strengthen that sentiment and to educate consumers on the domino effect that local spending has throughout their community.
The ‘Shop Waterford, Support Local’ campaign follows the national ‘Look for Local’ communications campaign to encourage the public and businesses to seek out products and services from businesses in their local area. The campaign was led by the Local Enterprise Offices and supported by Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Enterprise Ireland, and the Local Authorities.