A news startup founded by Navalayo Osembo-Ombati and Weldon Kennedy will start to produce world-class running shoes inspired by the long tradition of Kenyan athletes. Navalayo comes from a village near Eldoret, Kenya, where many of Kenya’s running champions come from. A graduate of the London School of Economics, Navalayo has worked in different places around the world, including the US, UK, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. Weldon is a social-change campaigner who has worked on a range of early stage social change startups. After gaining business experience as Managing Director of Change.org in Europe, he co-founded Enda with the belief Kenya should receive greater benefit from it's reputation as a running powerhouse. 

The company raised money to incorporate through a succesful campaign in kickstarter.com and is using now indiegogo.com to finance the production of the first commercially viable shoes, after designing several prototypes with the collaboration of several design and athletics experts. They  started production in 2016, with a goal of shipping shoes in November 2016. Their first production run will be small, so if you want a pair of the first Kenyan running shoes, you need to pre-order through its website. 

Enda Athletic was incorporated as a public benefit corporation in 2015 and is the first company to ever design and develop world-class running shoes inspired by Kenyan running greatness. Enda has developed Kenya’s first running shoes that incorporate the country’s running history, culture and skills, while at the same time creating jobs. Enda will initially assemble the shoes in Kenya, with a long-term vision of having the shoes 100% made in Kenya. Enda expects shoes to be available by November 2016.

Source: company's website