Alfonso Smerilli of Make My Shoes Store Lab and Smerilli Design Manufacturing - Direct-to-consumer AND supplying mini-chains with European quality footwear

Alfonso Smerilli

Alfonso Smerilli has had a long and varied career in the South African footwear industry and now, just shy of his 52nd birthday, and in a sector which is mostly struggling, he’s embarked on his most challenging role yet – as a factory owner, blazing a different trail.
His start in the footwear industry was with a factory owned by his parents and uncles in Marche, one of Italy’s foremost footwear manufacturing regions. The factory was called Smerilli 3S when it was founded in 1953 under his grandfather, and today is still running under his uncles.

And he would probably still be there but for a holiday in Sun City in 1997 and a chance visit to “an Italian factory we heard about” in Mogwase, outside Rustenburg.

The factory was Romano Shoes, and its owner, Romano Marmeggi, needed a designer. His 25-year-old visitor went home with a job offer, including a salary double what he was earning at home. “On top of that, I wanted to learn English,” he said. “I couldn’t refuse.”

He worked for Romano for 2 years, where “he was like a father to me, and I learnt a lot about moccasins and men’s shoes”. Thereafter he moved to Johannesburg to open a moccasin factory, which he sold after 4 years. He went back to Italy, but travel was now in his blood, and he freelanced as a designer for factories in Italy and South Africa.

In 2003 he married here, and with it came the need for a more fixed abode. As he puts it on his Facebook page: “Born Italian, grew up in South Africa.”

Michelle Footwear’s Mike Gedye took him on as a designer for Froggie, and he spent “10 very happy years there, under a very good shoe man – the best”, he said. After Gedye’s death in 2019, and the subsequent changes at Michelle, Smerilli left in 2020.

Meanwhile, in 2015, his first South African employer sold Romano Shoes to Johannesburg retailer Abdul Rehman Dajee of City Outfitters. Dajee renamed it Goraz Footwear Manufacturers and moved it to Jeppestown, where Marmeggi ran it as the factory manager.
Dajee’s vision was to make footwear for his own men’s outfitting shops, all within walking distance of the factory, and to offer footwear to other men’s outfitters.
The factory hobbled along, surviving without much sign of growth, and when Marmeggi last year turned 78, and wanted to retire, Dajee decided to sell Goraz.
Willing seller met willing buyer.

In the realpolitik of new businesses, Alfonso Smerilli is balancing paying off the factory he is buying with keeping it running, and simultaneously creating a new business model.

Smerilli has created 2 businesses in the same factory.

Make My Shoes Store Lab (https://www.makemyshoes.co.za/) is an online retail site offering sneakers and casual ankle boots and shoes, all in leather, retailing for R1750-R2650.

Made in Italy look with a made in SA label.

Smerilli Design Manufacturing (SDM) is the factory itself – under its new name – which supplies retail customers.

“Our goal, for SDM, is to make for mini chains which currently import expensive, high quality leather footwear from Europe, under their own labels,” he said. “We want to offer the same level of styling, finish and quality of manufacturing as European suppliers at a fraction of the price. Among the benefits for our retail customers is a much better margin.”

Between the 2 businesses, the factory is making 50 pairs/day currently, 70% of that for retail customers, and mostly men’s footwear.

It’s a challenge, but he says he’s confident that what he’s attempting is not just viable, but a realistic way forward for a South African footwear manufacturer. His uncles also help him with ideas and developments in Italy. “Whatever I need, I ask them,” he said.

Initially, he tried to run the business from Durban, where he was living, but he has since relocated his family from Durban to the Western Cape, although he now spends most of his time in Johannesburg.

As the seller, and a retailer with a much deeper insight into manufacturing than most, City Outfitters’ Dajee is a keen observer of SDM/Make My shoes.

“I must say he has transformed the plant and him being the designer and running the plant has taken it to another level,” he said. “Producing new designs every quarter has really enhanced his success.

“Load shedding and debtors stretching the payment terms have hampered his business growth substantially.

“We understand retail trade is slow out there and thus we show leniency. We hope trade improves in the not-too-distant future.”