Whether you’re looking for something new or simply looking to breathe new life into your favourite shoes, Cordonnerie Dakissa is known as the place to go.
While owner Seïdou Dembele specializes in the repair of all kinds of leather goods, he also is a gifted shoemaker. He shows these skills by creating beautiful, hand-crafted sandals and shoes for both men and women that he sells alongside bags, belts and other accessories. Many of these pieces are things that he finds on trips to Mali, where his parents live and where he learned his craft.
Seïdou has been working with shoes for as long as he can remember. As a child in the Ivory Coast, he had to work to pay for his school books. So he went down to the bus station on his lunch breaks to shine the shoes of passersby, sometimes doing minor repairs as well. As he worked his desire to broaden his skill set grew and at the age of fifteen he moved to Mali. There, he says, “I learned the trade properly, how to work with leather and all that”. He returned to the Ivory Coast at twenty-six and eventually opened his own shop.
