Yinka Atunde
Interview with Yinka Atunde
FOUNDER and CEO, YIKODEEN
Lives in: Lagos, Nigeria
** As a consequence of technical difficulties, this story sadly doesn’t have accompanying video or audio.**
In 2016, Yinka Atunde established the Nigerian footwear producer Yikodeen. Though the corporate started by making style footwear, it has since carved out a distinct segment in industrial security boots and footwear for the safety providers.
Beginning out within the footwear sport
Atunde studied pc science at Babcock College in Nigeria, graduating in 2014. Nonetheless, he sought a distinct path, drawn as a substitute to design and the inventive course of. It was this curiosity that finally led him into footwear.
To increase his trade data, he travelled to Italy for a course in shoemaking, a programme that included placements at Italian footwear firms. There, he witnessed the immense element and keenness inherent in Italian manufacturing.
Looking for a distinct perspective, he additionally toured factories in China – the world’s largest footwear producer – to know their methods. He discovered the Chinese language course of was markedly completely different, characterised by a sooner tempo and a extra industrial focus.
Upon his return to Nigeria in 2015, Atunde decided that dismayed his household: he took a handbook position in a neighborhood shoe manufacturing facility. It was a calculated transfer, designed to provide him an unvarnished view of manufacturing on the bottom.
In Nigeria, the manufacturing strategy differed from the fashions he had studied abroad. “It wasn’t as formal because the Italian course of they usually weren’t as centered because the Chinese language by way of making these volumes,” he says. Moreover, he discovered there was much less deal with high quality.
Seeing a possibility to vary the way in which footwear had been made in Nigeria, he began Yikodeen in 2016. Atunde blended his experiences from Italy, China, and the native factories, focusing initially on style footwear.
The large break
A turning level for the corporate got here when it landed a contract to make 10,000 footwear for the police. On the time, the Nigerian authorities was aggressively pushing for public establishments to obtain regionally manufactured merchandise. Till then, most police footwear had been imported.
Atunde’s staff produced samples and submitted them for testing. As soon as glad with the outcomes, the police positioned the order.
On the time, nevertheless, Yikodeen was producing only some hundred pairs of footwear a month. To fulfil the ten,000-unit order, the corporate required extra equipment. Though the police had paid an upfront deposit, Yikodeen nonetheless lacked the funds to import new tools.
The younger CEO turned to Nigeria’s defunct footwear factories, lots of which had closed many years in the past however nonetheless housed equipment. He tracked down the house owners – or their kids – to buy the idle tools, which the corporate then refurbished.
The enlargement was not restricted to equipment. Yikodeen, which had beforehand employed about 15 individuals, elevated its employees to roughly 50 to supply the order.
Following that first contract with the police, the corporate added smaller defence companies and finally the army to its consumer checklist. Atunde says the army deal happened after Yikodeen showcased its merchandise at a safety occasion, and the military subsequently turned an everyday consumer.
Though the enterprise started by specializing in style footwear, Atunde notes that it was at all times the intention to maneuver into useful work footwear.
Regardless of the success the corporate had achieved by this stage – supplying boots to giant shoppers just like the army and police – Atunde by no means felt the enterprise had actually arrived. “We’re very removed from the place we’re speculated to be,” he notes. “So from the start, as soon as we earn a living, we at all times put it again into the enterprise.” He provides that the corporate persistently reinvests in tools.
Going into security boots
In 2018, Yikodeen started creating its line of security boots. Nonetheless, securing the mandatory certifications took a while and the Covid-19 pandemic brought about additional delays.
Issues finally moved ahead when Italian oil providers firm Saipem, which had vital operations in Nigeria, agreed to buy the boots after trialing them for an in depth interval. “That e mail got here in 2022 … it was simply the happiest second I’ve had within the enterprise as a result of it was the primary time we knew the trajectory was about to vary and we’re not simply going to make army footwear,” Atunde says.
A choice of Yikodeen’s security footwear.
The choice to first pitch to a multinational like Saipem was calculated. Atunde particularly focused a number one oil and gasoline contractor, understanding that assembly their rigorous well being and security requirements would validate his product. “I stated, let’s give the highest-end shoppers the product to check out,” he recollects.
For Atunde, the deal introduced his journey full circle: the nation the place he had initially educated to make footwear was now dwelling to his first main company consumer.
Yikodeen is benefitting from Nigeria’s push for ‘native content material’ – insurance policies that require oil and gasoline firms to purchase Nigerian-made items and rent native employees as a substitute of importing them. It’s licensed by the Nigerian Content material Growth and Monitoring Board to produce security footwear to the sector.
Lately, Yikodeen’s manufacturing line is dominated by security boots. The corporate manufactures a broad spectrum of protecting footwear, with capabilities starting from waterproofing to warmth, slip, and electrical present resistance. Past the oil and gasoline sector, the consumer checklist has expanded to incorporate manufacturing and development companies.
“For the entire of final yr we did simply primarily security boots,” Atunde says. “We didn’t even [make] army footwear. We needed to reject all army footwear orders as a result of … we had a lot quantity of security boots that we didn’t even have the capability to make army footwear.”
Whereas the oil and gasoline trade has historically maintained strict well being and security necessities, different Nigerian industries are actually inserting better emphasis on these measures – a shift that bodes properly for security shoe gross sales. Atunde explains that in states like Lagos, this variation is basically regulation-driven. As an illustration, whereas employees on small development initiatives may need beforehand worn flip-flops, the Lagos State Security Fee now inspects these websites to make sure compliance with correct gear, equivalent to arduous hats and security boots.
Receiving non-public fairness funding
In 2025, Lagos-based non-public fairness agency Aruwa Capital Administration invested $1.5 million in Yikodeen.
In an earlier interview with How we made it in Africa, Aruwa’s managing companion, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, defined that the funding is permitting the corporate to ramp up manufacturing volumes. “That they had the capability to do about 30,000 pairs of security boots yearly earlier than we invested. With our funding, we’re truly 10x-ing that capability,” she stated.
Okunbo Rhodes additionally famous that lots of Yikodeen’s company shoppers pay in US {dollars}, making a pure hedge in opposition to volatility of the Nigerian naira, which has seen a pointy depreciation in recent times. That is notably vital for personal fairness funds reporting returns in {dollars}, as a weakening forex can shortly erode enterprise beneficial properties.
Watch our full interview with Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes: Behind the scenes of constructing a non-public fairness agency in Nigeria
The problem of managing individuals
Yikodeen at present employs simply over 250 individuals. Atunde admits that human assets stays essentially the most difficult side of the enterprise, noting that success begins with recruitment – getting the precise individuals by the door. He says the subsequent step is guaranteeing employees perceive the corporate’s imaginative and prescient and really feel a part of it.
Nonetheless, for lower-wage manufacturing facility employees, he argues that the corporate should first meet their primary wants – particularly offering meals and lodging close to the office. Atunde notes that if these requirements aren’t met, it’s tough for workers to care concerning the firm’s mission.
Classes learnt and recommendation
Reflecting on classes learnt, the founder needs he had understood the trade’s procurement cycles earlier. He explains that company shoppers have particular buying seasons; as soon as a window closes, they received’t purchase once more till the subsequent cycle. “I assumed that they might purchase any time I introduced the product to them … That’s not the way it was,” he explains. “Some individuals will purchase each two years … Some individuals signal contracts for 3 years and as soon as they signal the contract for 3 years, that’s the tip, they’ll’t purchase from me in three years till that contract is over.”
On the subject of recommendation for different entrepreneurs, Atunde emphasises the significance of merely taking motion, no matter assets. “One lesson I’ve learnt is you can begin with something,” he says. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of what you might have… simply begin doing what you wish to do and also you get it operating.”
