We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marit Woods a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Marit thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

We are a social enterprise that seeks to bring forth wearable art that tells stories, impact the lives of others economically, and enhances the psyche of our patrons. When I embarked on the Arway journey it was not intended to be a business. It was a project to help young people out of war reevaluate the situation they found themselves in, understand how they can fruitfully optimize their life, and become contributing members of society. Inspired by Augusto Boal’s Philosophy I created Arway LLC, with the mission to use Art as a vehicle for social change. We focus on several initiatives in the artistic realm. However, Arway Bags is the business arm of our initiative. We seek to economically empower youth while inspiring sustainable economic-driven endeavors. The objective is to engage youth in the Art sector; thereby encouraging collaboration with Liberian Artists to create appealing products that are ethically sourced. Ultimately, we want to be the first manufacturing leather company in Liberia managed by young people to produce wearable art for the world.

Marit, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The genesis of Arway LLC. commenced as a project seeking to use Augusto Boal’s Principles (Art for Social change) to help artistic youth rebuild their lives after a civil war. Witnessing the dire economic situation facing talented youth left an impact on my worldview. However, my interaction with these young people and my love for fashion was the catalyst that led to the creation of Ar-way Bags. The sole objective is to engage Liberian youth in the Art sector; collaborating with Liberian Artists to create appealing handmade products. Wearable art is an opportunity or consumers to become one-hit art by physically showcasing an extension of who they are. This medium of art is what we bring our patrons. However, expressions one aspect we want to s=esuere our products are durable, an heirloom you can pass on from one generation. Therefore we have tested and ensured our products are made from the first Ankara and wood to ensure durability.
In line with our mission to Economically empower all involved. We ensure all makers augment their skills and elevate professionally in their domain. We want to replicate the approach used to train Mamadou to become a Master Maker for ARWAY Bags.
Mamadou made the first 5 Arway bags made, it was a tedious but rewarding process. He learned from Marit how to measure accurately, create sophisticated products with new materials, understand the need for prototypes to ensure accurate reproduction, etc. Skills that were once unnatural are now an avid part of his production. Presently, Marit and Mamadou can remotely design bags that meet market expectations. His new knowledge elevated his skill set and avail him with new expansion opportunities. Mamadou realizing the importance of knowledge acquisition traveled to learn more about leather cultivation in turn improving his business prospects. Mamadou received an interest-free loan which helped him elevate his business. He recently moved from 200ft2 to 850ft2 store.
This process is the driving force embedded in our partnerships with our youth makers. Lastly, as part of our sustainable goal, we 1. We recycle Ankara and wood from our bags to make products for Arway Accessories and Arway Kids. All proceeds generated fund our STRIVE program. STRIVE seeks to create education and skill opportunities for artistic youth and entrepreneurs seeking to advance their education or ideas utilizing 100% of the profit generated by Arway Kids and Accessories. Unlike most scholarships, we do lifetime support. From ages 6-18 years, we currently partner with orphanages to select candidates for our scholarships. Our business loans are interest-free but must focus on art and education. More importantly, as we made progress with our vision, we want to ensure we create a workforce that values the importance of producing quality work, elevating their community, and appreciating the path to individual growth through knowledge acquisition and economic empowerment.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

COvid open our eyes and we realized we could not make money from online sales. Most of our sales have been in person. Thus, the remoteness of covid left us stranded. We had two choices, donate inventory or be creative. I remember one day at a fair, a lady purchases one of our Bassa bags and she turned to her friend and said” This will look so good in the living room!! I paused and asked “Living room?’. She proceeded to tell me how it was going to be displayed. A bag as art! I thought what a great idea! That experience saved us. We pivoted from direct retail to the wearable art market, responses from countless emails and calls made during the 2nd half of the pandemic. To date, we have displayed in several museums and currently booking more exhibitions.

This open the door to B2B sales and expanded our baseline. Thus, the reason is still open today!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Based on our analytics we realize social media is great for aesthetics but does lead to direct sales for our brand. In-person direct storytelling is what works thus we make it a point to get personal with clients by asking questions about their purchases. We have add-on services that you don’t find in the traditional marketplace.

Our personal touch and accommodation have been the secret to growing our clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.arwaybags.com
• Instagram: @arwaybags
• Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/arwaybags