Farewell to Sam

We are sad to announce that today is the final day at Shoebox Homes for Sam Adams, our Project Manager.

Sam has been with Shoebox Homes for over a year and has had a huge impact on the organisation. He has facilitated the delivery of beds to over 60 families/homes and he has had a massive impact on our organisational structure. For this, and your friendship, Sam, we are truly indebted. We wish you the absolute best for the future.

(Sam's absense will mean less posting until further notice...Thanks!)

CPUT Students working with Shoebox

On Monday, Shoebox Homes gave a presentation to a class at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). It was a group of roughly 30 students, all in their third year in the department of design.

These students are going to be spending the next 4-6 weeks researching and designing new products for the Shoebox Homes range! We are thrilled for this opportunity to connect with some talented young designers. They are working on a design brief that will expand our range with space-saving, low-cost furniture that is suitable for the mass market.

What is also great is that we at Shoebox can offer the students an entry point into the design market. The products that match the brief will be manufactured by Shoebox and marketed across the country. The students will then be paid on a royalty basis. This is a win win situation!

Partnerships Beginning to Materialise

In the last ten days we have had some in fantastic interactions with two different groups. Firstly, PayProp, a property company in Stellenbosch have expressed an interest in working with Shoebox Homes. This is great news - they are a highly skilled and committed company and there is a great synergy between the areas of work of PayProp and Shoebox (both in the property/design/space and innovation fields).

Secondly, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology have given us the opportunity to link with their third-year design students. A class of roughly 30 students will be spending the next 4-6 weeks... More on this in the next blog post..

And Some Quiet Times at Shoebox

Business is very quiet at the moment unfortunately. We are waiting on new funding to come in before we can get going again. It's been a hard start to the year for this reason. Very slow - not just for Shoebox, but for most of the companies we work with too.

At the same time, it is so exciting to anticipate the growth we will have as soon as funding materilaises. New products, new ideas, new deliveries, and more lives impacted! It's going to be great.

Exciting Times

Shoebox Homes has had lots of exciting experiences of late: Here's an overview:

• Free Range Films have been filming our work for a documentary to go on SABC.
• Next week CNN will be filming Tsai and the beds too!
• We have had discussions regarding funding from some churches in the UK and in Cape Town. We hope to deliver seven new beds to their project in the next month.

Watch this space for further developments!