Panafrica

Panafrica was founded in 2015 by two friends, Hugues and Vulfran. Hugues had been working in Senegal, Congo and Ivory Coast for an African start-up and became familiar with the wax-print fabrics used in West and Central African clothing; he brought samples of the cloth back to Vulfran, his childhood friend, who conceived of using the prints on a pair of sneakers.

The brand sources its wax fabric from Uniwax, one of the remaining wax-print manufacturers still operating in Ivory Coast, and has the shoes themselves assembled by craftsmen in Casablanca, Morocco, aiming for production that stays on the African continent from textile to finished shoe rather than importing the fabric to be manufactured elsewhere. Individual sneaker styles are named after African cities and ports, including Casablanca, Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, tying each design back to a specific place.

Panafrica presents itself as a socially driven business rather than a conventional footwear label, describing itself in press coverage as combining eco-responsible production with a stated social mission around education funding, and it has used its supply chain, wax sourcing in Ivory Coast and assembly in Morocco, as its central selling point. Sole components are sourced from a supplier holding Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification, part of the brand's broader ethical-sourcing claims.