Kaima Designs creative director Christine Eruokwu (Image: submitted)
Saint John-fashion entrepreneur and creative director Christine Eruokwu built Kaima Designs by sensing a market and betting on herself.
Eruokwu arrived in Canada from Nigeria as an international student in 2014 to pursue an MBA, from UNB SJ, majoring in Entrepreneurship and Technology. After graduating in 2015 and having her family join her in Saint John, she started brainstorming ideas for a business.
“One of the things that struck me growing up as a child was this ad on TV that said, ‘looking good is good business,’” says Eruokwu, reflecting on her decision to create a fashion business. “When I would apply for jobs and meet people, I found that people address you the way you are dressed – literally or metaphorically, there’s something about your appearance and how you look.”
She decided that if she was to go into fashion she wanted her business to be unique and say something about her African background and stories through contemporary designs with African prints.
Kaima Designs clothing and products (Image: submitted)
Eruokwu said she had to work twice as hard starting up Kaima Designs in 2017. Because she was an international student and only had a work permit she didn’t have access to much of the government-funded programming that’s available to others.
“I had to start the business on my own with my own funds and savings,” she shared. “When you’re running a product business you have to have inventory, so when you didn’t have that support of funding, it can be tricky.”
Learning to anticipate people’s needs, tastes, and purchasing intentions was done by trial and error, alongside the challenges of construction, supply, and transportation of her products with her seamstress in Nigeria, and teaching customers about the meaning behind the fabrics.
“I had the responsibility of teaching, educating, enlightening, explaining [what the fabric meant] even before I could sell,” said Eruokwu. “I had to do all of the groundwork before I started promoting the brand.”
Despite the ups and downs of getting a business off the ground, she knew that there was a market for Kaima Design’s African fashions, especially with the influx of people moving to Saint John who want to tap into its growing multiculturalism.
Kaima Designs clothing and products (Image: submitted)
“There’s a proverb in my country that if you go to a place and nothing is happening, or something that should exist is not existing, there probably is a reason for that,” she said. “When I got deeper in the business, I realized the reason was the market wasn’t big enough – but I had to take a leap of faith.”
In reflecting on the years since she came to Saint John and started Kaima Designs, Eruokwu found it wasn’t until last year that funding opportunities for Black entrepreneurs started opening up, fueled, she believes, by the death of George Floyd.
“We can’t deny it, it took one month’s experience in the US to change a lot of things across the world, including Canada and Saint John,” Eruokwu said. “I know Black entrepreneurs have been in this community for as long as anyone can remember but it wasn’t until last year before the impact [happened] – it was a little too late, but it’s never too late to start something.”
Kaima Designs clothing (Image: submitted)
She says Black entrepreneurs do not have access to some of the resources that would help their businesses grow, like storefronts.
“We know that the pandemic has hit really hard and people are going online, but in all honesty, not all businesses can thrive online alone,” she explained. She added that a brick-and-mortar component helps enhance businesses, especially those people who are outside of the mainstream.
Eruokwu plans to create more designs and clothing, establish a permanent storefront for Kaima Designs, and is working on a short-term location where people can walk in to see and try on the clothes.
“Anyone will tell you that an entrepreneur lives more than just one life,” she said. “It wasn’t easy, but my life has been better off because with all the challenges and failures came a lot of learning and maturity and growth that I never thought I would really get.”
Elizabeth MacLeod is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
