For Isabel Agol, owner of the leather goods company naRoho, business is in her blood. Coming from a family of nine children, Agol and her siblings grew up helping their mom in her various companies. Agol credits her mom with helping her gain the acumen and drive for business she has today, as well as Agol’s desire to be a businesswoman herself. However, when it came time to start her own pursuit, she wanted to be a little more focused in her objective and worked to identify a singular stable idea that was not only sustainable in the long run but also philanthropic.
Enter naRoho. The word itself means ‘with heart’ — a concept Agol has fully embraced as she’s built her business in her native Uganda. Deciding to create a leather goods company happened much like a perfect storm of Agol’s passions coming together. As she strolled through a downtown market in Kampala one day in 2014, she saw a leather sandal and thought it was something she could make herself — so she made use of her artistic background and spent an entire day handcrafting a sandal of her own. This creation became the prototype for her new business.
“When I was studying, I really wanted to do something I loved, something I was passionate about,” Agol said. “I fell on this chance with the leather sandal and the leather goods company just started.” When deciding on products and their design, Agol added, “it starts…with me, I like things that look good but also which are durable.”
Agol’s bachelor’s degree in industrial and fine art from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda has provided the foundation of developing her own creative process when designing the products naRoho sells. Preceding naRoho, Agol started and ran a business named Ezy Shac, sourcing souvenirs sold in markets in Uganda. It was through Ezy Shac where she began to notice that a vast majority of souvenirs in Ugandan markets were actually from Kenya. Her inspiration to create a durable product that was actually made in Uganda is partially what led her toward the initial sandal prototype that ultimately changed the course of her business.