April 24, 2017

Meet Kfir Matalon of Jerusalem Sandals in Sherman Oaks

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kfir Matalon.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Kfir. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I came from a small beach town about 10 min outside of Tel Aviv, Israel. At the age of 22, I decided to travel and see the world which lead me to far east Asia and eventually to the US where I met my wife Angela. Shortly thereafter, we relocated to Los Angeles, California where we live now. In 2007, we took our trip to visit Israel together. Angela was fascinated with the locally handmade biblical-style leather sandals in the small shops in Jerusalem. She bought 2 pairs. She said that we needed to somehow find a way to bring these sandals back to the United States.

Growing up in Israel, I took these kinds of sandals for granted and didn’t understand what she saw in them that made them so special. My father has been in the shoe business for more the 30 years in Israel. He started out making sandals like these in the Kibbutz since the early 90’s and it wasn’t something that interested me. Upon our return back home, Angela started to get many compliments on her new sandals and many people asked where they could get them. The answer was always: “Only in Israel.” So, from then on, every time we went to visit Israel we took a want list from friends and family that wanted to have their own pair! Angela continued to encourage me to start our own sandals business. I didn’t know how or when to do it. Finally, in the end of 2009 we decided to test the market and started selling them on the Venice Beach boardwalk in California, which is a street market for local artist and craftsmen.

The feedback was overwhelming! Everyone loved them. Tourists and locals alike adored them. So, I contacted my father to help me with the production and he informed me that these days beside small shops, all the factories in Israel that make this kind of sandal are now closed, but he knew of a family from the Palestinian side of Hebron that is still using traditional hand techniques with some modern machinery assistance, we contacted them right away, stated production and launched the brand at the 2010 August FN Platform.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve had to learn everything as I go. English is not my first language so I’ve had to become good at learning to communicate with the customers. I’ve also had to learn how to develop and maintain relationships with our clients as well as technical systems like EDI, UPC, digital catalogs, inventory, etc.

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Jerusalem Sandals story. Tell us more about the business.
After getting to know our manufacture, the Zatari family, the vision for our company became clear. Israelis and Palestinians working together to revive the sandals of times before. We immediately adopted our new brand name “Jerusalem Sandals”. Jeru (in Hebrew) translates to “teaching” and Salem (in Hebrew) translates to “peace”.

Our inspiration is pulled from old Biblical imagery and Bible characters, mixing the old with the new. We started to create more designs in different colors and business was growing fast.

Handcrafted with natural leather that just get better with age and wear. You will not find two that are identical. They give you a look and feel unlike the mass-produced brands. We started to work with companies like Kitson, American Apparel, Nordstrom, ASOS and exported our brand to fashion-forward countries like Italy, Japan, UK, as well as Canada, Korea, Philippines and many more.

Our success helps us to develop a close relationship with our Palestinians partners talking almost every day through Skype about new designs and quality control for the USA market and shipping needs. This enabled us to become good friends.

Hebron is about 40 miles southeast of Tel Aviv and is home for the Alzatari family and their sandal factory. Mr. Alzatari or better known as “Hijazi”, the General Manager and owner of the factory. Hijazi is second generation of the Alzatari family in managing one of their three ethical sandal factories in Hebron who provides fair wages to an average of 80+ employees using old-world style Handmade craftsmanship and artisanship making a maximum of 700 leather sandals a day. Mr. Alzatari toured us through his factory allowing us to see each step behind the handcrafted process of our sandals as well as to meet each team member responsible for each process. We also had the pleasure to meet his sister Mira, the Assistant Manager that been our greatest asset in tending to the needs of our company and helped to insert modern standards and also helped us to design some of our new styles. Later on, we meet his father Mohammad, the founder of the factory since 1973. The Alzatari families have a long history of leather tanning and crafting for many generations.

It is a great experience to see how the business behind Jerusalem Sandals has created a bridge with Jewish-Arab relations helping us to get to know each other during the ongoing conflict and become good friends. Last August, our Palestinians partners Hijazi and Mira come to FN platform Las Vegas, and we were the only booth in the USA that Israelis and Palestinians presenting together. The support was very overwhelming and encouraging and more than a few shed a tear.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see technology is affecting the industry very fast, more online shopping, the customer today is very sophisticated in comparing prices and many on the lookout for specialty and unique items.

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