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Sneakerheads focussing on international brands alone are missing out.

South Africa has a rich selection of traditional home-grown shoes creatively crafted and competitively unique enough to change the face of street culture.

So how do South Africans reclaim this important part of our street-style?

By creating a shoe that becomes for South Africa what Chuck Taylor’s are to urban America.

That’s the vision behind Bathu.

To understand Bathu you have to go back to where it all started in Alex – in the back room of a small house across the road from the spaza shop, where old men sit on the bench outside and watch the days go by. It’s a long way from where Theo Baloyi (below) is today, but this is the home of Bathu.

Like Soweto, Alex is a font of South African history, with Nelson Mandela, Hugh Masekela and others claiming it as home. Now, on the streetwear front, Theo is making strides as the boy from Alex who gave Alex a shoe of its own.

Even the brand name – Bathu – is township slang for ‘shoe’.

Theo recounts an entrepreneurial journey that starts at university, where he studied to be an accountant.

“My dad sold his car so that I could get into varsity – just for the first semester. My tuition was not fully paid. In my second year I used to sell perfumes door-to-door in Alex, with my partner Andrew, to make some extra money to make up for it,” he says, “It’s where I learned the art of selling.”

A stint in corporate following varsity resulted in a chance encounter at Dubai International that reminded him of his desire to create a name that South Africans could be proud of on the world stage.

As a sneakerhead himself he thought: why not own a sneaker brand?

He saved as much start-up capital as he could, and started the shoe brand. After 13 rejections from manufacturers, he found someone who was willing to help make Bathu’s signature shoe.

Theo wanted to build something inspirational, that would create employment for the people from Alex and today he employs 22 and on most days 40 pairs of shoes are being sold an hour. This year he is looking forward to opening stores in more locations, adding to the Pretoria and Newton Mall stores Bathu already has.

Here’s Theo telling it like it is:

One of his first employees, Nqobile Dhladhla, sums up what the Bathu story means for Alex:

To see people wearing this proudly South African sneaker, from the hood, Alex, ekhasi…it gives hopes hope to that child sitting on the corner…that you can push to get somewhere one day.”

Theo’s brand and vision prove that with perseverance, business strategy and hard work, anything is possible.

Bathu is set to go from strength to strength.

This information was provided by Yoco – helping power businesses since 2013.