VELDSKOEN SHOES: Shining on the World’s Largest Stage

On 23 July 2021, Team South Africa romped into Japan’s National Olympic Stadium, Tokyo ready and raring for the delayed but much-anticipated Olympic Games of 2020. As far as opening ceremonies go, Tokyo’s offering was fairly regular – lots of dancing groups, raising of flags, passing of flames and various performances that celebrate the locality of these cherished games. Teams walked from a tunnel into the central area of the stadium – all relatively expected. That was until Chad le Clos and Phumelela Mbande emerged holding the colourful South African flag. 

Eyes quickly shifted away from the squad packed full of sporting stars to the shoes of the lively and vibrant team. Bright, colourful, attractive and energetic – it was different to the other teams; eye catching and exciting. But, this wasn’t the only goal. The product was very South African, demonstrating vivacity and diversity in the country. 

Designed by Cape Town-based Veldskoen Shoes, the footwear of the team was the Heritage shoe range. Each with a sole matching the colours of the SA flag. People loved it. 

This high-profile spotlight was a second coup for the company which, in 2019, saw Prince Harry touring southern Africa wearing a pair of Veldskoen Heritage. After just a couple of years in business, Veldskoen was making all the right headlines. 

A product of Pretoria Boys High School (of Elon Musk fame), Veldskoen Shoes was established by Nick Dreyer and Ross Zondagh. The two are not your typical fashion business entrepreneurs – an art dealer and a builder.  

The opening ceremony in Japan was the culmination of years of hard work at Veldskoen that brought the concept of the company full circle from where it started, during a monotonous car journey across South Africa, back in 2016. 

A SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNEY

“I was driving from Plettenberg Bay to Cape Town and talking with Ross. It was around the time of the Rio Olympics,” says Dreyer. “We happened to pass comment that the South African Olympic team should have been wearing something that made them look South African. It became a debate, and we said that they could have been wearing Veldskoen. It’s a colloquial term that has been around for centuries describing a pair of shoes or a wellington boot. It’s an Afrikaans term that translates to field shoe.” 

But, for Zondagh, the suggestion was flawed. “We realised that Veldskoen were not actually that cool,” he says. 

The light-hearted discussion began snowballing and Dreyer recommended the addition of a new palette. “I’d been to America and bought a pair of shoes that had these bright yellow soles. I said to Ross ‘what if the original, normal Veldskoen had bright coloured soles and laces’. We had a designer who photoshopped some images of Veldskoen with bright yellow soles and laces and then he did the other colours in our flag. He sent it to me and in the same car journey we received these images and found them incredibly exciting to look at. We decided right there and then that we were going to start a shoe business called Veldskoen. When I arrived in Cape Town six hours later, Ross had already registered the business, as well as putting in an application for a trademark which no one had ever done.”

At the time the notion was ludicrous to those who heard it. “I told my wife we were going to start a shoe business and she laughed uncontrollably. Her laughing actually lasted for a few days,” smiles Zondagh. 

Paying no regard to anybody’s laughter, Zondagh and Dreyer opened up shop online.

“Neither of us had any experience in fashion, ecommerce or footwear, so we had to learn how to do it ourselves,” says Dreyer.

Eighteen months into the business, it was time to ask for some help. It came in the form of marketing expert, and old school friend, Nic Latouf.

“We knew we needed to market ourselves and we knew that Nic had just moved to Cape Town from Johannesburg, and this was his area of expertise. He immediately recognised that this was something special.”

The three knew each other from school but had grown apart in adult life. This reunion, catalysed by nothing more than a concept, was the start of a sensational journey that would traverse South Africa and then the world.  

Dreyer and Zondagh had developed an idea and Latouf was challenged with marketing the product. Based on the design and quality of the product and the ethical approach to business, this was an exciting challenge. 

INCREDIBLE, AUTHENTIC

Latouf’s marketing strategy repositioned what was traditionally considered an Afrikaner shoe, to a product that celebrates the entire rainbow nation.

They began telling a new kind of Veldskoen story, and using imagery on Instagram that was very different to what people had experienced from a shoe company.  

Campaigns were open and collaborative, and shared the spotlight with other local brands.

The choice of models was representative of the South African population. The message was journey, discovery, aspiration, by looking at something through a new lens.

The brand evolved into the ‘shoe for everyone’ and subsequently this also became one of Veldskoen’s international taglines.

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

Aided by early investment from Long4Life, the brand was able to begin its international expansion within two short years of inception. “We launched in the UK straight away,” says Dreyer. “We built a site, we took shoes there, and it took off very quickly.” The Prince Harry sightings helped here. “It gave us a huge bump when he said was a fan of the shoes.” 

Made in a family-run, locally-owned factory in Durban, using premium natural materials and manufactured by people who earn well and are ethically treated, Veldskoen Shoes are made with sustainability at heart. 

The next step in the company’s blossoming story came in the USA where a major leap was made as breath-taking new investors were quickly onboarded, taking stakes in the local business. “We capitalised the business and then completed a transaction in the USA which made Ashton Kutcher and Mark Cuban part of our investment team for the USA business. That was exciting and put us on the front pages of many magazines and newspapers globally,” says Dreyer. 

By Q3 2019, Veldskoen was more than a concept and the business was beyond a start-up. Dreyer, Zondagh and Latouf had succeeded in taking their brand, and the interwoven South African stories that go with it, to a global audience. But, the disaster that no one predicted was around the corner and about to completely unlace retail and B2C markets. 

“We were a decent sized business, selling a good number of shoes each year, but we got hit by Covid. It meant we had to rethink our strategy in terms of how our distribution model worked,” says Dreyer. Thankfully, being a small company resulted in a nimble approach to the market, and fast decision making thanks to a flat hierarchy. The partners quickly reimagined the route to market and managed to keep demand flowing. 

 “At the beginning of the pandemic we were selling in four territories globally. Today, we are selling in 30. We are not shipping to 30 territories, we are physically in business in 30 territories through a network of distributors and our own ownership in those territories. We grew rapidly which was exciting,” details Dreyer.  

International expansion is at the heart of the company strategy going forward. For the Veldskoen founders, there is not a market where the brand cannot offer value, and following success in big markets including the USA, UK, Australia and at home in South Africa, there is major potential for further growth. 

“Think about it like this,” starts Latouf. “One of the hardest regions in the world to take shoes to is Italy because they are the greatest shoemakers in the world and they only support local. Our business in Italy does extremely well. People will buy one pair and then two weeks later buy another pair, and then three weeks later buy a third pair. People buy into the story but then it changes and becomes about comfort. The design is all about comfort and the way that we have worked our leather is very technical. You don’t even need to wear socks with the shoes as the comfort level is different to what has been experienced before. In Italy, our return rate of customers is extremely high.”

 Zondagh agrees, confirming that the appeal is widespread – as soon as Veldskoen steps into a new market they become popular very quickly.

“Because we have such a diverse culture in South Africa, in every territory we go, the shoe takes on a different feel. It’s the most amazing thing to see how Veldskoen integrates in Taiwan or Australia. It has been an incredible journey. We believe we have the most comfortable pair of shoes you will ever wear in your life and that is the reason it works. The stories behind it are incredible.”

One of those stories comes from David Grier, the legendary South African adventurer and speaker who recently spent 45 days running up and down Table Mountain, every day, in a pair of red-soled ‘Pinotage’ Veldskoen Heritage, demonstrating durability and comfort. 

BOOMING FUTURE

Thankfully the two founders remain heavily involved in the day-to-day business at Veldskoen and the values on which the company was created remain strong. “Our work now is to build Veldskoen into something that effects the world positively,” Dreyer underlines. 

With a powerful brand now in place, this work becomes easier. The strength and significance of the brand was highlighted in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics, when the story of Veldskoen Shoes came full circle. 

“In 2019, we remembered that our entire DNA was born out of the Olympics,” smiles Dreyer. “We were struggling to figure out how we could get involved, as any company would – it’s a ridiculous notion to somehow get your shoes on Olympians. We figured the best way was to ask South Africa for help. Nic filmed me asking anyone out there for help getting our shoes onto the feet of our athletes. The next day, the CEO of the South African Olympic Committee phoned me. We’d been working at it for two years and it was a wonderful thing to be part of. The South African Olympic uniform set a precedent for nations where they supported local manufacturing and young design talent. It created something that was representative of the size of our society.” 

When Tatjana Schoenmaker and the rest of South Africa’s Olympic heroes stepped out with the colours of the country beneath them, the founding vision of Dreyer and Zondagh was fulfilled. 

“Very few companies in the world have a story like that where it was born out of wishing for something and then five years later we achieved it. We are grateful, and now our focus is do justice to Veldskoen and the positivity it spreads. We have a powerful value set in our business that we stick to and believe in, and we try to make good all the way through our supply chain,” says Zondagh. 

For now, the humble Veldskoen is delivering on its promise of quality and comfort. A new test will come as the founders look to up output and sales in a big way. 

“We are growing rapidly, north of 40% by volume of shoes. That is because we are bringing out new ranges. We sell more that 100,000 products each year and we are looking to grow to selling more than a million in the next five years,” says Dreyer. 

This is a brand of stories. It is an epic South African saga in its own right. The business is a success and the message from the founders and entrepreneurs is clear: Veldskoen Shoes assert that each of its shoes tells a tale and offers you the opportunity to finish the story. Walking in awesome comfort that you know is consciously sourced is the perfect way to create a legend of your own.