Drip Footwear is celebrating its first official year as a retailer but the origins of the brand can be traced back to 2003.
From shack to the shelf: The story of Drip Footwear
Drip founder Lekau Sehoana was in high school when he used his creativity to address his shortcomings. Living in a dilapidated shack in Ivory Park, Johannesburg, Sehoana collected the soles of damaged sneakers and used different fabrics to stitch together his very own pair.
His sneakers, reinvented with denim and polyurethane, took off in his neighbourhood and that marked the beginning of his destiny.
Today, Sehoana prides himself as the chief executive of Drip Footwear with a retail store in Midrand that employs at least 12 staffers.
“We blend very good with the new climate of business and social Media, Influence, Modern Street Culture and Trends. Thus our name is trendy and we have adapted to the current wave of Lifestyle and Fashion unlike 16 Years ago, even though our DNA and Principles still remain that of 2003.”
Drip Footwear
Social media celebrates local sneaker’s first anniversary
A year in as a registered corporation and business still looks good for the brand. The large offering of different colourways of the same sneaker design, all selling for R900, has made Drip the most popular local tekkie in South Africa.
While the numbers have yet to be vetted, it’s claimed that the sneaker brand grossed R14 million in its first year of operations.
However, numbers are not what makes the brand tick. It is the lokshin culture that attracts scores of advocates to the brand and on its first birthday, they honoured Sehoana with tributes, propelling his brand to the top of the trends list. If anything, this makes for a fitting birthday gift for a man who already has it all.
These are just some of the tributes we picked out from social media: