“Handcrafted in South Africa.” A titanic feat.
September 11, 2019
“Handcrafted in South Africa.” A titanic feat.
A letter from VOSK founder Wesley Vos
Made in South Africa.
Man, a dream come true, for us here at VOSK and all those who support proudly South African.
The journey of being able to say “handmade in South Africa” has been a monumental challenge.
Let’s go back a bit.
In 2016, after designing the new VOSK sneaker, I tried to do local manufacturing by partnering with a sneaker factory in Durban, South Africa.
For more than 18 months I worked towards manufacturing our shoes. I even moved to Durban for three months to live with strangers and trying to help the factory set up production.
Once confident that the factory is going to start and finish production, I moved back to Cape Town.
Then, after months of reoccurring problems, delay tactics and even lending them money for "broken equipment", I realized that we will never receive the stock we paid for. We were scammed. Money. Gone. Dreams. Shattered.
With the same vision of impacting the lives of people, my partners agreed to do a second funding round where we defaulted to China to manufacture our sneakers.
In August 2018 we received our first batch #imprintafrica sneakers from China.
Awesome, we have shoes! But in the hearts of everyone involved in VOSK, a restlessness lingered. It’s not made in South Africa.
We needed to close the loop. We’re a South African brand, helping people in South Africa when you buy our shoes, but our shoes are imported.
The search continues!
Earlier in 2019, I was introduced to a factory in South Africa that could potentially manufacture VOSK. Hopeful, I sent the factory a sample of our shoes and two weeks later they sent us a sneaker that looked like ours, except it was better!
Premium quality sneakers, made in SOUTH AFRICA. Yaaaaaay!
We also took it one step further by sourcing all components used in our sneakers in South Africa. This creates even more jobs down the supply chain. Viva SA!
We’ve been working with the local manufacturers for the past few months and are proud to say that we'll finally launch our Handcrafted in South Africa sneakers in October 2019!
Click the button below to be notified when we launch.
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