Sabelo Ndlovu was studying in the US when he was inspired to start a “cool” business in South Africa that would not only make people’s lives easier but promote shoe care.
The founder of a sneaker laundry service, The Sneaker Shack, started the business in 2015, to give people the option of getting their shoes professionally cleaned.
“The plan was to figure out how to take an idea that works abroad and localise it and make it work for us. One of the main questions was that it was a cool idea but was it a business?” Ndlovu mused.
Ndlovu believed it made business sense, as South Africa’s convenience economy was maturing at the time.
“We no longer sat at home and cut our own hair; people now went to the salon. So as these services changed to suit a younger demographic, sneaker cleaning made sense.”
Ndlovu started operations in a small container located in Maboneng, Johannesburg’s cultural hotspot, to test if the concept would be viable.
He invested his own money into opening the first store and has not yet needed additional funding for the business. He said it has been self-sufficient so far, and its growth has allowed it to keep operating.
While funding did not pose a major challenge for The Sneaker Shack, the business faced several other issues.
“The main challenge was getting the confidence of landlords, the confidence of people to work for us as they didn’t know if it would be around for a long time. It was basically trying to get people to see and believe in the bigger picture we were seeing.”
As the business grew, Ndlovu found that cleaning shoes was much more difficult than imagined.
“Maintaining a certain level of service became very difficult,” he said. “There are so many different types of sneakers, with so much training required, so ramping up training as the team grew was a challenge.”
Today, The Sneaker Shack employs more than 100 people, with 14 locations in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. The locations were chosen strategically to ensure that the sneaker laundry service could be found in areas associated with “high net-worth shopping malls”.
In Johannesburg, The Sneaker Shack can be found in Rosebank, Sandton, Linksfield, Bryanston, Fourways and Waterfall. Securing space at these malls took some convincing.
We see ourselves growing with our customers, and evolution has been important for our growth. We find that it’s important to expand and improve the way people engage with our brand
— Sabelo Ndlovu, founder of The Sneaker Shack,
“In my experience, property owners are accommodating. They are open to hearing you out, but they are very stringent on the selections they make. When I started out I found that they were a little slow on new ideas, but it has gotten better.”
With the country’s unemployment rate sitting at 33.2%, Ndlovu said The Sneaker Shack considered the youth for jobs first, as it is a brand that aims to be part of the solution to the problem of youth unemployment.
Most times, their hiring process focuses less on experience and more on people’s soft skills.
“We have great stories of people who didn’t complete high school, and this is a way out for them. Should someone not have experience but show a willingness to learn, we take them on, depending on the position.”
To make the process of people getting their shoes washed even more convenient, The Sneaker Shack has expanded its offering to include a collection and delivery service. The business also sells shoe-cleaning products.
Ndlovu said this expansion came because of customer feedback, with many asking if they could have their shoes collected or delivered.
“We see ourselves growing with our customers, and evolution has been important for our growth. We find that it’s important to expand and improve the way people engage with our brand.”
In April this year, The Sneaker Shack went into a partnership with gym company Virgin Active and became part of its reward programme. While the company had measures in place to deal with the new influx of Virgin Active members seeking its services, demand skyrocketed in unexpected ways.
“It put a lot of stress on the business as the demand soared so high, and we always want to maintain a certain standard, so we saw some cracks with the model, but we had to find ways to deal with that, and we are there now.”
An integral part of The Sneaker Shack is giving back to the community. This is done through Project Run, an initiative where they collect pre-owned running shoes and donate them to those who need them. It works in collaboration with retail group TFG’s Totalsports, where customers can get 15% off a pair of performance shoes when they donate an old pair.
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