To a certain degree the idea was born when I Frankenstein’ed some of my already big collection of running shoes to create a unique shoe by swopping some soles of shoes.

From previous experiences I know that you cannot buy a proper shoe glue commercially in a hardware store so I contacted an old friend from a footwear factory to source some glue.

After playing around, cutting, and gluing some shoes together I thought of combining my love of running shoes with my Afrikaans South African heritage of Leather casual shoes a.k.a Vellies.

So, I took a pair of barely used trail shoes, cut off the upper and asked my friend to glue a mid-cut leather upper to it.

The result was something truly unique and sparked a lot of interest and excitement with us as well as the factory workers that helped with the project.

From there, the ideas started flowing…

Vellies is unique South African footwear and quite widely worn across the country by male and females in various colours and variations on styling.

I owned a few pairs of Vellies, but only wore them on occasions due to the fact as they not that comfortable, so I thought…let us see if we can make them more comfortable?!

Growing up in a house where my father was a long-distance runner, I was exposed to what I would refer to as the golden years of running shoes.

My reasoning, while some might disagree in this carbon plated era we live in, is that during the 80`s and 90`s there was so much development happening in running footwear.

Starting from shoes with Sheet EVA, moving to Compression moulded EVA and then various forms of lasting the shoes to make them lighter and more flexible.

Not to mention various cushioning systems…, GEL, Wave technology, Air etc.

So, with over 15 years of Sports footwear experience of working in the industry, I decided to embark on the “Tekkie Vellie” project…where Tekkie is a slang word for Sneaker/Running shoes and Vellie meaning a leather shoe commonly worn by farmers and has now become a heritage fashion item.

So, the idea was to make a shoe with a “Vellie” upper on a “Tekkie” sole, maximising the comfort, flexibility and walking experience while staying true the South African looking Veldskoen.

I visited my friends at the footwear factory and we explored various options and started working on the first Prototypes.

With focusing on using redundant materials to keep costs down, the project became quite exciting as we now had the opportunity to make limited styles/colours and keep the range fresh all the time.

This means that when you buy a pair of TekkieVellies that specific colour/style/sole options will not be seen in hundreds of pair on the streets but as a limited edition only produced in small quantities.

In the future we aim to even do bespoke ranges for teams or companies.

Getting back to the shoes…

Veldskoen are historically made with leather upper lasted with stiff board, which basically means the upper is stitched onto the board and then glued to a hard rubber outer sole.

With the idea to make them more comfortable and cushioned I added in a sheet EVA midsole, added some visible flex grooves in the forefoot and after a few prototypes we ended up lasting the shoes on leather.

This increased flexibility and step in comfort of the TekkieVellies and gave it a unique stylish look.