Footwear Brand Bathu Distances Itself From Somizi Mhlongo Amid Abuse Allegations
Footwear Brand Bathu Distances Itself From Somizi Mhlongo Amid Abuse Allegations. According to reports South African Media Personality Somizi Mhlongo was told by Bathu Footwear bosses that it would be best if the company would distance itself from him Amid the abuse allegations by his estranged husband Mohale Motaung.
Bathu Footwear recently launched their 28th store in Durban and Somizi did not attend the launch even though he is an ambassador of the brand. The launch was instead attended by South African DJ, DJ Tira and the Qwabe twins. This brought about speculations from South Africans as to whether Bathu Footwear replaced Somizi with DJ Tira as its ambassador.
Bathu aims to be a sneaker brand that Africans can proudly affiliate with. A Sneaker Brand from Africa for Africa. Bathu’s Founder Theo Baloyi is passionate about energising Africans, helping them to help themselves and reigniting hope within African communities.
Theo founded the business – Bathu – meaning shoes in Kasi slang – and launched 100 pairs of Mesh Edition to the people of Alexandra, Soweto, Midrand and Thembisa. The launch went incredibly well and the first 100 pairs of Mesh Edition were sold out quickly. Then in 2016 Bathu released 400 pairs of Mesh Edition which created pandemonium. So big was the release, that the Bathu website crashed 4 hours after the announcement and customers were clambering over each other to get their hands on a pair.
In 2017, Bathu sealed it’s first corporate collaboration with an incubation hub in Johannesburg which led to the release of a further 1000 pairs of Mesh Edition sneakers. In that same year Bathu launched it’s first limited edition Mesh Edition Sneakers in White, which sold out in days. Bathu then bought it’s first delivery vehicle and opened it’s first store in Newtown, Jozi in 2018. The Newtown store was quickly followed by a second store in the heart of Pretoria, which later relaunched in a bigger space, providing customers with increased capacity and an innovative shopping experience.
Bathu has also collaborated with iconic brands like OPEL, Forbes Africa, Sprite, ABInbev (Castle Lite) among others and it is hopeful of making meaningful connections with other brands in the near future.
