Footwear Start-Up LandLords Footwear Seeks To Highlight The Importance Of Ownership Through Its Branding
Footwear Start-Up LandLords Footwear Seeks To Highlight The Importance Of Ownership Through Its Branding. LandLords Footwear represents a symbol of ownership and equity. A symbol of a new breed and the dawn of young Africans who yearn to possess ownership and participate in decision making, growth strategies and map out the future and build legacies.
LandLords Footwear was founded in 2019, and after much bootstrapping in the quest of entering the sneaker arena. It was only in 2020 that the founder and CEO, Rashid Stewart Thobega successfully produced the sneakers which resembles the classic retros which people have grown accustomed to. Rashid has traveled to East and West Africa to familiarise himself about this footwear industry, having started his journey here in South Africa.
In an interview with Startup Africa Thobega explained the challenges he faced in his entrepreneurial journey, he said, “In my entrepreneurial journey, I’ve faced a lot of challenges. Before the full fruition of Landlords Footwear, I had a restaurant in the North West that couldn’t survive the economic struggles. With Landlords footwear, we had to launch right at stroke of COVID-19 at a time where there was no movement both physical and economical. We had to be smart and adopt the new normal of strengthening our sales through online platforms which has really been going well.”
He also explained to My Afrika Mag what inspired the name of the brand, he said, “Landlords is simply claiming ownership over our lives, our destiny! Landlords is occupying various spaces and regaining control over those spaces, it might be In the cooperate world, sports etc, make sure you play your role and own that position.”
Finding motivation from his deeply rooted Hip-Hop background which has given birth to a great number of resilient entrepreneurs who hail from the gutters, Rashid believes in rising gradually and sticking to your program till something solid materialises.
