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Bathu Shoes Emerge As The No. 1 South African Brand!

Bathu Shoes Emerge As The No. 1 South African Brand! Today at the JSE, Brand Africa announced the leading South African brands in their 14th annual Brand Africa 100 | Africa’s Best Brands research and rankings. Overall, while 68% of South Africans believe that African countries make African better, only 33% pledged their loyalty to South African brands.

Nike retained its rankings as the no. 1 overall brand in South Africa and across the continent. Break-through shoe brand, Bathu, established only in 2015, has emerged as the no. 1 South African brand. Youth-founded brands established in the past decade made an audacious entry among the Top 10, accounting for 40% of the rankings, and upstaging established South African brands, with Maxhosa (#2), Drip (#4) and GalXBoy (#9), in the mix with Woolworths (#3), Pick n Pay (#6) and Tiger Brands (#10). Maxhosa, the culture inspired global African luxury knitwear brand is leading the pack among South African brands admired for their strong African identity. DStv, leads a South Africa (56%) dominated list of the most admired media brands in South Africa.

Bathu founder Theo Baloyi said, “I am Honored and humbled to announce that Bathu has been crowned the Number One Most Admired South African Brand for two consecutive years by Brand Africa! A testament to our unwavering commitment to build a shoe brand that Africans can proudly affiliate with. Bathu ‘Walk Your Journey’. ” Bathu was established in 2015, in a local township (Alexandra). It has now grown exponentially over the years, with 32 stores nationwide and a staff complement of over 300 employees, who are predominantly youth. The Bathu tagline, “Walk your Journey”, is centred around its mission statement of reigniting hope and creating sustainable employment. The company believes everyone is on a journey; its responsibility is to equip, ignite and enable that journey.

“The South African rankings and the 30 brands, events, campaigns and people are an insightful lens into the country’s creativity, global African leadership, competitiveness and influence,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, founder and chairman – Brand Africa. “In particular, the performance of youth-founded brands are an inspiration for the growth of relevant made in South Africa brands and industrialisation.”

By Thomas Chiothamisi
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