How long will stitchdowns be a fashion item this time around?I expect stitchdowns (vellies) to stay in the agricultural market forever. You would, however, have to be very creative in 5 years’ time to still ride the current wave in the malls of SA and the overseas market. Vellies will always be part of “Die Boer” and his ...more

How long will stitchdowns be a fashion item this time around? It’s hard to predict but I believe stitchdowns current popularity will continue for many more seasons, especially locally due to price and the versatility of the traditional Veldschoen silhouette.  Fashion fluctuates depending on the times so the Vellie demand w ...more

How long will stitchdowns be a fashion item this time around?Normally the product life cycle follows a pattern which, towards the tail end, attracts many rats and mice or so-called fly-by-nights. We have an increasing number of the afore-mentioned, which usually precipitates a fall off of business as the category becomes cheapened and hea ...more

How long will stitchdowns be a fashion item this time around?We would like to see this carry on of course for a long time to come, and we are always looking at new designs and concepts as well, but we also need to focus on growing our brand internationally, and you can’t just release new leathers and designs all the time, it takes t ...more

The name is derived from the Afrikaans vel, later assimilated with veld, and skoene. They were first made by the Dutch settlers in the mid-17th century. The design is believed to be based on the traditional Khoisan footwear observed by these settlers. The footwear was later embedded into the South African cultural psyche, the rest is hist ...more

Stitchdowns have been riding a global wave for several years now.  What makes that special for the southern African footwear industry is that a) it's an evergreen item for a core (and not insignificant) customer group and b), it's a construction that has been made locally since - well forever, really - meaning they have a realistic o ...more