The drip footwear brand: managing a

successful start$-$up launch and rapid

expansion during Covid$-19$ pandemic

Steven Zwane, Motshedisi Sina Mathibe and Anastacia Mamabolo

Introduction

In July $2019,$ Mr Lekau Sehoana launched his start$-$up business venture called Drip

Footwear $[1],$ which sold branded sneakers. It took Sehoana $6$ weeks to sell the first $600$

pairs of shoes from his car boot, not having applied any robust marketing strategies. During

his interactions with customers, it became clear that there was a gap in the market and

demand for a new South African sneaker brand. In December of the same year, he

manufactured and sold $1,200$ sneakers within a few days. This rapid achievement was

enough confirmation for Sehoana that there was a need for locally manufactured and

branded shoes. Based on his early success, Sehoana decide to launch of his own

business. However, during the process of planning the formal launch, the world suddenly

experienced the first impact of the Covid$-19$ pandemic. During the stage of planning the

mode of operation and the full business launch, in March $2020,$ South Africa was placed

into the Covid$-19$ Alert Level $5$ lockdown $[2],$ which had an impact upon and complicated

Sehoana$$s decision$-$making process. Despite the extremely severe lockdown regulations in

place at the time, in May $2021,$ Sehoana had already managed to open $11$ stores in

reputable malls and sold multiple thousands of his sneakers. This instant success, putting

pressure on the manufacturing ability, distribution and costing structure, led to Sehoana

questioning the cause of the rapid growth during a pandemic and whether this level of sales

would continue to post the Covid$-19$ era. His major question was whether and how he would

be able to sustain the fast growth of his business without the constraints caused by the

lockdown.

Background and early years

Lekau Sehoana was born in Limpopo $[3]$ and is an entrepreneur who progressed from a

stage in his life when he did not have any shoes to wear in High School, to establishing,

owning and managing one of the biggest and fast$-$growing sneaker brands in South Africa.

Sehoana$$s upbringing was a challenging and difficult one because of the poor economic

living conditions in Limpopo $[4]$ and the family issues he had to master. In the early $1990$s$,$

Sehoana and his mother and three siblings moved to Gauteng Province to settle in a

township called Alexander $[5]$ to seek better economic and living opportunities.

When Sehoana was still in Primary School, his family had relied on government feeding

schemes, and thus he was unaware of his poverty. However, in $2003,$ when he started High

School at Eqinisweni Secondary School, he realised that his family was poor when he

compared himself with other learners who came from middle$-$class families $[6].$ His mother

Steven Zwane,

Motshedisi Sina Mathibe

and Anastacia Mamabolo

are all based at the Gordon

Institute of Business

Science, University of

Pretoria, Johannesburg,

South Africa.

Disclaimer. This case is written

solely for educational purposes

and is not intended to represent

successful or unsuccessful

managerial decision$-$making.

The authors may have

disguised names; financial and

other recognisable information

to protect confidentiality.

DOI $10\mathrm{.}1108/$EEMCS$-06-2021-0196$ VOL. $12$ NO$.12022,$ pp$.1-18,$ Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN $2045-0621$ j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j PAGE $1$

did not even have enough money for the school$$s fundraising activity known as Civvies $[7]$

day. Since he did not own any fashionable clothes, Sehoana decided to make himself a Tshirt, which he used as his Civvies attire. He received such positive feedback from his peers

that this encouraged him to also design a pair of sneakers. This was the beginning of his

love and passion for fashion design and entrepreneurship.

Although Sehoana essentially recreated the shoe for his own use, there was a huge interest

in his ability to remodel sneakers, and this soon became a business venture for the

youngster. He continued to pursue the passion for remodelling sneakers throughout his

years at High School from $2003$ to $2008.$ It was the sneakers venture that helped him to be

able to buy a decent pair of school shoes, and also financially support his family.

Past entrepreneurial failures

When Sehoana was in his mid$-$teenage years, and while balancing his High School efforts

with his fashion enterprise dream, eager to take the sneakers business to the next level,

he conducted an intensive research on the fashion industry. After this process, when he

started to understand the industry a bit better and who the key role$-$players were, he

developed a business plan to be able to apply for funding. With the support from one of his

teachers, who believed in his vision and a good design portfolio, he approached

established organisations for potential partnership and funding. Sadly, he failed to obtain

funding and support.

In