Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – Sports energy products and sportswear distributor Pure Endurance Solutions has become the Southern African distributor of Chinese Hong Kong-based basketball and running shoe brand, 361°. In footwear, it previously represented Mizuno.
361° was previously distributed locally, for a short period.
On a much smaller scale, Pure Endurance Solutions also owns a veldskoen brand, TekkieVellie, which incorporates its own technology.
MD Dawid Visser explains recent changes to its sportswear side, and the development of its TekkieVellie brand:
I used to work for Jordan Shoes when they were the distributors for Asics over 12 years ago.
I then moved on to work for Asics directly until we started Pure Endurance Solutions 10 years ago.
Our main business is the import and distribution of GU Energy Products to the endurance market, but we are currently finalizing the distribution of 361° footwear in the Southern African market.
We cancelled the distribution contract with Mizuno as my passion is on the running side, and their running business wasn’t growing as much and in the direction I thought best. From my Asics days I stayed in contact with some of my old colleagues and one of them is currently heading up 361° in Europe as GM.
I have tested their product over the past few years and like the product development and technology as this is what I feel is a no-nonsense brand, true to what a runner needs and focussed on the running market. I feel that the Chinese market is growing very fast and offering products to the world on par with all the big players…for example, just look at the car industry with all the Chinese brands on offer in South Africa already.
Our aim is to grow the brand from a small base to running independents and show the SA market that there are other brands that can offer the same if not better performance as the known brands currently on offer in South Africa.
361° “is a no-nonsense running brand”.
The TekkieVellie…“Who knows where it may lead.”
TekkieVellie – just a heritage product for now, but who knows where it might lead
TekkieVellie was born through the idea of making South African vellies more comfortable.
I cut the soles off some running shoes which we glued onto vellies uppers. That evolved into adding an EVA midsole to a rubber outer sole – similar to old school running shoes.
This started as a project with a friend of mine, Thomas Cawood, at Bolton Footwear, and with our long experience in the footwear industry, we developed TekkieVellie as a purely South African heritage project. It’s a very small, but passionate part of our business, made by Bolton, and more aimed at customizing comfortable Vellies for companies or personal groups.
Do we export them? Not at the moment as it’s a small sideline project, but never say never.
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