BULAWAYO sneaker traders hosted their third Sneakers Expo over the weekend to showcase all types of footwear falling under the tag.
The tackie jamboree was born out of the idea that everyone loves sneakers, as one of the organisers Davison “Diva” Feliate explained.
This year’s expo was held at Mystique Gardens on Saturday and witnessed a huge improvement in numbers, with hundreds including sneaker dealers, stall holders, musicians, some sneaker heads (lingo for shoe fanatics) and shoe companies attending the event, some from as far as Harare.
“Sponsors are not too many, we have been running things from our pockets, but there’s Value Gas, Chaipexx Trucking, Winning Designs, PES, Ecobank, Liquid and Audio Serve who sponsored this event,” Feliate said.
The event, which was launched in 2021, also saw participants customising their footwear, while others were selling their sneakers.
“People are learning about sneakers, how to take care of them, how to buy sneakers and everything about them. For us it’s something that’s really delightful to know what we are doing, what we are trying to do is growing and also bearing fruits,” Feliate said.
“The difference between the second edition and this one is in the numbers; we had to work hard to get here and this is our third edition. We are happy as you can see the numbers are good and still growing. Food, music and alcohol, it’s just a background, that’s how they are supporting what they came for and we will try as much not to deviate from the main agenda of the event which is the Sneaker Expo.”
At the first edition about 100 people attended and the second drew 500.
“We are here at the Sneaker Expo 2023, it’s been a wonderful event. We managed to sponsor the event, we were giving away few prizes and we have managed to meet a few of our customers,” an executive at Value Gas said.
“As an organisation we are happy, this has been a beautiful event, we managed to meet a lot of people out here, hopeful next year we will be here. It’s been a very good event for our company and we don’t have any problems."
Shoe Guru, a shoe cleaning company from Harare represented by Brighten Tipi, had a busy day cleaning sneakers for those who needed the service.
“We travelled all the way from Harare, we were there on the second edition at the Barn and it was amazing which led us not to miss the third edition,” Tipi said. “To be honest I like the view, crowd, customers who are doing their best to support us and life is too short to wear dirty shoes."
One of Shoe Guru’s clients said: “Personally, I think Shoe Guru is perfect, I will give it a five star rating, I like their service. My sneakers were dirty, but now they look crispy and perfectly clean. By the way, they also gave me a free treatment for my crocs."
Indications were that in Bulawayo people have some much love for the street wear culture, they value what they create as a city.