Jo Farah saw a gap in the sneaker cleaning product industry and decided to start up his own sneaker cleaning brand which is environmentally friendly and biotech driven. “I had a gut feeling there would be a need for a sneaker cleaning brand which is environmentally friendly and biotech driven”. Sneaker Lab is the first sneaker care product range in the world to be Green TAG certification. He realized that most sneaker-care products were not ecofriendly but he also wanted a product that would not affect the value of the sneakers.
The products are water-based, readily biodegradable, and the packaging is suitable for recycling. The product line is Green TAG certified and can be found in 60 countries, with an experiential brand store in Braamfontein Johannesburg as well as downtown Los Angeles in the USA. The 100% biodegradable solutions and recyclable packaging have also been independently tested.
He emphasized that it was important to take a different approach when launching the Sneaker Lab because it involved partnering with people who believed in the brand and chose to go with smaller distributors who bought into the philosophy of the brand. “I started with a small order for my retail partners at The Foschini Group to test the market. The stock sold out in two days, and that was all the proof I needed”.
