Wear One, Share One to #doDifferent
We all know that feeling when you slip on a pair of shoes that just fits. They're broken in, they're comfortable, and you reach for them before you've thought about it. Now imagine those same shoes were handcrafted at the foot of Table Mountain, built to outlast the trends, and every pair you buy helped a woman in a South African public hospital get the breast cancer surgery she needs, sooner. That's not a fantasy. That's Freestyle.
Enter Freestyle, a Cape Town leather footwear company that has been making things by hand for four decades. They're not just making shoes. They're stitching comfort, craftsmanship and community into every pair.
Every great South African story starts somewhere modest. Freestyle's began in 1985 as a hobby, which grew into a small family business, and they say it still runs along those same lines. Today their boutique factory in Ottery turns out vellies, boots, sandals, school shoes and leather bags. Everything is made by skilled local craftsmen and women, using full-grain natural leather. Full-grain leather is more flexible, stronger and longer-lasting, and it carries the scars, veins and neck grooves that prove it's the real thing.
Then there's the veldskoen itself. Freestyle's Hunter is the classic vellie, a design that has been around since the 1950s. It has a water-resistant insole and a thermo-rubber sole, and it comes in a rainbow of colours. It's the kind of shoe South Africans have been wearing to the braai, the farm stall and the office for generations. And customers clearly love them: Freestyle has over 8,000 reviews, and many of them read like "this is my fourth pair" or "I want every colour."
But the story that makes Freestyle worth writing about began with a woman called Trish.
Trish was a former Freestyle sales agent. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Project Flamingo helped her access the treatment she needed. Sadly, she passed away while Freestyle's very first #InHerShoes campaign was still under way. Freestyle chose to keep the campaign going in her memory, and for the many women who are still waiting for timely care.
To understand why that matters, you need to know what Project Flamingo does. It was founded in 2010 by surgeon Dr Liana Roodt, after she saw how stretched and chaotic the journey was for breast cancer patients in the public health system. The idea was simple and a little radical: bring volunteer surgeons and anaesthetists into existing public hospitals, and cover the nursing staff and theatre consumables so women don't have to wait. It's a big deal in a country where, according to Dr Roodt, between 54% and 75% of breast cancer patients arrive with late-stage disease, and where one in eight women will face a diagnosis in their lifetime.
The numbers are staggering. By mid-2025, Project Flamingo had performed over 1,800 breast cancer surgeries in public hospitals. Each year it facilitates at least 330. And this past Mandela Day weekend in July 2026, its teams worked across four provinces with a target of 55 surgeries and ended up performing 69. At George Hospital alone, 28 volunteer medical professionals gave up their Saturday to operate.
Freestyle's contribution is wonderfully practical:
The Project Flamingo Vellies: a pink Hunter vellie. For every pair sold, Freestyle donates R100 to Project Flamingo.
The Pink Laces: a pair of pink laces, for a donation of R20 per pair. They come in four lengths, from 80cm to 180cm, so they fit anything from a casual sneaker to a tall boot. The idea is to wear one lace yourself and give the other to someone you care about. One pink lace might make someone ask why, and that's exactly the point.
It's small, it's visible, and it starts a conversation. In October, when Breast Cancer Awareness Month puts the disease in the spotlight, that conversation can lead to a mammogram booked, a lump checked, or a friend finally getting seen. Freestyle's money helps fund the surgeries. The laces help women get to the clinic in the first place.
Together, let's choose differently. Let's buy shoes that are made here, built to last and stitched through with purpose. Because a world where a pair of vellies can help a woman get the surgery she needs is absolutely the world we want to live in.
Wear them loud. Wear them proud. #InHerShoes
