Shirley le Guern meets two dynamic ladies behind Silver Lining Gumboots.
“With Silver Lining Gumboots, we’ve really learnt that every cloud has a silver lining. You just put on your gumboots and go for it! No matter what situation or circumstance that you’re in, you should never forget the reason why you started. You must also focus on future goals. Stay in your lane, work hard and just keep walking,” says Cally van Blerk, co-owner of Silver Lining Gumboots.
Cally, together with partner Liz Payne, officially launched the company at the muddiest of outdoor events, the Spashy Fen music festival, in 2019. The company has never looked back with the partners recording an average growth of 200% since they made their debut.
Now Cally and Liz are adding two new boots to their collection – a bright yellow ankle boot and a mid-calf gumboot. Up until now, their collection has been all black, accessorised with leather straps, tassels and buckles. The idea is for the boots to be both fashionable and functional. An orthopaedic insole is inserted for comfort and good fit, making these boots nothing like the standard, clumpy versions which can be found in local hardware stores. Each boot has a signature cloud stud on the side.
The black boots are made from 100% recycled PVC. Rather than find their way into landfill, offcuts from the automotive and other industries are melted and turned into pellets which are then re-melted and poured into moulds to make the boots. The new yellow additions are made from virgin PVC which can be recycled.
Cally and Liz started out with a range of six different boots with a limited number of sizes (five, six and seven) and have adjusted designs and styles as they have received feedback from customers. The yellow boots were added to complement the extremely popular bright yellow raincoat that they introduced last year.
The two were working in a social media marketing company when they decided it was time to take a completely different course and launch Silver Lining Gumboots from the lounge of one of their homes.
Liz explains that during a 10-year stay in the United Kingdom, where she built a career as a social media marketing guru, she’d come to virtually live in her gumboots. On returning to South Africa, she couldn’t find anything that matched the ones she’d had there and definitely needed a pair to keep up with her outdoorsy lifestyle. Added to that was the fact that with the exchange rate and a highly volatile rand, the average landed price of an imported equivalent was completely out of reach of the average local shoe shopper.
So began their journey to source the right gumboot from a local manufacturer who would not only offer a quality product, but also grow with them as they develop their range and grow their company.
From the outset, they also teamed up with local business coach Trevor Clark of ActionCOACH to build a strong foundation. “It was much like learning the alphabet in order to learn to read,” laughs Liz.
“It took us almost two years from conception to delivery, and what a trip it has been. My greatest lesson has been to trust my intuition and vision. Sometimes you have an inkling that something might work and you just need to lean into that,” she says.
Right now most sales are local with the majority coming in online. An export order has been dispatched to New Zealand with another to follow shortly.
The partners have also added a clear dome umbrella and other related products, and intend to continue building their collection of trend-setting outerwear as they extend their sales offshore. *