{"id":868887,"date":"2026-08-10T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=868887"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:12:49","slug":"the-small-196-year-old-town-founded-by-two-germans-that-gave-birth-to-south-africas-most-iconic-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/868887\/the-small-196-year-old-town-founded-by-two-germans-that-gave-birth-to-south-africas-most-iconic-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"The small 196-year-old town founded by two Germans, that gave birth to South Africa’s most iconic shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The small Karoo town of Wupperthal was founded in 1830 by two German missionaries and became the first commercial manufacturer of the traditional leather shoes known as the \u201cveldskoen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Karoo town is located 72 kilometres southeast of Clanwilliam and around 250 km from Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wupperthal (sometimes spelt Wuppertal), which means Wupper Valley in German, is a small town in the Cederberg mountains in the Western Cape of South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name “Wuppertal” comes from the Wupper River in Germany, which was home to the two Rhineland missionaries who came to South Africa and founded the town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two German missionaries of the Rhenish Missionary Society (Rheinische Mission), Theobald von Wurmb and Johann Gottlieb Leipoldt, founded the town as a Rhenish mission station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1865, Wupperthal became known as a Moravian mission station. The population of Wuppertal increased significantly after slavery was abolished in 1838, with many freed slaves arriving from nearby farms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the town has a thatched Moravian church, a grocery store, a tea room, a post office, a school with two hostels and a community hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town is home to rows of thatched-roof cottages, all along a winding street with water flowing in furrows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many families in the community rely on small-scale agriculture and livestock farming for their livelihoods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary cash crop is rooibos tea, and the surrounding mountainous areas provide grazing for goats. The area is known for its ‘veldskoen’ shoes, which are recognised throughout the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shoe factory, started by the town\u2019s founder, Johann Leipoldt, employed many skilled craftsmen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For nearly a century, the Wupperthal hand-sewn veldskoen, which are traditional soft suede shoes, gained a reputation across South Africa for their comfort and craftsmanship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the shoe factory, there was also a tannery and a glove factory operating for many years. While the shoe factory still exists today, it now operates on a much smaller scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town is also known for its tobacco, which is dried and processed into rolls locally known as roltabak. Other significant products from the region include dried fruits, dried beans, and rooibos tea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African veldskoen shoe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The name “Veldskoene” originates from the Afrikaans word “vel,” meaning “skin,” which later assimilated with “veldt,” meaning “field,” and “skoene,” meaning “shoes.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The design of these shoes is believed to be based on traditional Khoisan footwear. Veldskoene became popular in the South African farming community, serving as the preferred footwear choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Von Wurmb and Leipoldt settled in the town, they quickly realised that both residents and travellers needed shoes that could withstand the rugged terrain of the Cederberg mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Leipoldt opened the Wupperthal Shoe Factory in 1834. Over the years, the factory continued to grow and was eventually taken over by Reverend Willy Strassberger in the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s, Heini Strassberger decided to relocate the entire shoe-making operation to Clanwilliam, which had become a bustling business district in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new factory was established as Strassberger Shoes and continues to operate today. 80% of the manufacturing process in the Clanwilliam factory is still done by hand, honouring its historic legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this factory is not the oldest in South Africa; that distinction still belongs to the Wupperthal factory, which continues to produce shoes to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Strassbergers moved their operations to Clanwilliam, the Wupperthal factory remained in operation, albeit on a much smaller scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wupperthal factory specialises in handmade shoes, focusing on veldskoene, or ‘vellies,’ which are traditional field and work shoes worn throughout South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veldskoene are sometimes categorised as light boots and can be considered a subset of chukka boots or desert boots, although Veldskoene typically have a lower topline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soles of Veldskoene are sometimes made from old car tyres instead of crepe rubber, and the leather used can vary depending on local availability. In Namibia, for example, kudu and seal leather are commonly used for the shoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wupperthal photos:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The small Karoo town of Wupperthal, which was founded nearly 200 years ago, is where the traditional veldskoen shoe was born.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":868935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2086815105312796800","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2172215833598816","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18110279744089833","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26074,3024,26073],"class_list":["post-868887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-veldskoen","tag-western-cape","tag-wupperthal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868887"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869441,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868887\/revisions\/869441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}