Aug 22 Ballito Umhl

Lifelong friends and co-founders of
30 South Eyewear, Richard and Jamie.
Both originally from England, Jamie and Richard grew up in Spain
where they became friends at the age of 13. Going their separate
ways after school (Richard joined the Royal Marines and Jamie went to
university in London and then started working in professional football),
the two mates stayed in touch and remained close over the years.
Looking to earn some extra money, Jamie decided to go and work on
yachts. “I thought I would take a year off to go sailing and save up a
bit – but I ended up spending eight years working on yachts,” he says.
Richard, in the meantime, had established a successful marine security
company.
It was while he was working in the yachting industry that Jamie met a
South African girl named Lauren. The couple were married in 2017 and
settled in Ballito. When Richard came to visit, the two of them started
toying with the idea of starting a business.
“We’d been talking about owning an online sunglasses business for a
few years. We are both very sporty, so we began researching eyewear
for active, outdoor lifestyles in South Africa. There was a distinct gap in
the market between really cheap sunglasses and the more expensive,
high-end brands. We wanted to create something that was good
quality, but still fairly priced.”
They sold their first pair of 30 South sunglasses in July 2018. “From the
beginning, we wanted to be known for our excellent service and the
fact that we offer a lifetime guarantee. We started with one shape in six
different colours and our target market was outdoorsy South Africans,
aged between 25 and about 60 years old.”
After a few years of figuring themselves out, Ballito-based Jamie
and Richard (who now lives in Spain) took their business up a notch
towards the middle of last year. They employed a few staff members
and opened a retail space at Sage Centre in Umhlali. “We found our
unique selling point and ‘niche’ by becoming a
fully-recycled brand,” says Jamie.
“We want to be as sustainable and as local as we
can be. Our frames are fully recycleable, but they
are still manufactured in China as this is the only
way we can keep within our price point at this
stage. Everything is fully-traceable in terms of our
recycling, though. It’s very important to us that we
are taking plastic out of the ocean.”
Jamie and his team source recycled materials
from a UK-based company that turns old fishing
nets and ocean plastic into pellets. They send
the pellets to their manufacturers in China. “It’s all
above board and highly audited,” he says, “and we
worked out that even with the carbon footprint
involved in transportation, it’s still better for the
environment than creating new products.”
Theirs are now the only sustainable sunglasses in
the adventure lifestyle category in the world.
So, who are these sunglasses made for, exactly?
Pretty much anyone who does anything sporty
outdoors … cycling, running, paddling … you
name it. They have a number of top SA sportsmen
(cricketers, golfers and paddlers) wearing their
range, which is currently only available online (and
at Holla Trails and House of Golf in Ballito).
As they turn their focus towards the global
market, Jamie says they are considering having a
few other stockists in South Africa. “We are very
specific about our customer experience though,
so we aren’t going to put our sunglasses just
anywhere.”
Details: www.30south.co, @30south.co
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August 2022 Get It • Ballito Umhlanga 51