A man who can’t take care of his shoes can’t take care of himself.

This is the philosophy of Moestafa Meyer, a 20-year-old self-taught shoe cleaner and repairer from Tafelsig in Mitchell’s Plain.

He discovered the potential of shoecleaning as a career last year after a party with his cousin and friends. Seeing how filthy his shoes were afterwards, he started cleaning them.

Meyer’s friends, fascinated by how thorough and meticulous he was, asked him to clean their shoes too.

“I washed all their shoes and they told me this is a passion, because they could see I was doing it well.”

Goodbye to the call centre life

Meyer, who matriculated two years ago and had been working, sporadically and unhappily, at various call centres, was intrigued by the idea. At the beginning of this year he left his call-centre job and started a fledgling business.

“I started doing it in January with just a few shoes. I started making posters and putting them on my Instagram account and my TikTok account. And that’s where everything just started.”

At the beginning, Meyer used household cleaners to clean the shoes.

“I started using my mommy’s dishwashing liquid and washing powder.”

As the months went by his client base grew, and he started building up his tools and his knowledge through online tutorial videos.

“I made mistakes but I learnt from them,” he said. “I learnt that every mistake occurs for a reason.”

Going viral

Things took a sudden uptick when a video of Meyer cleaning a pair of Timberlands went viral. The simple video, which strung a series of pictures of the shoes together as they gradually became cleaner, got more than 23 000 views on TikTok.

Cleaning requests then started flooding in and Meyer could not keep up with demand. He started outsourcing the work to other cleaners and now had a vision of moving the business from his father’s garage to a proper shop and setting similar shops up for the cleaners he outsourced to all over the city.

Meyer said he was part of a group of about 15 sneaker cleaners of the same age, and they were working towards acquiring capital to help them open shops, each cleaner with their own brand.

Uber feet

Transport, Meyer said, is currently the biggest hole in his plan. He is not able to get to all his clients and some are not willing to send their shoes to him.

Others, however, have been happy to Uber their shoes to him, with one client sending his treasured shoes all the way from Wellington and back.

When Meyer returns cleaned shoes, he stuffs them to keep their shape and wraps them, making the work look professional. He said his prices are reasonable, which is why clients are willing to pay for the transport. A deep clean costs R150 and a full restoration, which includes cleaning and regluing, costs R200.

Big repairs are a hiccup, Meyer said. Being self-taught, he doesn’t have the skills or tools to do major repairs and outsources them to more experienced repairmen. Meyer has, however, on occasion been able to complete minor shoe repairs for clients.

Behind the scenes

The business’ success, however, is not entirely just the work of social-media marketing. Meyer’s girlfriend, Zania Plaaitjies, supports the business with all the administrative work, effectively managing the business and its marketing.

Anything is possible

Meyer hoped his story would inspire others since he used only the skills he already had to create a career for himself.

“This is the kind of hustle that never runs dry. I didn’t go to university, but I learnt business at school so I know how to market my business.”

He believed one’s circumstances do not determine their future.

“Anything is possible,” he said. “No matter your circumstances, no matter where you come from.”