South Africa's first community-owned, stokvel-powered footwear and apparel brand. Locally manufactured. Youth-led. Township to global.
"We did not wait for a boardroom to give us permission. We built it ourselves, with the community that believed in it."
WE ARE SQUAD is a South African-manufactured footwear and apparel brand, with stores rooted in Soweto, built on a stokvel-powered community co-ownership model. We make sneakers and streetwear that represent a new narrative — one where township communities are not just consumers, but manufacturers, investors, and owners.
Our flagship sneaker models — the Squad Festro and the Squad LVL — are locally manufactured in South Africa. Every product carries the weight of that choice: to keep craft, capital, and pride within the community that wears it.
Funded not by venture capital but by a community stokvel — secured and managed through StokFella, South Africa's leading digital stokvel platform — WE ARE SQUAD proves that township-based production can meet global quality standards. Our stores are in Soweto. Our ambition is the world.
WE ARE SQUAD's community ownership model is secured and managed through StokFella — a fully licensed social FinTech platform founded by banking and engineering veteran Tshepo Moloi. StokFella digitises the age-old stokvel practice, providing real-time contribution tracking, automated payouts, transparent governance, and access to investment opportunities — elevating community capital from informal savings to structured economic power.
South Africa holds an estimated R44 billion in annual stokvel savings across over 11 million members. StokFella is the platform bringing that capital into the formal digital economy. Members on the platform have collectively raised over R15 million. WE ARE SQUAD is one of the businesses that model has built.
"SQUAD Footwear and OSCT were built where the talent already lives. The vision is simple: empower community skills, create ownership through structure, and turn local work into world-class products."
Premium, bold footwear and streetwear manufactured in South Africa. The Squad Festro and Squad LVL are the flagship models — designed in the townships, built for the world.
Professional sneaker cleaning, restoration, and care. OSCT redefines sneaker care as a skilled trade — creating employment and building craft excellence within the community.
A township aquaponics operation that addresses food security while creating skilled employment. Currently pursuing formal accreditation as a student training site — extending the SQUAD model into sustainable urban food production.
Township-based meat production as part of the integrated Z2B food security ecosystem. Local production, community ownership, community benefit — the same philosophy that drives every SQUAD venture.
The financial backbone of the entire ecosystem. Structured stokvel savings and investment models — managed through StokFella's licensed platform — giving community members direct co-ownership stake in the ventures they help build.
A book authored by the founder — documenting the journey, philosophy, and blueprint behind community-owned township enterprise. A cultural document as much as a business story.
South African professionals who champion local manufacturing, social enterprise, and township economy development — nationally and in diaspora. They are the investors, advocates, collaborators, and amplifiers of the SQUAD model.
Soweto and Gauteng-based, fashion-forward, community-proud, digitally active consumers who align with buy-local and own-local values. The wearers, the co-owners, and the culture the brand is built from.
Over 100 active stokvel members with a financial and emotional stake in the brand, managing contributions through the StokFella platform. Not just customers — ambassadors with skin in the game.
Enterprise development stakeholders, impact investors, government bodies, and media covering the township economy, local manufacturing, fintech, and youth entrepreneurship in South Africa.
How a digitally-secured stokvel — managed through StokFella's FSP-licensed platform — became the funding and co-ownership structure behind South Africa's boldest youth-led footwear brand, without a rand of venture capital.
The story of choosing to manufacture locally in an industry dominated by imports — what it costs, what it takes, and why it matters for township economic sovereignty.
How the SQUAD co-ownership model flips the consumer narrative — transforming the people who wear the brand into the people who own it, through structured community capital on a licensed platform.
From sneakers to aquaponics to sneaker care — the SQUAD ecosystem as a replicable blueprint for integrated township enterprise and community economic resilience.
How WE ARE SQUAD is redefining what premium means in South Africa — and why the streets of Soweto are now setting the standard, not following it.
From the streets of Soweto to authoring Nomayini — the personal story behind WE ARE SQUAD, told through the lens of community, craft, and conviction.