Bathu founder Theo Baloyi brings retail giants together to empower youth in business
As part of supporting the young visionaries, Bathu WYJS awarded three young aspiring entrepreneurs R5,000 cash vouchers each to kick-start their own journeys.
Guest panel at the first Walk Your Journey Series. Photo: Simphiwe Nkosi
JOHANNESBURG - In celebration of Youth Month, Bathu founder Theo Baloyi hosted the first 2025 edition of the Walk Your Journey Series in Johannesburg, a networking event aimed at equipping and empowering young entrepreneurs.
The series is a networking experience that is held annually in the month of June in three different provinces by Baloyi, where he invites entrepreneurs who share his vision to unpack entrepreneurship to young and upcoming business people.
The first Walk Your Journey Series 2025 was held on the 11th of June in Johannesburg, Market Theatre under the theme: Navigating the New Age of Retail and featured DJ Zinhle, the founder of Era and Thatiso Dube, owner of GALXBOY.
Baloyi explained that the WYJS aims to facilitate connections, partnerships and collaboration among entrepreneurs and industry stakeholders.
“We believe everyone is on a journey; ours is to equip, ignite and enable that journey, and we thought we should bring other great entrepreneurs that have walked the journey and have built amazing businesses that have created impact in societies that they serve, get in one room and talk about how do we move our country forward.
With this series, we aim at equipping aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs with fundamental knowledge to enable them to enhance the sustainability and growth of their businesses, sharing the latest retail technologies, innovations and trends that are shaping the industry,” he stated.
In a room full of passion-driven and emerging entrepreneurs, the panellists provided insights, tools, advice and resources on how to succeed in the retail industry.
As part of supporting the young visionaries, Bathu WYJS awarded three young aspiring entrepreneurs R5000 cash vouchers each to kick-start their journeys.
Eyewitness News sat down with the Bathu founder to get more information on his journey and the inspiration behind the event.
THE BEGINNING
After 18 months of retail research and development, Theo Baloyi’s unwavering ambition to stay true to himself, following his dreams and owning his destiny, the ‘Bathu’ sneaker edition came to life.
Brewed in the local township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, Bathu sneaker was founded in 2015 by the renowned entrepreneur Theo Baloyi, who saw it fit to build a shoe brand that is going to represent the South African region and one that Africans can proudly affiliate with.
With the vision to ignite hope, according to Baloyi, Bathu is more than a sneaker business but a beacon of hope to others that each person has valid and attainable dreams, regardless of where they come from.
Taking us to where it all started, Baloyi mentioned that he always saw himself as a product of opportunity, and he had opportunities in life to further his studies in accounting, but he chose to change his reality.
“I worked for one of the top accounting firms in the world for five years. Two years in South Africa and three years in the Middle East. As much as my dream in corporate South Africa was transcending, I was growing my dream, but my reality wasn’t changing,” he said.
“My reality was that every time I arrived at OR Tambo International Airport, got off an Emirates flight, stepped into my nice car, and drove back to ekasi in the township, as soon as I got there, I realised that my reality hasn’t changed and my reality was that a lot of my peers, family members and relatives were still unemployed.”
He mentioned that often, some of his peers were on the verge of giving up. So, he asked himself a question: “Am I going to be a guy in the UAE who transcends, grows in corporation and look down upon the people in Alex and say they are lazy? Or blame the government? Or am I going to be the guy that comes back with a vision to rebuild my home and create sustainable jobs and do something about it?”
He further shared that, in 2015, he did something many would consider crazy and left his job.
“I came back home; I quit my job and used my savings with the sole purpose of coming back home to reignite hope and create sustainable jobs,” he added.
Persevering against all odds and sticking to the strategy, Bathu has now grown exponentially over the years with 32 stores nationwide and employs over 300 employees who are predominantly youth.
Baloyi attributed his success to two factors, authenticity and strategy.
“The power of strategy. This is one of our very big conversations at the Bathu corridors. We don’t talk anything that is not aligned to the strategy. When we have different views and ideas, we always go back to strategy. The plan that will answer our objective”.
He emphasised that while it is easy to be swayed by people’s voices, staying focused on your vision and values is what sets you apart.