I had the chance to interview the powers behind Springleap and what a great interview it was! As Cape Town (South Africa)’s first online souly t-shirt based sales company, I was excited to get the scoop with them and their ventures. Eric and Eran are the two powers behind the venture, and a powerful team they are. I’ve seen them work on successful ventures before and I’m starting to get really excited about seeing where Springleap is heading. I asked them a selection of questions and here’s the response I got:

Do you see Springleap as a niche in the South African market?

Definitely. It’s not a niche, it’s a cavernous gap. Not just in South Africa, but worldwide. On the one hand we have artists who desperately need to be empowered, earn cash and who deserve recognition for their work. On the other hand we have the vendors who want a really special product that they know will sell. What better way to promote designers, suppliers, South Africa as a whole and fulfil the needs of the economy, than to make EVERYONE a winner.

Does South Africa have the designers to fulfil the public’s interests?

South Africa has some of THE BEST design talent in the world. Loads of South Africans today are employed by HUGE industry leaders in anything from animation to advertising producing incredible stuff and many, if not most, of them are still situated in South Africa. We also allow international artists to enter however, the products are all produced here as proudly South African products.

Will Springleap pose a threat to eSquared fashion?

No way Jose. eSquared are dropping their entire international range to stock Springleap stock. We believe that all the talent we need is right here, and we need to take responsibility for empowering the SA clothing manufacturing industry as well as our incredibly talented designers.

How many NEW designs are we likely to see a month?

To start off with : 21 FRESH designs EVERY month in Big Blue, eSquared and via Springleap.com. All the designs from the previous months will be available only through our vendor partners.

What will the price range be for a t-shirt?

R160 EX vat and ex postage.

Do you foresee Springleap having any fantastic specials?

You never know… but the most important thing to remember is that we will be protecting our partners and vendors so that no one can undercut the other. Rather expect much bigger prizes over time and spot prizes for our voters EVERY month.

How could the bloggisphere help Springleap?

More and more people today are turning to blogs to voice their opinions openly as well as allowing other people to voice theirs. The wonderful thing about the blogging community is that we all have a tendency to work together and (in my humble opinion), share an unprecedented understanding of how to network and the necessity to do so. Bloggers understand the value of networking and sharing information. It’s the ULTIMATE way to spread the word.

Would Springleap be interested in sponsoring a blog such as iMod for advertising purposes?

We are going to be looking at doing substantial work with the blogging community in terms of promoting Springleap. Don’t forget that every month we have 21 winners, one of which is a Blogger/Celeb Worz – we pit 2 famous bloggers or celebrities against one another by allowing them to design a shirt themselves (or in conjunction with an artist of their choice) and the community votes on the winner. The name of the blogger/celeb as well as the artist will then be printed on the back of the shirt resulting in HUGE exposure.

Will Springleap remain strictly t-shirt based?

For the moment we are baby-stepping our way through the industry. Initially we will be producing guy’s and girl’s t-shirts as well as limited edition posters of the artwork. We also have a secret project in the works that is going to be rocking. In the future we will look at expanding to other media and garments like hoodies etc.

What payment methods will you accept and what delivery times should we expect?

We will accept EFT and credit card payments (I also accept gold bullion in person – so contact me directly for that ;) lol ). Regarding delivery time: everything will be sent via registered post, so as soon as the post office can get it to you which will hopefully be within a few days. We are going this route ij order to reduce the cost for our customers whilst using a proudly South African service.

So there we have it, a nice and juicy inside scoop to Springleap, South Africans leading online t-shirt store!

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