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Bob Skinstad makes a difference off the rugby field
Inspirational game-breaker, charismatic South African flanker, television broadcaster of note, the youngest Springbok captain in history and, currently, host of a fast expanding international sporting showpiece and a social philanthropist and entrepreneur masterminding a campaign to give millions of needy South African kids new hope and dignity.
By now you probably have guessed: the man who has excelled in manifold roles and has the (Springbok) jersey and T-shirt to prove it, is Bob Skinstad.
Not that you would find him often displaying memorabilia about achievements, such as the medal for being part of the Springbok squad that won the Webb Ellis Trophy in 2007, or his being the youngest leader in the 114-year history of the coveted Green and Gold.
As he says: “It is not a badge I bring out at dinner parties.”
Instead, the role about which he currently is more talkative is as an inspirational factor in sparking new local interest in the paralysed South African shoe-manufacturing industry.
He hopes to use his newly formed bobsforgood foundation as a platform to donate shoes to 7.5 million needy South African schoolchildren, but also as a springboard to re-energise the local shoe manufacturers.
Skinstad’s foundation became public knowledge when pictures were published of him in an orange uniform behind prison bars. The promotional line behind this was that Skinstad was being charged by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for a “positivity crime”.
It has emerged since that Skinstad is being charged for using the media to raise awareness for the millions of schoolchildren who are subjected to the daily pain and humiliation of having to go to school without school shoes.
Research shows that children who do not have uniform or shoes, do not want to attend school.
The number of 7.5 million was given to him by the Department of Education as representative of all the free-schooled children in South Africa.
Boots as an African symbol of pride
But why shoes, and not healthcare or books or a programme for HIV and Aids orphans?
“Shoes for me is a symbol of hope and pride in South Africa and Africa in general,” says Skinstad.
“Many people see shoes as a symbol of personal wealth and personal self-betterment.
“Some of the more affluent people spent a huge portion on their car, which is essentially an extension of self.
“And many poorer people spend much of their income on maintaining a decent pair of shoes; it is almost as if these smart shoes are their Mercedes, and we have heard stories corresponding to that.
“If you give a kid a pair of shoes, it is a gift that lasts a year and a half or two years; it can be handed down to a brother or sister. It shows them that somebody on the other side of the country is thinking about them.
“It gives them hope, pride and dignity and demonstrates to them that we believe in them,” adds Skinstad.
Entrepreneurial gesture to re-energise shoe industry
He says that he hopes the new foundation will boost the local shoe manufacturing industry, through the use of an e-commerce platform.
“As an aside,” says Skinstad, “South Africa has had a very successful shoe-manufacturing industry that has been decimated by the off-shoring of that manufacturing to China in the last 25 to 30 years.
“Locally, we consume over 140 million pair of shoes per year. We used to make a huge percentage of those and now we make a very small percentage of them.”
The lost job opportunities also have had a dramatic impact on the ability of parents to educate their own children and to feed them.
E-commerce
Everything that the bobsforgood foundation produces in terms of shoes – and remember, the vision is 7.5 million pairs – are South African made.
“We found a partner in Eddels in Pietermaritzburg, who make a lot of shoes for the Edcon group,” says Skinstad. “They also manufacture two or three brands themselves, and we got them to make a specialist shoe for ourselves, a loafer and a pair of slipslops.
“For every pair of shoes we make with them, we build the cost of a pair of school shoes in as well. It is a social enterprise which is a feeder for the foundation,” he explains.
Skinstad and his partner Ron Rutland also have set up an e-commerce platform as a social enterprise.
They are negotiating with other local manufacturers, among them Green Cross and Tsonga, to use the Web as a platform on which to sell their products.
Skinstad’s vision for Cape Town Tens
Skinstad and another former Springbok Robbie Fleck co-hosted the Castle Cape Town Tens tournament in February. In its second season, 40 000 supporters flocked to the Cape Town Stadium for the Cape Town Stadium Rugby Festival, while 25 000 fans visited Hamiltons Rugby Club during the three-day event.
Skinstad, Fleck and tournament director Rutland secured new naming sponsors in Castle Lager, and apparel and online partners in Canterbury and Sport24.
They further were able to lure legends such as All Black Tana Umaga, Australians Tim Horan and Jeremy Paul, and England’s Pat Howard as 40 teams took part in the three-day event.
The Cape Town Tens – or 10-players-a-side event – was birthed in a pub in Hong Kong.
Skinstad, Rutland and Fleck decided on this innovative and groundbreaking idea while having a beer.
“My vision is to make the Cape Town Tens a legacy event for Cape Town. We have established great partnerships with Sale and Stade de France. We have achieved a good start and we have big plans for the future,” says Skinstad.
His dream is to make the Cape Town Tens a global showpiece, on par with the Dubai and Hong Kong Sevens event. “Cape Town is a wonderful host city, the title sponsors are over the moon and so are the apparel sponsors. The growth has been phenomenal because it has more than doubled in a year.”
A few other business plans
Skinstad has been hailed as an original thinker and an entrepreneur par excellence, but he gives much of the credit to the “fantastic people” with whom he works, as well as his passion for the enterprises he has founded.
One example is his pub and restaurant in Noordhoek, the Toad in the Village.
“While I was in the UK, my family and I enjoyed a Sunday roast at a pub and the community vibe around it, and at the Toad in the Village, I was passionate to create something similar,” he says.
Because of the closure of Chapmans Peak Drive, many owners feared a drop of up to 30% in business. But Skinstad was able to sustain business there by focusing energy on the local clients, and delivering a quality product to them.
Creating fun and enjoyment and a buzz became essential ingredients of success. He organised quiz nights, an entertainment night with a local musician, as well as a curry night.
Skinstad says his plans for the future include putting time and energy into proving that the social entrepreneurial style which he has incorporated in the bobsforgood foundation is a sustainable business model.
He wants to explore new media opportunities around his broadcasting ability. If he is able to find a commercially sustainable model, he may want to make a full-time career out of it.
The role of the critic
Skinstad is a widely popular member of the SuperSport broadcasting commentary team and received the South African Breweries Newcomer of the Year prize at the Journalist of the Year Award ceremony in 2009.
But the 33-year old is not someone who subscribes to the regular style of broadcasting. He is a critic of the passive critic.
Explaining his view, Skinstad says: “Well, I think I am an action man. I do believe it is easier to criticise than to praise. But I don’t subscribe to the view that you should just criticise the sport stars and the people you work with. It is an easy character mould in which to fit.
“Instead, I believe in positive criticism, and in solution-based involvement. It is far more credible and uplifting.
“We are living in a community in which there are efforts to right the wrongs of our forefathers and to reconcile injustices. In such an environment, it is not the critic that counts, but rather, a solution-based involvement,” he adds.
The Springbok brand, heavy workloads and Sir Clive
Skinstad has been associated with the Springboks for 13 years. He was a key member of one of the greatest Bok teams since unification.
Who will forget the 17 straight victories between 1997 and December 1998? And his brilliant dummy and superb try against Australia in 1998 helped to secure the Tri-Nations title for South Africa.
He believes that South Africa successfully could use the end-of-year tour to England and Ireland as a platform to fulfil its dreams of becoming the first-ever team to win a World Cup in successive tournaments.
But one of the greatest hurdles for the Boks potentially may be the heavy workload of 14 Tests in 2010.
Are they being overplayed, risking the Webb Ellis Trophy because of the commercial benefits for the South African franchise as a whole?
Asked about this risk, Skinstad is frank in his assessment: “I agree with [Professor] Tim Noakes [one of South Africa’s premier sports scientists, who argues that players should be rested for eight weeks annually]. But just where and when you rest is important.
“If the Boks played in 14 Tests, and no other matches, they would probably be bang on target in terms of the number of games they should be involved in annually.
“I do not think we will see the Boks play many Currie Cup matches this year. But that is just my personal guess,” he says.
“If I were the Springbok coach, I would be fighting tooth and nail for them to play less and less. You cannot have what happened in 2009, when the guys were part of the best team in the world, but then faded with a whimper instead of going out with a bang.”
Skinstad says that there seems to be a parallel between the end-of-year tour and Clive Woodward’s tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2003 prior to his team’s World Cup-winning campaign.
Sir Clive, as coach of England at the time, went abroad and beat New Zealand and Australia in their respective countries. It was instrumental in teaching his players that they could win there.
Those victories were crucial because they set up his successful World Cup campaign.
“Our guys will have big games in the northern hemisphere against England and Wales. If we beat them, it would be a great indicator of whether the Boks could go away and successfully defend the World Cup,” says Skinstad.
“Belief begets belief. Winners keep winning because winning becomes a habit, just like losing.
“If you make it possible for the Springbok team to conquer and win well, it would boost their self-belief.”
Fanie Heyns
