#HeritageMonth | Made In RSA's Nick Dreyer says local products need more than patriotism to sell

Nick Dreyer, founder of Made In RSA. Image supplied

For locally made products to win at retail, provenance needs to be accompanied by quality, design and relevance.

That is the opportunity Nick Dreyer, founder of Made In RSA, sees in turning “Made in South Africa” into more than a label.

For Dreyer, Heritage Month offers an opportunity to rethink how South African heritage is presented to consumers, not as nostalgia, but as a contemporary retail proposition capable of competing locally and internationally.

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“I think ‘Made in South Africa’ is starting to mean something very different from what it did 10 or 15 years ago,” says Dreyer.

“Consumers are sophisticated, and they have enormous choices. They aren’t going to buy something simply because you tell them it was made down the road.”

Instead, Made In RSA is building towards a proposition where local provenance is an added reason to choose an already desirable product.

“Our ambition is that Made in South Africa becomes a mark of desirability and quality. Something you want first because it is beautifully designed, well made and relevant, and then discovering that it was made here makes you even prouder to own it.”

Moving beyond the ‘support local’ message

The distinction is important in a retail environment where South African apparel brands compete with international retailers, imported clothing and global fast-fashion supply chains.

Dreyer believes local brands cannot rely on patriotism alone to justify a purchase – particularly when consumers are under pressure to make every rand count.

The commercial opportunity, he argues, lies in building products that can compete on their own merits while making their South African origin part of the value proposition.

“We have an extraordinary creative culture in South Africa,” he says. “We have designers, manufacturers, artists, craftspeople and entrepreneurs producing genuinely world-class work, but often they are operating independently and don’t have the scale, distribution or platform they deserve.”

Made In RSA was created around this gap: bringing locally made products and brands together while helping them gain greater visibility, commercial traction and access to wider markets.

Dreyer’s experience building Veldskoen also shaped his thinking. A distinctly South African product, he says, does not necessarily have to be diluted to appeal to international consumers.

“In many cases, your origin is exactly what makes you interesting.”

Apparel provides a natural starting point because clothing is closely linked to identity and self-expression. The ambition is for consumers to choose a Made In RSA garment because of its design and quality, while also feeling connected to what it represents.

The economics of making locally

There are, however, significant commercial challenges to scaling local production.

South African manufacturers operate against global supply chains capable of producing millions of units at cost structures that local businesses cannot always match. Smaller manufacturers also face challenges around fabric, trims, machinery, skills and working capital.

“Price is unquestionably one of the biggest challenges,” says Dreyer.

But he believes trying to compete solely on price would be the wrong strategy.

“The answer isn’t for South African manufacturers to become the cheapest manufacturers in the world. We probably won’t win that race.”

Instead, the opportunity is to focus on differentiated products, strong brands and provenance while building sufficient demand to allow manufacturers to increase volumes.

“Scale matters enormously. The more successful local brands we build, the healthier that manufacturing ecosystem becomes.”

For retail, this creates a potential virtuous cycle: stronger consumer demand can support greater production volumes, which can in turn improve manufacturing capability and competitiveness.

Dreyer also challenges the assumption that locally manufactured automatically means significantly more expensive.

“We are able to produce really good quality products in South Africa and sell them at competitive prices,” he says.

In some cases, Made In RSA is prepared to accept lower margins in the short term to build demand, support local manufacturing and grow the ecosystem over time.

The expectation, however, remains that the product must compete with international alternatives.

“The fit, fabric, design, packaging, photography, website and service all need to compete with the best brands a consumer experiences anywhere in the world.”

That, he says, is when local production becomes an additional reason to purchase rather than a justification for a higher price.

Building a retail platform for local brands

Another challenge facing smaller South African makers is the cost of going to market.

A business may need to invest in e-commerce, marketing, content, retail space, logistics, staff, payment infrastructure and customer acquisition before it has established a significant sales base.

Dreyer sees Made In RSA as a way of creating shared visibility and infrastructure around local products.

“If we can bring exceptional South African brands and products together under one destination, suddenly the customer has a reason to engage that is bigger than any individual product.”

The model effectively creates a collective retail proposition, allowing brands to benefit from shared audiences while giving consumers an opportunity to discover products they may not otherwise encounter.

“I often think about it as creating a shop window for South African creativity,” he says.

“Our role isn’t to make everything ourselves. It is to find great things, help make them commercially successful and introduce them to more people.”

The ambition extends beyond building Made In RSA as a single brand. Dreyer wants the platform's growth to translate into growth for the businesses behind the products.

“If Made In RSA becomes successful, I want hundreds of South African businesses to benefit from that success.”

Making provenance part of the product

For Dreyer, the next step is to make the local manufacturing story tangible at the point of purchase.

Economic impact is an important part of local manufacturing, but messaging around jobs and economic development can feel distant to a consumer deciding whether to buy a garment.

“You have to make it human,” he says.

That could mean showing where a product was made, introducing the people behind it, explaining the origins of the materials or taking consumers inside the manufacturing process.

The objective is to make provenance part of the overall retail experience, from product descriptions and packaging to content and physical stores.

“When somebody buys something from us, I want them to understand that there is a chain of South African creativity and enterprise behind that product.”

In that context, “Made in South Africa” becomes more than a manufacturing designation.

“That’s when ‘Made in South Africa’ stops being a label sewn into the neck and becomes part of the value of the product.”

From local brands to global businesses

Dreyer's ambitions for Made In RSA extend beyond the South African retail market.

The platform is intended to help local businesses become commercially and operationally ready to compete internationally – an area where he believes the biggest barriers are often not creativity or ideas, but the infrastructure required to scale.

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A globally ready product, he says, needs to compete on its own merits.

“Not something that’s ‘good for South Africa’. It has to be good, full stop.”

Beyond product quality, businesses need consistency, production capacity, working capital, logistics, compliance, packaging, fulfilment, distribution and the ability to replenish at scale.

Those operational requirements can prevent otherwise strong South African brands from making the transition into international markets.

Made In RSA aims to help bridge that gap by identifying exceptional local businesses, supporting their commercial and operational development and connecting them with wider customer and market opportunities.

The company's own apparel range is intended to demonstrate that the model can work in practice.

Turning South African identity into a global proposition

There is also a broader opportunity emerging around authenticity and localisation.

As consumers increasingly engage with the story and provenance behind products, Dreyer believes South African brands have an opportunity to use their origin as a source of differentiation rather than attempting to replicate international aesthetics.

“The world doesn’t need South Africa to make another version of something it already has,” he says.

South Africa's creative identity offers a broad palette – from its languages, landscapes and food to music, art, sport, humour and cultural influences.

But translating that identity for global consumers requires nuance.

“Being proudly South African doesn’t mean every product needs a flag or a protea on it.”

Instead, Dreyer sees the strongest opportunity in brands that are contemporary and globally relevant while retaining a distinctive South African point of view.

“That’s far more interesting internationally than trying to look like a brand from London, New York or Paris.”

A bigger ambition for local retail

Ultimately, Dreyer sees Made In RSA as part of a much bigger conversation about South Africa's manufacturing and retail ecosystem.

Its success would not simply be measured by sales of its own products, but by whether it can help more local businesses increase production, create employment and access international markets.

“Imagine if growing demand allowed a South African manufacturer to employ another 20 people. Imagine if a small maker producing 100 units could suddenly produce 10,000.”

For Dreyer, that is where the proposition becomes bigger than a single retail platform.

“I don’t think South Africa lacks creativity, ideas or entrepreneurial talent. We have those in abundance. What we need are stronger bridges between entrepreneurs, makers, manufacturers, capital, retailers and international markets.”

That is the role he wants Made In RSA to play.

The long-term ambition is to help change perceptions of what South African businesses can produce – moving the country’s manufacturing identity beyond a patriotic purchasing message and towards a globally competitive brand proposition.

Ultimately, Dreyer wants “Made in South Africa” to become recognised for creativity, quality and possibility.

“Not something people choose because they feel they should support us. Something people choose because it’s brilliant.”