Kicks Sportswear director Sammy Mhaule has broken his silence on the Kicks Kokovha deal with Makhadzi and her production company, Open Mic Productions.
He said after realising that Makhadzi was failing to promote the brand as per their agreement, they started a WhatsApp group chat to air their dissatisfaction and highlight the terms of their agreement.
“Despite all this, Makhadzi was still unable to effectively meet her end of the bargain. Due to Makhadzi’s refusal and/or neglect to adhere to the terms and conditions of the agreement, as well several failed attempts to help her do so, we thus resorted to taking the legal action route to help resolve the matter,” said Mhaule.
“This remains an unfortunate step and occurrence for us as we did not foresee events unfolding as they have. As a new brand of sneakers, we are doing our best to enter the market. Our hope was that partnering with Makhadzi and investing in her brand would help us propel both brands to greater heights,” he said in a statement.
This follows a statement released by Open Mic shifting the blame to the sneaker production company, claiming that he was trying to drag Open Mic Productions through the mud and disputing claims in court documents.
“We entered into an agreement worth R120-million with the complainant in October 2021. This value projection made sense financially and legally. The supplier insisted that we launch Kokhovha Kicks footwear even when we had concerns that the peak festive shopping season was looming and we had no stock in hand.
“Stock never arrived in the agreed 90 days. It wasn’t until February 2022 that 6 900 shoes were received. Several attempts were made by Open Mic Productions to assist the supplier to honour the obligation of delivering the goods.
“In terms of the contract, the complainant was to provide 8 000 pairs of shoes on a monthly basis and that has not happened to this date,” reads the statement in part.
Open Mic Productions claims that the complainant in the matter had stopped taking calls and any engagement in the project.
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