Our Story
'Build it. The people will come, and they'll be inspired'.
This has been my mantra for four years. But few could see what I was convinced was possible. After all, I wasn't an artist and I knew next to nothing about branding and website development.
I had to dig very deep, but when vision is synced with passion and persistence, miracles happen...
"John, this'll never work. You can't hope to compete with the big sporting brands".
I'm John Dickinson, and over the past four years I've heard this over and over.
But this is a very personal story. I have no intention of competing. As the saying goes; 'If you're competing, you're not niching'.
My dream was to develop brands with a unique and irresistible appeal, which people could relate to, and which they'd proudly associate themselves with; 'A tribe with a South African vibe'.
ActivEdge originated on South Africa's West Coast in 2021. It's since been four years of visioning, designing—and the creation of multiple brands.
Our first brand was 'GRiTTi'. I'm an avid mountain biker, and I was caught up in the 'gravel-bike' hype. GRiTTi started out as 'Grit Kit' for Gravel Bikes, but it quickly evolved into GRiTTi—representative of some of the many sporting codes which are so loved in South Africa:
Mountain biking
Pickleball
Running
Paddling
And then the feedback poured in; GRiTTi is a niched brand which appeals to die-hard sportspeople who want to go out there and pit themselves against the great outdoors. It became very clear to me that we needed a brand with more universal appeal.
By then I'd met Tracey—my absolute stalwart—and moved to South Africa's KZN Midlands. It's an amazing environment for paddling, running and cycling—and meeting like-minded people.
The Karkloof is where we do most of our running and cycling, and this is where the idea for the TRAILHEAD Brand was born.
The Karkloof Country Club recently put up a board announcing the start of their trail network. It reads, 'TRAIL HEAD'.
I arrived home after seeing that board, and within hours I'd created the first concept logo. It continued to grow on me, and over the next few months—using feedback, and capitalising on an idea sparked by a mistake on the part of the company doing the embroidery work for us—we landed on the TRAILHEAD brand which you'll find represented in our store.
CRUX was next. I was writing a book which involved having to negotiate 'the final hurdle', and it wasn't long before CRUX had turned into a logo. It evolved over just a few hours, and hasn't changed since.
If you look at the CRUX logo, you should be able to work out that there's an overhang you're needing to reach for; the 'crux'. And that's how we arrived at the tagline, 'reach for it'.
Not long after this, a friend made a passing comment that we didn't have anything particularly appealing to women. And that's how, over just three days, Wylde was originated, its eagle being representative of our craving for freedom and the great outdoors.
I was introduced to the word 'Wylde' as a child. Howard is my best friend of 60 years, and his family farm is called 'Wyldehome'.
Brand ideas continued to jump into my head—often catalysed by travel, adventure, and comments from friends and family. Intrepid and CAPEHORN, for example, came to life following a visit to RAKA Wine Estate near Hermanus. There were pictures of early sailing vessels on one of their walls. I was mesmerised.
It became difficult to decide which designs to include, and which to leave out!
One thing you can be sure of, is that there's nothing like our brands out there. They're all unique, and they have a story to tell.
And now, here we are, with my dream coming to life. It's been a heck of a journey, and I'd have had it no other way.
Thanks for reading, and here's to seeing you out there somewhere—feeling inspired and wearing one of our brands with pride!
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