Email: nigel@marice.co.za / jj@strassbergers.co.za
Strassbergers range of rugged, genuine leather shoes was born from necessity. In 1830 German Rhenish missionaries Baron Theobold Von Wurmb and Reverend Johann Gottlieb Leipoldt – a shoemaker by trade – founded the settlement of Wupperthal in the Tra-Tra Valley, deep in the heart of the Cederberg mountains. This remote outpost is about 75km away from Clanwilliam and is surrounded by beautiful mountains, but don’t be fooled: the landscape is as harsh as it is breathtaking. Travellers and residents alike soon realised they needed shoes as tough as the terrain and in 1834 Leipoldt opened the Wupperthal shoe factory. The handmade genuine leather shoes grew in popularity amongst both the mobile ‘trekboere’ (Dutch and British colonists) was well as the resident population of the Cederberg – and the Strassbergers legend was born.