There might be a niche opportunity but as an entrepeneur myself, I don't see a niche sneaker brand surviving long ehough to thrive in SA at least, being no expert on business conditions in the rest of Africa, without considerable seed capital, like seriously considerable. Cos niche means small numbers, means high cost of production and therefore extremely high retail price to make a profit. So now you got a Jordan or Adidas et al at like a grand for a sick kick, and you got this niche local sneak, where for the same quality of construction, depth of design and technology its at least double or 2.5x the price. Thats a tough sell, you'd need to be able to swallow like 3 years at least of a hard loss and just write it off as brand building, before you could even look at break-even point.
In my view best option would be like doing niche local customs of the big brands and hopefully build enough of a following so you can go to one of the majors and try to push for a special custom range with your design. Even then its a long shot, unless you can GUARANTEE brand growth, and i mean business guarantee where you sign a contract and there are serious penalties if that guarantee isnt met. I haven't got anywhere near the capital to fund that effectively so good luck to whoever has the nuts big enough to try.
