First of all, there are very few tie makers in South Africa but there are many around the world.

The reason for this I guess is that we are quite insular when it comes to custom ties, corporate scarves etc.

By insular, I mean that South Africa has never really been an export destination for custom ties.

In the past, as a country, we have brought many custom ties in from China to be sold locally which has stunted the growth of our local tie manufacturers or tie makers to the point where we are critically down to a few tie makers not all of whom are fully involved and only involved in making ties and scarves which is understandable because in the past, tie makers have also had to be many other things within themselves.

Tie makers historically have not necessarily kept only to being a tie maker as they have been forced to take on other work to keep the wolves from the door.

This makes them qualified as tie makers but also qualified as manufacturers of other items so essentially, the focus isn’t always on custom ties, it can be whatever consumes the factory at the time.

This can be a good thing but also can be not such a good thing because the pressure of finishing one thing to start another is always there.

Going back some years, perhaps twenty years ago, we had three to four times the number of tie makers that we have today.

Tie makers or tie manufacturers as they are also known who focus only on making ties are fast becoming a disappearing breed of people, this is really not good for the industry as a whole and I bring to the attention of those consumers of custom ties such as schools etc that the job of the traditional tie maker is deeply at risk and I hope we don’t reach a point one day where the tie maker doesn’t exist because then what happens to our wonderful school ties? Club ties? matric ties made using matric tie designs aswell really as any form of custom school ties for schools.

This is quite a sad and scary thought to anticipate as the truth and reality is exactly as I have stated, it is becoming a game that nobody wants to play other than the few steadfasts who have remained in their trade.

Tie makers around the world I would imagine are not really in short demand and the reason for this especially in those countries who are a tie maker of thousands of ties every year are serving the fashion trade globally which is great.

The secondary level to this are tie makers who make school ties and corporate ties, club ties and matric ties, branded ties, company ties and in fact any form of custom tie other than fashion ties which is really a specialist industry in itself.

This is the area under threat.

Support your local tie maker or tie manufacturer.