For South African entrepreneur Jo Farah, that contradiction revealed one of fashion’s biggest overlooked opportunities: what happens after consumers make a purchase.
Through The Lab, Farah has spent more than a decade building a business around fashion care, challenging the industry’s traditional focus on product acquisition by extending attention toward maintenance, longevity and ownership behaviour.
Before launching The Lab, Farah worked in guerrilla marketing alongside global brands including Adidas and Puma during the early rise of South Africa’s sneaker culture.
Embedded within Cape Town’s growing sneaker scene through spaces like Shelflife, he observed how sneakers were evolving beyond footwear into cultural symbols tied to identity, status and community.
Initially interested in creating his own sneaker brand, Farah instead identified a different gap in the market.
Consumers were investing heavily in premium sneakers, yet caring for them using generic supermarket cleaning products that often damaged materials and relied heavily on harsh chemicals.
Rather than introducing another sneaker into an already crowded market, Farah focused on creating a dedicated care category specifically designed for sneakers and fashion products.
What began as a niche sneaker-care solution has since evolved into a broader biotech-driven fashion care business spanning apparel, accessories and headwear.
Globally, the fashion industry contributes an estimated 8% of annual carbon emissions, with garment washing, drying and maintenance accounting for a meaningful share of a product’s lifetime environmental impact.
Yet despite growing sustainability discourse, care remains one of the least innovated areas within fashion’s value chain.
The Lab approaches sustainability not primarily through branding or material substitution, but through material science and behavioural systems.
At the core of its product offering is probiotic cleaning technology, which uses beneficial bacteria to break down dirt, oils and odours microscopically.
Unlike traditional chemical cleaners, the microbes remain active after application and continue cleaning for up to 72 hours.
The company refers to the process as “intelligent cleaning” — a system designed to reduce aggressive washing routines, minimise water and chemical usage and extend product lifespan.
The strategy reflects a broader shift within sustainability thinking: moving from disposable consumption toward maintenance, longevity and reduced replacement cycles.
Despite now distributing products to more than 60 countries globally, approximately 90% of The Lab’s products continue to be manufactured in South Africa.
At a time when much of global fashion manufacturing has shifted offshore, the company’s decision to maintain local production reflects both operational and philosophical positioning.
Keeping manufacturing close allows for tighter quality control, faster feedback between product development and production, and greater visibility into labour, material and supply chain realities.
It also supports local job creation and skills development while anchoring more of the company’s value chain within South Africa.
The approach expands the definition of sustainability beyond environmental metrics alone, incorporating questions around localisation, labour and economic participation.
As the fashion industry faces mounting scrutiny over waste, overconsumption and environmental impact, companies like The Lab are helping shift the conversation from simply what consumers buy to how they live with the products they already own.
The business reflects a growing movement toward maintenance economies — sectors focused on preserving, extending and optimising product lifespan rather than accelerating replacement cycles.
For Farah, the opportunity lies not only in cleaning products, but in redefining the relationship between consumers and ownership itself.
What began within sneaker culture has evolved into a broader challenge to the fashion industry’s long-standing consumption model: that sustainability may depend as much on care as it does on creation.
