What it took to grow Legends from one chair to a national brand
Katlego Sekhu
South Africa’s youth unemployment rate sits close to 68 percent, meaning seven out of every ten young people are without work. For business leaders gathering at the Nedbank IMC Marketing Conference™ on 17 September, the question is no longer whether business has a role to play in closing that gap, but how.
Kaya BIZ with Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to Sheldon Tatchell, CEO and Founder of Legends Corporation, ahead of his address on the business of impact, to find out how a business that started on a stoop in Eldorado Park in 2011 grew into an 88-store operation without losing sight of the community it came from.
For Tatchell, scale was never the measure that mattered most. “You’re not going to take the amount of money with you to the grave,” he said. “The only thing that you will be able to take to the grave is what you have done in other people’s lives.”
From A Roadside Chair To A National Footprint
Tatchell’s journey began with little more than a clipper and a chair. Growth was not without setbacks. When four staff members were dismissed for using drugs on the premises, they opened a rival barbershop next door and took customers with them, a lesson Tatchell describes as an early test of purpose over pride.
Fifteen years later, that same resolve has built Legends into a business with training academies in Johannesburg and Durban. This month, 100 students will graduate from the programme with guaranteed employment, having trained for free.
Turning Profit Into Programmes
That commitment extends beyond formal training. After being named Business Partners’ Entrepreneur of the Year in 2024, Tatchell used his prize money to back a local community race in Eldorado Park, relaunching it as the Legends Township Marathon. Participation grew from 800 runners to 3,500 in a single year, with proceeds funding school shoes and food drives in the community.
Tatchell has also launched his own clipper brand, the Fade Company, which donates a pack of clippers to an informal roadside barber for every ten sold. “It doesn’t matter where it’s sold,” he said. “One pack has been donated to that barber that’s cutting on the side of the road.”
For Tatchell, the throughline is simple: profit that does not circle back into people is profit without purpose. This is not a growth story. It is an impact one.
Tatchell takes the stage at Nedbank IMC 2026 on 17 September at the Mosaic Theatre to unpack the business of impact in full. Tickets are available at
Listen to the full conversation on the Kaya BIZ podcast:
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