Jeani Meyer (39) is no ordinary woman. You may know her from het catchy “I Love Bloemfontein” T-shirts or her upbeat social media presence.
Jeani and her husband, Riaan Meyer, have been together for 15 years. They met at university when they both attended KOVSIES.
“I was a Wag-‘n-Bietjie first year and he was this witty, mischievous, rugby-playing JBM senior. Such a lekker sexy dude. I was smitten!”
The couple also have two sons of 8 and 10 years old.
“To say ‘They keep me on my toes’ is an understatement. They certainly take after their Dad.”
Jeani is the executive and creative director of the Smart Repair Group which includes brands such as OFS Smart Repair and I LOVE BFN.
Her hubby is a physiotherapist and is one of the managing directors of Wentzel Meyer Physiotherapists which is based in Bloemfontein as well as Knysna.
“Supporting local is not just a slogan, it’s what we stand for, what we believe in and how OFS have been doing business for the past 37 years. I LOVE BFN came about in 2018 with myself and my long-time design collaborator Christo Smit, creating a T-shirt for the OFS Smart Repair team that was a witty way to communicate to our customers who we are, where we’re from and how much we love our home town.
“Myself being a marketing and graphic design major, we specifically drew inspiration form the iconic 1970’s logo by one of my all-time favourite graphic design legends, Milton Glaser. The T-shirt was an instant hit.
“Not only did our team love it, but whenever we wore our I LOVE BFN Tees, we always got a reaction. Whether people smiled, laughed, winked or scoffed! It became such a conversation starter and we received so many requests to sell the T-shirt that we quickly realized I LOVE BFN is more than just a shirt.
“So, what started with a shirt, became a campaign, which created a movement and today has become a proudly 100% LOCALLY manufactured apparel brand with a top notch online store and which is stocked by Kloppers.”
Jeani says she loves Bloemfontein because it is her home.
“I love Bloem because it’s my home. It’s where I grew up, where I honed my craft and where I’m raising my family. I love that we’re big enough to be a city but small enough to have that unpretentious small-town feel. Bloem people are such LEKKER down-to-earth people. We care about each other and we genuinely support our community, our schools and our teams. You just don’t get that in the big cities. AND also, we don’t have to spend two hours in traffic every day.”
Jeani says not only does she support her husband, but he supports her as well and together they make a mean team.
“They don’t say ‘it takes a village’ for nothing, which is why we take turns on everything from school runs, to sport, to dinner duty. We’re fortunate that we can bounce ideas off each other and listen and give genuine advice to each other because we both understand the pressures and challenges of owning and managing a business.”
Jeani says a strong woman is a woman with a voice.
“She knows who she is, what she believes in and what she stands for. A strong woman is sometimes vulnerable and other times fierce, but she is always gracious, kind and steadfast.”
