Rack, Roll & Good Vibes

The Heath family turned a weekend hustle into a sun-drenched, seriously lekker family business, with a little kindness stirred in for good measure.

Picture this: dogs in the driveway, kids on bikes, a WhatsApp group that never sleeps, and a farming family that runs a home-and-garage storage brand while still making it to hockey practice on time. Welcome to the world of Bowlzie Heath and the crew behind Rack & Roll, the Blythedale-based, coast-grown business turning bike racks, wine racks, surfboard holders, and every kind of garage chaos into something the whole family gets properly stuck into.
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What started as a weekend project that got a little out of hand (but aren’t those always the best ideas?) has turned into a proper, thriving side hustle. There is no boardroom here, no corporate ladder, just a workshop, a stack of orders, and a family who has quietly figured out how to build a real business without losing the fun. Every product is affectionately named after family and friends.
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“We never set out to build an empire,” laughs Bowlzie. “We just wanted something that worked for us, for our family, and honestly, I needed something that gave me the flexibility to be with our babies and all that comes with their busy little lives.” It has. Rack & Roll now ships storage solutions all over South Africa, but its heartbeat is still very much homegrown, hand-built in a workshop where everyone knows the others’ coffee order.
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A Proper Family Business, Emphasis on Family
This is not your average nine-to-five. There is music playing, banter amongst the Rack & Roll team that could honestly carry its own podcast, and always sprinkled in the mix are kids in the afternoon, “helping” out, which mostly means enthusiastically causing ‘crabs’.
​It is, by every definition, a proper family-run business side hustle, equal parts hustle and vibes. The whole thing runs on a very South African belief that if you are going to work hard, you might as well have a jol while you do it.
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The Small Team Behind the Big Noise
Ask Bowlzie what actually makes Rack & Roll work, and she will not start talking about margins or logistics. She will talk about people. “Sifiso and Khule (brothers) are not just staff; they’re part of the team. They get stuck in at every turn. They are not afraid to pull some long hours when the orders are cooking, and they are two of the most reliable people I know. They are Rack & Roll, and this business would not be the same without them.”
​Every growing brand needs its hype squad, and Rack & Roll’s comes in the form of Gina and Tess, the small but mighty marketing crew behind the scenes from Media Farmed. “They do, every once in a while, have to rein me in as I go rogue on some of my social media videos. My family is my life. My ‘hubcap’ (husband), T, is indescribable. I love him. He is super talented, an incredible husband and dad, and saves all his words for over a braai, with a couple of drinks. And of course, there would be no point to any of this if we weren’t graafing hard to make a lekker future in South Africa for our three amazing babies, affectionately known as Scottdog, Badger and Stoff.”

​The Sunshine Effect
And if running a busy little business out of a coastal workshop was not enough, Bowlzie also has her hands in something entirely different. The Sunshine Effect was born out of a simple, powerful idea from three KZN women on a mission: when you show up for your community, the real South African magic kicks in. Bowlzie Heath, Ang Herbst and Shirls Lambert believe that change does not need to be loud to be big. One small act, done consistently and with ‘vooma’, ripples further than anyone expects. Show up, do the small thing, and trust that it adds up to something bigger.
In a world obsessed with hustle culture, Rack & Roll sits in the background, reminding us to take time for our hobbies, to slow down with our family, and maybe every once in a while get the ‘zig’ with the garage clutter and pull everything into line.

Website: www.rackandroll.co.za

Phone: 082 787 2888

Email: bowlzie@rackandroll.co.za