BLACK KID CLOTHING EYES THE AFRICAN MARKET
Founder and owner of Black Kid Clothing, Obakeng Madube says that the local fashion industry needs growth, especially in manufacturing all sorts of merchandise. Madube launched his business last year, with an aim to promote his country and Africa as a whole through the brand, ‘Black Kid’.
He is of the view that branding is an essential part of a business and glad to share with The Midweek Sun that his brand has already penetrated all the corners of Botswana and other African countries are already placing orders. “Black Kid was registered in October 2019, and I am happy to share that it is so far doing well, as we have penetrated all corners of the country and different countries including South Africa and Zimbabwe have since started embracing our brand,” he said.
“We are thankful to Facebook as a social media platform that has been selling our brand across the world. Media houses like BBC Zimbabwe, African First News in Cameroon gave us an opportunity,” he said.
They brand has different merchandise including, t-shirts, pants, tracksuits, bucket hats and caps among others.
Madube however laments that local designers are still restricted to designing similar stuff, and therefore urges them to start manufacturing all sorts of merchandise. “Most of them focus on dinner clothes and cultural clothes. So it would be an honor for the fashion industry if they could also be diverse and add items like t-shirts, caps and tracksuits,” he added.
He firmly believes in local talent and that if local designers start manufacturing a variety of clothing merchandise, the industry could grow bigger and even export manufactured clothing to other countries, than depend on importing a lot.
He draws his inspiration of fashion from the fact that he studied Fashion and Fabrics at senior school.
He adds that his company has also launched a movement called ‘Local Fridays’, which is aimed at encouraging the sale of local brands. “Through this movement, we are pleading with the government to allow workers to on dress locally designed clothes or local brands of their choice every Friday,” Madube explains.
On the other hand, he tells this publication that although the industry also suffers due to the effects of Covid-19, they remain content to do the little they can.
He also adds that they plan to open their store next year, and wish that the store could embody local products, especially casual clothes manufactured from home as well as sneakers.
“Most of the time we order casual clothes from China, and so this is an opportunity for local fashion businesses to fill the gap and manufacture what we do not have at home,” he said.