Today we’d like to introduce you to Paakow Essandoh.
Paakow, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
MIZIZI was originally inspired during my freshman year in the dining halls of the University of South Florida. I used to meet up with George Kariuki, an international student from Kenya, and we would discuss the lack of representation yet room for the opportunity that surrounded us. These conversations were the very beginning stages of MIZIZI. It wasn’t long before I was traveling cross-country to find someone to produce a modern African clothing line. Although it took two years and a bit of couch surfing, I was able to fully flesh out the idea for MIZIZI and was able to launch our first collection of seven African baseball jerseys on August 30th, 2015. Since then MIZIZI has transformed into so much more than just clothing—it has become a celebrative movement of culture and connection reminding the diaspora and the world over to #StayRooted.
Has it been a smooth road?
MIZIZI’s journey has been filled with nothing but blessings, but at the end of the day, we’ve all experienced our own unique challenges. One of our biggest obstacles early into the game was how to operate without a website for 3-4 months. After receiving the amount of traffic that we did in the beginning, we tried to scale and switch back-end systems to something more flexible but ultimately ended up glitching and made people lose trust in us and our website. It wasn’t long before we took that one down and then began working through a series of different systems and designers for months on end. After a few months, we were finally were able to relaunch and get operating once again.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the MIZIZI International story. Tell us more about the business.
You should know that MIZIZI is the official streetwear brand for the Diaspora. There is no other product in the market that allows customers to express their cultural identity through a variety of different jerseys and apparel quite like MIZIZI does. In each of our pieces, we even add cultural motifs, which allows people to resonate strongly with their country while at the same time expressing themselves in a subtle but powerful way. Our respective cultures have always been dope and deserving of representation; now MIZIZI has become the platform that shows the rest of the world new ways each of us can represent our roots.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My most proud moment to date has been working with Marvel to release the Official Wakanda Baseball Jersey in light of the Black Panther movie that premiered earlier this year. We’ve only been in business for three years, but the fact that we were able to collaborate with a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate on something as pivotal to the culture as Black Panther makes me smile every time. MIZIZI truly has had one blessed journey, and its really due to all the love and support that’s been poured into us from our community.
Pricing:
- Basketball – $50
- Soccer – $50
- Baseball – $60
- Hockey – $80
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mizizishop.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Cote d’ivoire photo- Shot by @Varsityvisuals, Wakanda Photo – Shot by @TemiCoker, Haiti Photo – Shot by @SimranModak, Dominican Republic photo – Shot by @Jacobwcarroll
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