Jabali and I - A Love Story

WELCOME BACK TO THE BUILDER CLASS!!!

 

Today, we’re not taking a break, but rather, I’m giving everyone time to catch up and also gather feedback if you’re at that stage, or filter through your list of ideas if you’re still inventing. Whatever stage you’re at, it’s totally fine. There is no rush at all.

 

I will cover the ‘D’ in BUILD next two weeks because I don’t want to communicate a rushed BUILD process. Take your time, ask me questions, let’s BUILD carefully.

 

So instead, today I’m going to share my most valuable BUILD project so far to give us a chance to catch up but also get more scenarios we can learn from!

 

So, at the African Leadership Academy, before you get to second year, you have to join or create a student enterprise preferably around your interest with a maximum of 6 students. I was part of a team of 5 students who later hired one more mate, making us 6, that created a new student enterprise called Jabali.

Jabali Founding Team (From L to R) Bousso (Senegal), Orein (Zimbabwe), Mowa (Nigerian, who became our 6th member a few months later), Kudzai (Zimbabwe), Me (Ghana), and Tega (Nigeria).

 

Kudzai, Orein and Tega worked with Amy Wanday, a sports and fashion enthusiast, on the idea as they were all very invested in sports. After the Original Idea for Development part of the curriculum was done, Amy graduated, and Kudzai and Tega decided to actually execute the idea. So they came to me, as a fashion designer to ask if I wanted in. It was a quick yes for me.

 

Too much history- let’s cut straight to the chase.

 

We at Jabali wanted to make jerseys for different sports, starting with the ones offered on campus.

 

The ‘B’elieve aspect was pretty easy for us- we trusted Tega and Orein knew and understood jerseys, I understood fashion design, Kudzai on finances, Bousso on operations and Mowa behind the camera which she’s great at. It’s why we even agreed to make our own enterprise rather than join one.

 

For ‘U’nderstanding, it took as a bit of time- not too much, not too little either in terms of goals. We all pitched in with research, learning about the materials used, the way they’re produced, why certain fabrics are needed for certain sports, production and turnaround time, etc etc etc. It was a lot but it was an all hands on deck time for us, so we were able to get through it in good time. We knew what we wanted. We pitched our plan to the investment fund and got all the money we asked for! (This was a very rare result. Many enterprises got turned away. MANY)

 

‘I’nvent was where the tides rolled it. Yoh. Lord have mercy. At the time, I was now grappling with Adobe Illustrator, Tega pitched in by trying to teach himself how to use it as well. Bousso was communicating with our chosen manufacturer (whom I had worked with before so I already had a relationship with. THAT MAN WAS SO DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH EI!),

Early prototype

Kudzai was constantly trying to make sure that we weren’t spending all our money on sample-making (hahahaha you don’t want to know about that), Mowa was busy making sure each sample was properly shot in action, documenting each new one we made and the whole time, Orein was busy trying to bag deals with the head of the sports department so that we could supply them with their next set of kits and make some money back at least.

 

Prototyping really taught us all patience. Everyone was excited about it when they started seeing samples on campus but that made it even more frustrating for us because we knew they weren’t ready and we had to keep gathering feedback (‘L’istening) to be able to make each one better. We went back and forth with samples and eventually graduated before we could even see the final work.

 

Sad right? Not really. For each of us, it was a very very important learning curve for us. We read about the Cathedral of Milan and how it took 700 years to complete but that was our first-time experiencing what that truly means- working together to create something whose result we may not see immediately.

We didn’t get to the ‘D’ of BUILD even after a whole year of working on the prototypes and I hope that you now understand why I decided not to continue directly with the next step today.

 

Just like us, we did not get to see the end product during our time, but we did get to see it eventually through social media and other channels. Do stay tuned to the blog and next two weeks when I present the final section of the BUILD process, I will make sure to include the ending of our love story with Jabali- you will get to see the beautiful end results and our successors who were able to achieve them all.

Thank you for reading today and if you missed the last post, please read it here and fill out the super short survey for me. As usual, please let me know what you think or if you have any questions or concerns. You can comment or shoot me an email or reach out to me on my social media on Twitter or Instagram.