Ghana's Afrisocks brighten up your feet and your day

DW (English)

Voted one of the world's funkiest socks by New York Magazine, Afrisocks bring African culture to your feet.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 These funky socks got listed by the New York Magazine

00:06 as one of the most stylish in the world.

00:08 And there is no mistaking where they come from,

00:11 from Ghana, West Africa.

00:13 - I wanted to give something

00:16 to the African living in the West,

00:18 something to connect back to their culture.

00:21 They could be able to express their fashion through socks.

00:25 (upbeat music)

00:28 - Huzaif was born and raised in Nima,

00:31 which is renowned as one of the largest Zongo communities,

00:34 owing to its significant influx of migrants

00:37 and rapid uncontrolled development.

00:39 It was in a nearby cafe within this densely populated,

00:43 economically disadvantaged residential area

00:46 with about 80,000 residents

00:48 that Huzaif first began crafting his unique patterns.

00:51 - The challenges that we encountered

00:53 when we started the production

00:55 was the colors of the African patterns

00:59 and as well as the zigzag

01:01 and the way the patterns is designed on the African fabric

01:04 is so complex to put it on a sock

01:06 because the socks we do is a woven socks, it's not printed.

01:09 So it was really difficult for us.

01:11 And that was one of the biggest challenge.

01:13 We had to do a lot of samples first

01:16 before we were able to find a suitable one in Turkey.

01:19 (upbeat music)

01:21 My socks have funny names

01:24 because we wanted to use something that is funny,

01:27 not just in Ghana, in West Africa.

01:28 So we give those names so that the customer base,

01:31 which is the African diaspora in the West,

01:33 when they are buying the socks,

01:34 it also gives them something to laugh about.

01:36 (speaking in foreign language)

01:39 So we have a socks we call Dumso.

01:40 Dumso used to be a term where Ghana had power outages.

01:44 So the light goes off and on for like six hours

01:46 and it comes on for another six hours.

01:49 So Ghanaians will say Dumso, which means off and on.

01:52 We also have another socks called Boga.

01:54 Boga actually means every successful Ghanian

01:57 who has lived in abroad and they are returning back home,

01:59 the name they give them is Boga.

02:01 - Ghana has a long tradition in textile manufacturing.

02:05 In recent decades, however,

02:07 the industry has come under pressure

02:09 from cheap imports from China, among other things.

02:12 Job losses are still ongoing.

02:15 By founding a company selling socks within African motifs,

02:18 Huzaif Alhassan started bringing hope

02:21 for Ghana's textile industry.

02:23 (speaking in foreign language)

02:27 - No socks factory exists in Ghana.

02:46 Many people rely on imported socks from the West,

02:49 China and India.

02:51 Huzaif and partners are working to create

02:53 Ghana's first socks factory,

02:55 which will also benefit West Africa.

02:57 - Because at the moment,

02:58 we are not currently manufacturing in Ghana,

03:00 we want our customers to be happy

03:02 and to see that their socks are coming from Ghana

03:04 and that they are helping the Ghanaian community

03:06 and creating jobs.

03:08 So if the product moved to a fulfillment center,

03:12 it will be after we are locally manufacturing the socks

03:15 and then we are proudly made in Africa,

03:17 which will reduce the shipping cost for us

03:19 as much as other logistics challenges.

03:22 - We've seen that this is a loophole,

03:24 not having this manufacturing company

03:27 in the whole sub-region.

03:29 And as young people coming together,

03:31 we want to help seal that gap and then solve that problem.

03:35 And not only that, but also provide jobs for young women,

03:38 young men who are looking for something to do.

03:41 For me as a woman and as a manufacturer,

03:44 looking at numbers, the economy as well can also be changed.

03:47 It's a major factor for me.

03:48 And so we are so excited to have us do this together.

03:52 And so we are really looking forward

03:54 to starting this new journey.

03:56 - Before a sock is produced,

03:59 what we do is we actually sit down,

04:02 we think about a cloth,

04:04 an African fabric that looks cool and nice

04:07 and will fit on a sock.

04:09 Then we sit with a designer

04:11 and then we create an impression

04:13 on how we want the fabric to look on a sock.

04:16 We usually have three reviews,

04:17 then we make changes, then we review it again.

04:20 Upon the final review, we send it to our manufacturer

04:23 who is based in Turkey to produce the socks.

04:26 - Uzive's team added a new socks collection

04:30 and is doing a photo shoot for their online store.

04:33 They've sold over 100,000 socks in 75 countries,

04:37 making them a major Ghanaian e-commerce business,

04:40 allowing people from around the world and all walks of life

04:43 to put their best AfriSox foot forward.

04:46 - So the promotional video with Depor-BRS

04:48 was the best video of our life

04:50 because we thought we were just gonna do

04:52 a normal advertisement that we always do.

04:55 And then luckily we got viral.

04:57 Somebody posted us on Reddit

04:59 and we sold like more than six months of our sales in a day,

05:04 which was insane because we had a lot of orders.

05:08 My business partner had to run to Turkey

05:10 to go and help them to pack socks from there.

05:13 It was great.

05:15 That's how we were able to raise the money

05:17 to buy the two sock machine,

05:19 which we are looking to start for the factory.

05:21 - Giving Ghana's textile industry a new life

05:24 with hipster socks is truly a statement that rocks.

05:27 (upbeat music)

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