We don’t want to bring Pith to Africa; we want Africa to embrace Pith as its own. - Nez Anazodo
There is a disruption in the ecosystem by PITH Africa of the 'Baroque age', a conglomerate housing all forms of human innovation and creativity across mediums of art. In his interview with More Branches, Nasir Ahmed said that Baroque Age started in the mind of Adedayo Laketu, who later brought in Bukunmi Akinniyi and himself as co-founders.
“We’re just three minds in a third-world country from average families trying to be billionaires by creating and innovating amazing ideas, and companies with fellow minds from Africa. We’re not conformed to doing some basic stuff; we want to create something that will be an empire, a message, a heritage, and also an inspiration.”
The driving force behind causing a disruption was highlighted in Adedayo’s conversation with Clearly Invincible in 2021. PITH Africa, a sustainable fashion label hailing from Lagos, Nigeria established in 2017, is a fashion enterprise founded by Cosmas Ojemen, who assumes the role of Creative Director, along with Nez Anazodo as Style Director & Head Of Operations, and Artistic Director, Adedayo Laketu.
But their stories go way further back than that. In 2017, PITH released a short film with Radr Africa called Dilly I. Dilly 1 was to them the new age, the brand's first stage to fly. Dilly 1 represents the New Age's beginnings and PITH's aesthetic ideals expressed as clothes.
The brand was established in early 2017 as a dual-sex fashion house that embodies a revitalised outlook on our generation, characterised by its diversity and conscious awareness. Embracing a minimalist ethos with meticulous attention to detail, PITH unveiled two mini-collections in 2018: Dilly 1: A Beginning and Dilly 2: Streetwear.
Later, Seyi Oluwadare joined the team as the in-house developer & Tech Lead, completing the founding quartet. At the beginning of January 2024, PITH SOUND SYSTEM was unveiled with a simple goal: to curate unforgettable experiences that resonate within our community, fueled by our collective love for music, the thrill of raving, and the joy of creating memories that last a lifetime.
We created PSS to contribute to the music landscape in our own way. Bringing people together to hear their favourite songs while they party, chill, or just experience the sounds is, to us, a celebration of our community.- Nez Anazodo
This further solidified that one of the core values of PITH is ‘community’;
“we’re big on creating a community for everyone who interacts with PITH. Beyond the products, we create a safe place through our experiences for minds from different subcultures and lovers of PITH to connect and interact, network, party, have fun, and just celebrate themselves. We’ve created this with our pop-ups and collaborative experiences, one of which being quarterly rave/pop-up Ps & Qs, which we do with one of the biggest bartending companies in Lagos, Quacktails”. -Adedayo Laketu from trippin.world
They have kept true to their word for creating a community. Their storytelling and visuals are drawn from the world around them.
“Also, because we are very much community-driven, creative travel for us is community-building through first-hand experiences, cross-cultural engagement, and an authentic exploration of the self. We want to be able to bring PITH forward to a city near you in a manner that recognises and respects cultural contexts”. -Nez Anazodo
This continuous act has allowed young people to tap into and connect with the vision that PITH is selling. They have actively captured a surge of creative expressions in Lagos, Nigeria while narrating stories that reflect our fashion essence through short films. These narratives take you into various subcultures such as skateboarding and knockoff culture.
Since the launch of our website, it has been an integral part of our community's online experience with us. Other than our social media, our website is the central hub for our users. They can shop, read stories about each product, and share this virtual ‘escape’ we've created into Pith's world. - Cosmas Ojemen
In 2020, PITH created a short film called "SKATEBOARDING RULES!" for the release of their ‘PITH Logo Tees’. The film is an ode to the growing skateboarding scene in Lagos, Nigeria.
Our main focus is a new generation of Nigeria. 60% of the country is under 30. It’s a new age that has a different mentality. When I was growing up, I didn’t know a brand like PITH, but more brands are doing what we’re doing. We’re laser-focused on connecting with this generation and asking them questions like ‘What does it mean to be a skateboarder in Nigeria?’ ‘What does it mean to be gay in Nigeria?’ ‘What does it mean to be yourself?’. Those are the conversations we have about being a company that is a new age and caters to this new generation. -Cosmas Ojemen for Native mag
Their first edition of P’s and Q’s, a pop-up/party experience, was done in collaboration with Quacktails, the bartending company; it was a safe space for all the outcasts of society; members of the LGBT+ community, skaters, musicians, creatives.
As creatives ourselves, we’ve always had friends in music—artists, producers, show promoters, A&Rs, stylists, etc. So you could say music has always been around us. - Nez Anazodo
In 2023, WAF. PITH Africa happened. It was a revolutionary partnership between WAF, the premier skateboard and lifestyle brand in West Africa, and PITH, a sustainable fashion label hailing from Lagos, Nigeria. This collaboration epitomises the authentic essence of Nigerian youthfulness. Despite facing resource constraints, both entities have thrived by leveraging what's at hand to accomplish their objectives. The collection features a Two-Piece ensemble comprising shirts and shorts, along with T-shirts featuring denim.
The design style, albeit upholding their core values, was a little different from their initiating collection which had a more minimalistic approach than the rather maximalist one they have going with their aesthetic and when it comes down to it, suits the idea of their mother company's baroque. Their earlier designs were characterised by raw and fluid aesthetics, featuring elements such as cargo pants, logo t-shirts, and body bags, all presented in an earthy orange colour palette.
Every moment has mattered up to this point. We are what we are now because of every product, every experience, every collaboration, every art piece, and every decision we've made since our inception. - Cosmas Ojemen
One cannot pinpoint when exactly this shift happened, but in 2020 during their interview with Okay Africa, PITH said that the pandemic created an opportunity for introspection.
“Before the pandemic, we took a break for about a year to figure out where our conversation was — especially with the clothes we made. We had always wanted to explore more sustainable alternatives to garment production and fabric sourcing, and the pandemic provided the calm we needed for that. During the height of the pandemic, we began to test ideas and explore more designs around used jeans. This birthed our current trajectory and it’s been deeply rewarding considering how many denim pieces we’ve been able to up-cycle in just one year and how our consumers have been receptive to this shift in design ethos. This year we want to explore more garments silhouettes with denim as our primary fabric”.
This period birthed the denim style and ideas like The PITH Stock Denim Campaign, which implored locally sourced denim that was upcycled.
PITH has become a beacon for Nigerian youth, resonating deeply with their aspirations and everyday experiences. PITH has established a lasting presence, poised to remain a significant force in the fashion landscape.
As PITH continues to expand its reach and impact, their dedication to creating a unified identity through fashion, music, and community experiences remains unwavering. The brand's journey is a testament to their resilience, innovation, and commitment to celebrating and uplifting African culture on a global stage.
"Our narrative has always centered around community. From the beginning, we were born for a community of new-age Africans daring to seek more from our country, no matter how impossible it seemed. Over time, we have grown by sharing our stories and expressing what our clothes represent and mean to people in this environment. We curate experiences that bring people together to celebrate their individuality and identities while sharing common ground that inspires collective growth. We achieve this by clearly communicating our ideas, values, expressing ourselves from within, as dreamers born from Lagos, Nigeria, these inspirations are reflected in our products, PSS(Pith Sound System) experiences, and art pieces." Adedayo Laketu
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