Ghana's Afrisocks brighten up your feet and your day
Voted one of the world's funkiest socks by New York Magazine, Afrisocks bring African culture to your feet.
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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)