About us
For many year I had in back of my head somewhere the idea to start a clothing brand. Growing up in Europe but born in Africa this battle between those two cultures inside of me was getting more and more persistent from years to years.
I played basketball for a long time, still do by the way as a real passion never goes away, and the influence of the basket-ball and American culture was huge in my life. But at the same time the African in me needed to express himself. I was wondering why we were really not seeing for example African sports merchandises like we were seeing with US or European teams. Having something that more represented people like me as an African raised in Europe and fan of US culture was a necessity. I'm originally from DR Congo and if you know something about Congolese people "la Sape" (the art of wearing clothes) and music are huge for us. In the same time European elegance in fashion and US urban, streetwear lifestyle are also part of those like me from African descent and who were raised in Europe.
That's who I'm, like many of those like me are... a mix of culture and we embrace it.
So when I decided to start ORGNL BANTU (OB) Clothing I wanted to express with OB a clothing brand that represent us and people who like somehow the African culture ( afrodance, Rumba, Afrobeats, afropop, art, countries, history etc...). The "Bantu's" being one of the biggest people in Africa, basically it's a shout out to my roots and other African roots in general, and "ORGNL" for original. Basically we are original African in our mindset, we take the world from our perspective while understanding it's ok to accept other influences as long we define them the way it fits us the best.
I played basketball for a long time, still do by the way as a real passion never goes away, and the influence of the basket-ball and American culture was huge in my life. But at the same time the African in me needed to express himself. I was wondering why we were really not seeing for example African sports merchandises like we were seeing with US or European teams. Having something that more represented people like me as an African raised in Europe and fan of US culture was a necessity. I'm originally from DR Congo and if you know something about Congolese people "la Sape" (the art of wearing clothes) and music are huge for us. In the same time European elegance in fashion and US urban, streetwear lifestyle are also part of those like me from African descent and who were raised in Europe.
That's who I'm, like many of those like me are... a mix of culture and we embrace it.
So when I decided to start ORGNL BANTU (OB) Clothing I wanted to express with OB a clothing brand that represent us and people who like somehow the African culture ( afrodance, Rumba, Afrobeats, afropop, art, countries, history etc...). The "Bantu's" being one of the biggest people in Africa, basically it's a shout out to my roots and other African roots in general, and "ORGNL" for original. Basically we are original African in our mindset, we take the world from our perspective while understanding it's ok to accept other influences as long we define them the way it fits us the best.
Not only that I wanted also that brand to be a source of pride, empowerment and motivation for all sons and daughter of Africa wherever they are in the world to stay strong, dream and be a builder, innovator for the good of all.
If you share that vision we invite you to join the OB family by expressing yourself through our products.
Lelo