Some months ago a friend of mine, Coach Feranmi, told me about a big African basketball tournament that was happening in Rwanda. It was called the Giants of Africa tournament and Ghana was selected to participate. I was very excited and proud of Feranmi because he is such a strong force for basketball in Ghana. His call that day was to ask me if I wanted to make clothes for the Ghana team to be worn on the ceremonial event of the competition. It was an absolute yes for me because I’m a big basketball fan and it would be such an honour to have my designs on an international platform like that!
I hoped on Canva and started drafting my proposal. I put a lot of thought into the design and came up with 3 unique design ideas that represented Ghana without looking like our flag. I really wanted to stay away from the cliche red, gold green concept. The designs looked good and I made sure to include the reasons why I chose certain elements like the patterns, colours and textures. I sent my bid in time and patiently waited.
One morning Feranmi called me and told me I had won the bid. This made me really happy but it also meant the real work was about to begin. It was now time to take my concept and make it real. We made 10 fun and absolutely amazing kaftans for the team and coaches in record time. The team looked stunning in them on the day and I couldn’t have been prouder of Zedi when I saw a video of the team wearing the clothes at the event.
I am so grateful for the opportunity and also for the chance to make a group of young Ghanaian men feel like the kings they truly are! We are really proud of them.