Divine & The Branches.
How Branches Started.
“When life reaches out with a moment like this, it’s a sin if you don’t reach back.”- Silver Linings Playbook
I never set out to start a business, let alone a T-shirt business. Branches is more than that now, but it started as a T-shirt business. I always said that everybody and their mum owns a T-shirt business and we are tired of it. Imagine how my insides were screaming when I reached the decision to start yet another one?
This is a long story. So if you’re not willing to push your attention span, you can just give up now. If you’re up for the challenge, let’s goooooooo
As with many other interesting stories, the story of Branches started with unemployment. I had a really good internship that eventually ended because the company shut down. I kept searching for jobs to no avail. In the meantime, I started a service-based design business to make little cash here and there to stay alive. I made wedding invitation cards, posters, etc. This made me break into my graphic design side a bit more and I started exploring using more assets and doing new styles of design.
In the early hours of March 28, 2023, I was designing posters and I saw a graphic tee and decided to try my hand at one. I gathered inspiration from brands I loved, tees that caught my eye, and posters that moved me — then got to work.
It didn’t feel like it was working out, so I just left it, made a tweet and went back to bed.
I tried to go to sleep but then I started having thoughts on how I could change the design to look nicer on a shirt. I went back, changed the font I was using, changed the picture, moved some things around and finally, it began to look good. I designed the front too and then went to sleep.
I woke up the next afternoon (remember I was unemployed and spent all night designing) and quoted my former tweet:
A bunch of people saw it and loved itt
People seemed to really like it on Twitter and on my WhatsApp status, and so the Igbo babe in me started tingling. Before you know it, I had found a shirt supplier and printer, and made a sample. I didn’t like the sample very much, so I found a new printer and supplier, and made shirts for a couple of people who showed prolonged interest. It was thrilling to know that people were really interested in something I created.
I saw that there was an opportunity there, so I started putting together a proposal to send to a popular shirt brand, proposing to create designs in exchange for a percentage of the profit.
I decided on this because I know about the woes of running a business and I didn’t want to get into it at all. I wanted to just design and have others run all the other dramatic parts of the business. It would’ve been such a perfect plan. Leemao.
I sent out the proposal, and while I was waiting for a response, I kept designing things and posting on WhatsApp. My fellow designer friend Ebun replied one day with ideas on production possibilities for the designs. Then he said, “We can start a clothing brand with all these ideas, yunno?” Even though I still wasn’t ready for the business stress, the idea of a business sounded less stressful if I wasn’t doing all the work alone.
He suggested that we take over a brand that we both knew. It was a T-shirt brand but had been inactive for a while. It wasn’t a bad idea because we didn’t have to fully start from scratch; we could inherit the social media page that had about 100 followers already. It was established enough to have some traction, but early enough that we could reshape it.
Get Divine John-Okpala’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
I started doing a brand identity for it, and Ebun made a business plan and some progress was made. I was always clear on the type of clothes I wanted to make for Branches. I didn’t want anything basic. I wanted extremely cool designs with deep messaging and to grow a wonderful community. I had never designed a brand identity, handled accounting, or run a product-based business. I was in completely uncharted waters.
Life got a bit busier and it took a back seat for a couple of months. During that time, the company I’d pitched to suddenly went silent. Decisions were delayed, updates were scarce, and the opportunity eventually faded.
November came around and I was scrolling Twitter when I saw a tweet from Mudia asking about the babe he got the “Alaye pray” shirt from because he wanted to buy more. (I can’t find the screenshot now) This was a wake-up call, a reminder that we might be onto something cool and we shouldn’t sleep on it.
We decided against taking over the existing business and agreed to start our own from scratch to avoid complications. That led to a new problem: what would we name it?
The name
At the ministry we were all a part of (YEN), we had online meetings often on Zoom, and you had to enter your name to join. Sometimes I played around and put random things that weren’t my name, especially on days when I didn’t feel like myself. One day, I put “branches” instead of “Divine”, It was a joke from the Bible verse John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”
I started using “branches” often and it became a running joke with some of my guys — Christabel and P. Sam.
So when we started trying to figure out a name for the brand, we were trying all sorts of names: ephod, fleece, and many other randos. And one day, I suggested “branches.” It became the one to beat, no one beat it, and here we are.
With our new name and revived drive, we continued making progress on everything. Created a bank account, social media pages, storefront, phone number and all that jazz. We invested 50,000 naira each and our mutual friend Tammy invested 30,000. Later, our Branches OG, Moyi invested 100,000.) It was all so exciting. Still is. And everyone has since gotten a return on their investments with interest.
We made samples with a new supplier because the old one had an MOQ and was expensive, then did a shoot in January 2024 with some of our friends. Big shoutout to Faith the photographer, Ebere (she did the make up and modeled too!), Josh, Abigail, Ighalo, Nosime, Blessed & The multifacated Boba. They’re all superstars and I’m forever grateful for them.
After getting the shirts, we managed to use them for the shoot but we knew they won’t work long-term, so we were back to square one. And after a lot of hurdles and disappointments, we found a supplier, but they only had Size L and XL at the time we had planned to launch. At risk of looking unserious, I didn’t want to stall any further, so we launched either way, and we got a lot of support, thanks to all our people.
For a while now, it’s been mostly me running things, and the journey has been crazy. We’ve done 11 clothing drops: Roots, NIM x Branches, For the Saints, 418 Valentine drop, Aramanda x Branches Collection, Urchez x Branches limited edition anniversary drop, No turning back merch, Love letter From the Vine, Love letter FTV part 2 limited edition caps, Thorned caps, and For the girlies.
We’ve executed 3 beautiful events: Party with the Branches at The Daily , From the Vine pop-up shop at Poundroad Studios and Roots (An open house pop-up experience in collaboration with Eko Nomad), we’ve done 4 collaborations, vendored at up to 5 events, including one in London, we’ve served over 300 branches from this Vine, and we‘ve grown to 1000+ people on our social media and 182 people on our mailing list.
It’s been a little over 2 years, and Branches has barely scratched the surface of its potential. We’re going to the worldddd, and we’re bringing everybody along. Our goal has evolved over time, beyond just selling cool clothes: It is to grow a gathering of people who know and love each other, to help people live a full life, and stay connected to God and their people in this very distracted world, to help people stay rooted and never lose their center so they never get lost in this world.
Building this brand has affected my life in many interesting ways. I’ve been doing Branches while working different jobs for the most part. I’ve had to learn a lott of new skills because I didn’t have alternatives, I’ve broken down in tears in Yaba Market, I’ve gone on long rants about the incompetence that thrives in the Nigerian artisan industry and I’ve broken out in stress pimples more times than i can count. But I have also interacted with people I typically wouldn’t have access to, I’ve worked with some extremely cool people, I’ve gotten to do some really cool things and I’ve been stretched so much that I believe I can literally do anything I decide to do in this world. The world is my sketchpad, and I can paint anywhere I want.💃
I’m very sat to see how branches carves its own space in this world.
Thank you for your time.💚
As you were,
Divine.
