Patta Got Love For Lagos, Lagos Got Love For Patta (EXCLUSIVE)
Patta is all about purpose. The Dutch streetwear label intelligently makes its moves by feeling out collaborators and community, only ever extending its reach through purpose-driven innovation.
So, though Patta's new store in the Nigerian city of Lagos is a good 4,300 miles or so from Patta's Amsterdam HQ, it's tethered by the same sense of good vibes and good times.
"We got introduced to Nigeria through Grace [Ladoja] and the Homecoming crew," Patta co-founder Edson Sabajo tells Highsnobiety, also shouting out local streetwear collective WAFFLESNCREAM (WAF).
"We spent day and nights in Lagos together but also Amsterdam and London. And, at one point, we was like, 'We're gonna open up a store, man, and tell our story about Nigeria and Lagos.'"
Everything about Patta Lagos is that personal. Even its location in Trocadero Square, a relatively young upscale mall, is purposeful — it situates the new space nearby Patta's pals in WAF, for one.
"We are family now," Sabajo continues. "So we be here together forever (*Run-DMC voice*), tougher than leather, type-a vibe. And it really feels good from the get-go and now it's all about building together and falling together and building again. That process is just beautiful to see and to experience."
Patta Lagos is all about the culture which means the people and, this being Patta, the people who shape its new store are woven into the fabric of the local scene.
"I have been a huge fan of Patta from the inception of the brand, what it stands for, its belief system, the love for community and its continuous contribution to sneaker culture," says Nifemi Marcus-Bello, nnoted industrial designer and Patta Lagos partner.
Patta's entry into Lagos is representative of the city's burgeoning street scene, which is as established as any found elsewhere but is especially salient today.
Macus-Bello points out that American hip-hop culture was tremendously influential in developing Nigerian streetwear — so it goes for streetwear as a global phenomenon, really — but West African economics created a heightened bootleg market.
"But as a middle class emerged, a great deal of stores started carrying legit merch from brands like FUBU and Phat Farm," Marcus-Bello explains. "Fast forward, there's a new generation of people who have very important things to say from an African context."
These include WAF, described by Marcus-Bello as "an indigenous skate brand," and FREE THE YOUTH, an evocative Ghanaian imprint.
"The commonality and mentality from these brands are all the same: we build, we support and we stay authentic," he continues.
"Patta opening a store in Lagos and also being the first global streetwear to take a chance on Lagos is a monumental statement on its own and to collaborate in the way they have, with community in mind, speaks volume to the brand staying true to its ethos and the current ever-growing ecosystem of fashion and streetwear culture in Lagos."
Or, as Marcus-Bello offers succinctly, "Patta got love for Lagos, Lagos got love for Patta."
