How Covid lockdown inspired a streetwear dream

Dimeji Ode's hopes of founding his own clothing brand started in school but it was during the first Covid lockdown that his dreams finally came true.

Dode, which stands for "don't overdo everything", was born after his art and design teacher at Sandwell College in the West Midlands set him the task of creating something for fashion, music or art in 2017.

"I cut up one of my jackets and I made it into a gilet," said Dimeji, who was 17 at the time. "I had to come up with a name for it and I came up with Dode.

"Since then, I thought, 'this name, I've made something here'... so I got all my plain T-shirts and started printing Dode on them [at the college]."

Mr Ode said having a lot of free time during the pandemic helped him achieve his dream of being a streetwear brand owner.

A specific fashion genre, streetwear is a style of comfortable, casual clothing inspired by skateboarding, surfing, hip-hop, punk and other subcultures.

In 2020, when he was 20, Mr Ode was an essential support worker which allowed him to work through the Covid lockdown and he decided to put every penny he could save into starting Dode and building his website.

It all started with him sketching designs whenever inspiration struck.

"When an idea comes to me, I like to act on it quickly and send it to my manufacturer," he said.

"I like to write things out or just draw with my hands."

At first, he sold his initial pieces to friends before he set up his business website.

The 25-year-old said he was proud he had been able to turn a lifelong passion into a career.

"Even since primary school, I've always been into art and I've always been into drawing," he said.

"A lot of the designs I have done, especially the logo, I made that - I designed that myself."

Mr Ode said posting and advertising on social media sites like Instagram and TikTok helped introduced more people to his work and he hoped to get more interest worldwide in the future.

"Word of mouth has also made a major impact," he added.

His close friends helped his brand come to life by modelling the clothes or getting behind the camera lens for photoshoots.

"You need a team to grow, you can only do so much by yourself," he said.

Mr Ode chose not go to university after college and instead put his all into Dode.

"I stopped education and wanted to just solely focus on the brand," he said.

"I was working normal jobs and putting into the brand as much as I can and that's what I'm still doing.

"I'm still building the foundation of the brand; right now I've not hit the profit stage."

He said being a brand owner meant a lot of sacrifice as there had been times when he suffered losses but still had to keep going.

Even now, Mr Ode juggles a full-time job as a residential support worker with his work for his brand.

"I'm independent, I run the brand by myself," he said.

"That means I have to go to work, earn money, put it into the next thing even though I haven't made anything from the previous thing.

"The thing that keeps me going is the love I have for the brand and the love I have for just being creative - thinking of something and bringing it to life and shooting, that's what keeps me going."

Mr Ode's latest design for Dode is a tracksuit inspired by his time at school.

Enlisting the help of his friends, he did a photoshoot around Birmingham's city centre on the bus and made use of the bus stop that used to take him to school in Erdington.

"This was me remembering my back-to-school days when I used to take the bus to school... that nostalgia feeling," he said.

Dode and its catchphrase "already won" comes from Mr Ode's Christian faith.

"You can't really just always go ahead with life thinking you can do everything by yourself, you have to leave it to God and not overdo it by your own self and once you give it to God, you've already won," he explained.

Mr Ode's dream for the future is to have his fashion business as his full-time career and he hopes the next five years will bring him that.

"I believe in is that night doesn't last forever, there's morning coming," he said.

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