Co-founder and Artistic Director for Ghana’s streetwear fashion brand ‘Free The Youth,’ Jonathan Coffie popularly known as Joey Lit has opened up to the inspiring story of how the brand began
In an exclusive interview on Y 107.9 FM’s Myd Morning Radio Show with host, Rev Erskine Joey Lit shared that the idea behind starting ‘Free The Youth’ was to showcase the beauty of Ghana to the world.
Joey explained that the founders of ‘Free The Youth’ all lived in Tema, and that was all they had in common at the beginning. However, they shared a mission to showcase the good side of Africa to the world, particularly in competition with young people from other parts of the world who were already doing so through platforms like Facebook and Tumblr.
“After schools and mostly during vacations we took photos across the hood to post on Facebook and Tumblr just to showcase the good side of Africa. Our mission at the time was to be in competition with the kids from New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo and it was always like they were showing the beautiful side of their world through Tumblr and we also wanted to show our side of the world through the platform too,” Joey said.
Joey shared that they would even go to new buildings built by famous and influential Ghanaians to take pictures and demonstrate that Ghana had beautiful structures too.
“We wanted to tell the rest of the world that we also have concrete and beautiful stuff here, not just about war and hunger and all that,” Joey added.
Through their dedication to showcasing the beauty of Ghana to the world, ‘Free The Youth’ has become a successful streetwear fashion brand that has garnered attention from both local and international audiences.
The brand recently clocked a historic feat across the continent as it became the only African brand to join forces with Adidas and Humanrace among some selected international fashion brands to partner, Pharrell Williams and the “Something In The Water” festival to design the official merch of this year’s edition.
Check post below;
Catch us at the Something In The Water festival this weekend 28th-30th April, in Virginia Beach. 🇺🇸
We are official merch designers for this year’s edition, and we are bringing a unique blend of Ghanaian 🇬🇭 culture in Fashion, Music and Arts.
See you! pic.twitter.com/K9sPYpmdmc
— FREE THE YOUTH (@freetheyouth_gh) April 26, 2023
By: Jude Tackie
