Ugo Udezue Launches Indigenous Sports Designer Brand {Photos}
The founder of AFA Sports is turning athletic and athleisure wear into an economic force for the continent.
When Ugo Udezue left his plush job as a National Basketball Association (NBA) agent at one of the top firms in the United States four years ago, he never imagined he would go on to pioneer the first and only African sports apparel company to officially outfit a team at the Olympic Games in Japan this year.
At least, that wasn’t the initial plan.
It certainly would have been easier to stay in California with a client roster that included players from the Golden State Warriors to the Brooklyn Nets. After all, Udezue had been in the US since the mid-1990s, when a basketball scholarship lured him from his native Nigeria.
But after he made it in America, his homeland beckoned with new opportunities.
“I came back to Africa with the idea of starting a continental league that would match the NBA,” the former player-turned-agent told Al Jazeera. “All the best sports talent comes from Africa, even the likes of LeBron James can trace their lineage back to the motherland (sic).”
Udezue, who describes himself as Pan-African, is passionate about unifying the continent through business and sport.
“It’s important for Africans to show the opportunity in the continent, that Africa is viable for business and that Africans will spend money on a product if it’s good,” the 43-year-old said.
Udezue was in the throes of establishing the Continental Basketball League in 2017 when his next business venture sprouted. At the time it was simply to meet the surplus kit and equipment demands of the league, which had expanded to 10 teams in six African countries.
“When we started the league I noticed that the basketballs were very slippery because they were made for air-conditioned gyms and we all know that there aren’t too many of those in Africa,” Udezue said matter-of-factly, ”so I went to China and developed a ball that absorbs sweat and immediately we witnessed less turnovers in the game as a result.”
The self-described disruptor didn’t stop there.
“From my experience as a player, I realised that the majority of Africans have flat feet, so we also developed the ‘Breeze’ shoe that accommodates that to lessen the need for separate insoles.”
That formed the premise of AFA Sports, which means “Africa for Africa” and which has grown to become one of the continent’s hottest sports merchandising and apparel companies.
“Our tagline is ‘This Is Ours,’” Udezue said, in reference to the traditional communal culture within the continent. “We’re trying to build something that is not individualistic.”
Indeed, the name “LIV (54)” was even inscribed on one of AFA’s first lines, with 54 flags to represent the number of countries on the African continent.
