Gabriel Oshikoya Oluwatosin is popularly known as Gabriel Tosh Lagos in the biking, motorsports and urban lifestyle fashion world in Nigeria. In this interview with ROTIMI IGE, he speaks about the blossoming motorsports community and how he is revolutionising sports fashion. Excerpts.
How long have you been in the fashion industry?
I’ve been into fashion since 2006. I started as a model as far back as 2004. I went into full fashion design and sketching. We started with customising t-shirts and we were even doing it for free then. But here we are today.
Our products are very affordable. We call them affordable luxury. The Gabriel Tosh brand is a motorsports and urban lifestyle brand. Before, it was an Afrocentric brand. We still have a little bit of Afrocentric infusion but we transitioned from the Afrocentric brand to the motorsports and urban lifestyle because the motorsports aspect had always been my thing from long time ago and I believe so much in the motor sport. I know that the Nigerian fashion industry has not really elevated the motorsports fashion and we are trying to bring in something new.
Most Nigerians that love motorsports buy other brands abroad and we are trying to do our own homegrown fashion line for motorsports. We’ve created a community for the motorsports fashion and we hope to expand it as much as we can, so that the foreign counterparts can also recognize us and then the international market can also buy and accept us fully.
My dream is to have one Gabriel Tosh product in every Nigerian home. So, we know that not everybody will be able to afford it if it’s too expensive but we intend to cloth people. Let them have access to this and make sure it is quality clothings.
Don’t you think that motorsport fashion is restrictive? Are there enough customers’ patronage for you to be able to make profit?
From my survey and my years of experience as a power biker, as a car racer and also a Formula 1 enthusiast, the people that love motorsports are way more than the people that engage in motorsports in Nigeria. For example, the fact that you watch football and love football doesn’t mean you need to play football. Football fans wear jerseys. So, there are a lot of motorsports fans in Nigeria.
There are a lot of people that love fast bikes and fast cars. They might not have the access to get one or ride one but you can also feel this emotions and relieve the moment when you have a t-shirt like a Formula One t-shirt or you are having a motocross GP long sleeve t-shirt or you’re having a racing pants or a denim that looks like a proper riding gear. It’s so fashionable. It’s something you can wear out to anywhere. Even the jackets are fashionable; so, that’s what we’re trying to do and there’s a market for it already. When we were selling the urban and afrocentric products and designs, when we were fully into it, we had a very heavy market but we had restrictions.
Because of my kind of lifestyle, I knew more people into motorsports and urban lifestyle, which was the main reason I started selling to my own community, the motorsports community. So, if I belong to a community, why don’t I just do what is in my community? Why would I want to do winter clothes while I’m in Nigeria?
If you are to wrap it in one word, the clients that’s your cater to; what will it be?
We cater to people that love freedom and want to express themselves in the most modest way. The brand doesn’t preach nudity or violence. We just want people that have the free spirit and want to express themselves, people that love Nigeria because our best seller so far, selling over 5,000 units is the Fortis Elite jersey.
It was a product that I took my time to design. I wanted something to really resonate and affiliate with Nigeria, if you are a Nigerian. While I was thinking of this t-shirt, it was when things were a little bit hard. I thought of it that business was hard for Nigerians; and then I was asking myself how we motivate ourselves?
I wanted a motivational item that speaks what we feel as a people. On the sleeve of that t-shirt, the write up says ‘Blood, Sweat and Goosebumps’. So, being a Nigerian, it takes blood, sweat and goosebumps and I’m proud to be Nigerian. And you should also be proud to be in Nigeria. We just wanted people to really accept Nigeria that we know. This is what it is. This is who I am and this is who I represent. It’s been our best seller. It took me like four months to come up with that.
So, there’s no piece of mine that doesn’t have a story behind it. Every cloth that we put out there is not just clothes. It’s not just there because we want to give people clothes to wear. No, there’s a story line behind it.
Fortis means ‘strong’ in Latin; which means strong elites. People said we should use strong elite but I said, no. Check our things and and do your findings. You must be somebody with vast knowledge and I study a whole lot.
I studied at the Olabisi Onabanjo University and one of my lecturers would always say ‘you must know something about everything’. That’s me. So, I do my research a lot. I also have a design team.
So, you talked earlier about a growing motorsports community. What’s the lifestyle of a typical motorsports fan?
The person must have some kind of adrenaline rush. You must have heavy self-control because if not, you would love motorsports to your grave. If you want to engage in it, there must be a level of expertise and control.
Do you come out to race too?
Yes, there are times that we just decide to come out to play. There are different events that bring us together. There’s an event I organised that we started last year. ‘Shop and rave’ is a motorsports lovers’ event. You come, you shop our products, motorsports products, and then you party. It’s always a very big event.
We’re putting a lot of energy into it this year, hoping that government would also support us. We also try to look for private sponsors and all that. But so far, so good, we love what we do. So, we can’t complain. It’s an expensive hobby but we love what we do.
You mentioned speed, and then you said self-control. Are they not contradicting one another?
You have the adrenaline rush and then you also have control. Yes, it’s just like saying why would there be a chef in the kitchen and the food is getting burnt or why would a chef be in the kitchen and the food is over seasoned.
The fact they are using so many spices does not mean the food should be over-spiced. It’s probably because he can control his excesses. Racing is about the driver, not the car.
Not the car?
Yes, you can have a Mercedes-Benz with a V8 engine, I can use a Corolla and I’ll fully beat you to it. The handling and expertise is very important. If you cannot control your speed, if you cannot control the vehicle you’re using, you should not be in that vehicle in the first place.
So how does it apply to you as a person and also to your business?
That is discipline. If you can think fast, you can drive fast. I don’t get into situations where I can’t get out of it. I have this mindset of whatever happens, keep moving. I’m not dwelling in on one spot asking why has this happened or anything.
If you find yourself in one tight corner, the next thing you should be looking for is your way out. So, while I’m driving, I’m not the boring driver that just sticks to one lane. I filter a lot of lanes. However, I took a break from riding to focus on the business although I didn’t leave the community. I will be back. I can’t leave the community. I’m too grounded. Before I took my break, I had been riding since 2006. But my latest bike before I stopped was a Tracer 9 GT 2022 model.
Back to Gabriel Tosh. How old is the brand?
When I started, I was running solo. Then, I transitioned into ‘Hush and Tush’ in the university until 2013.
‘Hosh and Tosh’ was my name; Tosin Oshinkoya and Henry Oshinkoya; my dad. He was an invisible partner and was always supporting behind the scenes.
Did you start racing back in school?
I didn’t started driving until I was in 400 level but the biking started with my father’s bricklayer. He had a Suzuki 90 and I introduced myself to it. So, back then in school, I had friends who had cars. I’m sure my father knew I was an experimentalist. So, he didn’t give me a car till I left school. Even though I had one, he didn’t let me take it to school. He said ‘you will probably go and knock yourself out, or you will have an accident’ because he knew who I am with automobiles.
How do you come up with the inspiration for your designs?
I tap my inspiration from deep thinking, life and my immediate environment. I talk to people a lot. Also, I’m someone that wants to know what is on people’s mind. I’m very curious. I am really a curious person. I don’t just sit on my ideology and just say ‘that’s it’. I’m not a rigid person. I look for knowledge as much as I can and I tap into other people’s pool of knowledge.
Are you having any runway or collection show soon?
Yes, I’m thinking about the 27th. We are dropping a jean collection; you get a riding pant.
So let’s just get this all. What do you work on?
We do Jerseys, jeans, Faze caps, biker gears, vests, polos, casuals, etc
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Where do you source your materials and can we call you made in Nigeria brand?
So, there are some local fabrics and there are some foreign fabrics. But then, the Nigerian textile market is not very strong. We are a made in Nigeria brand. The only thing we import is our t-shirts; custom made from China but every resource is made here, locally. We constantly get equipments to meet up the latest trends, because it’s very important not to become throwback. So, we try to look for the new print technologies and infuse it into our design. There are some of our shirts that you might see like five or six different techniques of prints. The brand is a very intentional one.
We want to give people what they would be very happy with. Not just wearing it because of the name.
Do you believe in what many fashion brands are doing now trying to promote Nigerian brand?
Well, promoting Nigerian fabrics is not bad. We have an Adire collection. We have an Adire T-shirt collection, an Adire pants’ collection, Adire shorts collection and it’s also one of our best sellers. I’m trying not to throw away couture.
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