Inspired by Hillbrow's tough, slick zero bu****it cosmopolitan community, Malume produces all-African men’s clothing for the progressive and well dressed. Our styling combines a spirited African flair with a hard-edged, sophisticated art-deco gangsterism to deliver a range of entirely unique casual shorts and ready to wear jackets. With a community of Africa’s best craftsman as our backbone Malum
e is in the business of tailoring premium quality, customised suits for the most refined patron. Hand-crafted using hand-selected, rare African fabrics from Nigeria, Malawi, Tanzania and across Africa, each Malume garment is entirely unique and never to be made again. Composed and overseen by a team of dedicated, obsessive professionals Malume is built on a philosophy of perfection and we guarantee exceptional quality while giving a finger to soulless Asian mass-production. Our birth, our passion
The Malume concept was born during fine-whiskey scented dreams at the top of the bottom of Africa, in penthouse apartments in the continent’s tallest residential building, Ponte. It is in the atrium of this building, our home, where the phrase ‘Malume’ is called out continually by the young children who, in respect, ask their ‘Uncles’ for permission to pass through Ponte’s turnstiles to Hillbrow’s streets. We are inspired by a community of hard-working Africans who have made the inner city their home, seduced by the promise of opportunity. We take cue from the stylish wheelers and dealers, from the urban ‘bosses’ who have moved up through the City’s ranks, from the hard-knocked who have learned to take no s**t. We feed off the vibrance of the City, it’s multiculturalism, its passion for life and its unapologetic opportunism. We love our city, it’s edge, it's beauty, it's attitude and we will dress it accordingly. The City is alive, its is the next generation. Our design, our ethic
We are a young team of open thinking entrepreneurs and innovators who reject classical capitalism as a dysfunct model in the new Africa. Malume is a give-a-f**k business which, at its core, is concerned by the inequality and abuse of the workforce which is becoming paradoxically ubiquitous in post-Apartheid South Africa . We don’t agree with maximising profitability by minimising the cost of human capital. We don’t agree that it is just for business owners to benefit to the extreme while labourers remain condemned to impoverishment. We don’t agree with lip-service Black Economic Empowerment. This is why we are pioneering a business model which is centred on the inclusion and empowerment of all those who are part of the growth of our brand - to create a business which is a community of contributors, not a hierarchy of owners, managers and staff. To this end the Malume business is built on a revenue and equity sharing philosophy whereby we have committed to a structure that allows for our tailors, seamstresses, craftsman and artisans to opt-in to earn direct ownership of the business in proportion to their contribution to its success through their labour. Malume is building an equity pool for its contributors which, over time, is envisaged to grow to own one third of Malume’s shares. This means that any contributor who is actively involved in Malume can earn shares in the business based on their relative contribution to Malume, measured in hours of work. The more you contribute, the more you own, the more you own, the more you prosper. Malume’s founders, managers and investors have committed to give-up equal proportions of their shares to the equity pool, held by contributors, over-time as the business grows. In this way Malume guarantees that its success will always equate to the personal success of its contributors, no matter what role they have played. By this structure Malume guarantees the labourers which produce its garments can never be exploited. At Malume we say up yours to the global sweatshop which has reduced employed textile labourers to some of the most destitute people on earth while collapsing textiles in Africa, resulting in mass unemployment, all so that consumers can dress themselves in cheap s**t. In addition to equity sharing, Malume intends to empower its tailors and craftsmen and to put its consumers back in touch with the origins of the garments they adorn through revenue sharing. Every Malume garment has been hand-crafted by someone with exceptional skill. That person has devoted his life to become among the best at what he does and has devoted his time to lovingly pour that skill into the clothes Malume’s patrons appreciate. Every Malume garment carries the signature of its creator, so that Malume’s patron’s know who has made their clothes. In this way Malume allows its contributors to earn as their creations sell - so a proportion of every Malume sale goes directly to its creator. Our Community, Our Future
Malume is part of Quasi-Independent (QI), a community of mutually owned, African-focused ethical fashion businesses. QI has been established based on the recognition that Africa is awash with extraordinarily talented textiles craftsmen, many of which are now in dire financial positions owing to the globalisation of industrialised textiles. As the key brands in QI: Malume and the Zanzibari styled Bouban grow, we are building a network, identifying the best talent in African textiles. As this network grows we intend to empower these craftsmen by giving them access to market through the Malume and Bouban brands and, eventually, through the establishment of a textiles production collective, the Ponte Factory Project.
