We recently connected with Mubarak Oyegunle and have shared our conversation below.

Mubarak, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Growing up, I’ve always had a creative spirit. When I was young, I would take random materials from the arts and crafts store, or whatever leftover school supplies my parents left in the house – and build stuff with it. For example, I took a bunch of popsicle sticks and made a wooden sword when I was 10 years old and I used to draw & write my thoughts on notebooks as a dairy. It wasn’t until I was 12 years old was when I got into the skill of graphic design. I got into graphic design because there was a game called Minecraft that was gaining massive popularity. This was in 2012. There were so many Minecraft Youtubers at the time that I used to watch. Watching these Minecraft Youtubers wanted to make me become a YouTube or of my own.
With that idea in mind, I started making Minecraft videos on YouTube. With YouTube, there are two main factors need of focus for your video. Number one is your thumbnail and number two is how entertaining your video is. At the time, I thought my videos were entertaining (looking back I digress ha-ha) so I thought the content would speak for itself. There was one issue though – I needed people to click on my videos. And to get them to click on the videos, I needed to make good thumbnails.
I didn’t know how to make a YouTube thumbnail so I would look at YouTube tutorials to figure out how to do it. From there, I got into graphic design & animating with Photoshop, GIMP, & Blender.
After I mastered the skill of making good YouTube thumbnails – for the time, I practiced with other forms of art. From YouTube logos and banners to random sketches. This was the steppingstone to my creative business ventures. I would make logos for friends and their YouTube channels, funny edits on YouTube, and other things I won’t name because they’re a bit too cringe. But I’m glad I went through it as if I had never experienced that portion in my life, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Not only from an artistic perspective, but from a personal growth standpoint. I think in life you must go through those cringy phases so that in the future – you introspect, see what you can take from that portion of your life that’s good, and eliminate the bad to continue self-improving.
Fast forward to high school. Coming up with a brand idea for ABRANT was unexpected to be honest. If it hadn’t been for a friend of mine, I met in high school, I wouldn’t have bothered to go about the idea.
To put it into context, it all started back in 10th grade when I was 16 years old. This was mid-2016. During this time, I had no awareness of fashion & streetwear. I was your ordinary teenager doing ordinary teenager activities. Things like playing video games, dreading homework, hanging out with friends, looking at memes on social media, and watching their favorite YouTuber. I was a nerd and didn’t really care about how people perceived me, what I dressed like, and what was “cool”. Till this day, I’m still that person, however possibly a more refined and mature version of that person.
Things changed when I met one of my friends named Patrick. I had met him freshman year of high school, but we never talked until we had Similar classes during 10th grade (sophomore year). We had AP government together. During this period Patrick got me into a lot of mainstream hip-hop culture. From Rapping to art, fashion, etc. When I was younger (below 16), I never really took a liking to that scene because I couldn’t relate to it. I don’t know what clicked, but I strongly gravitated towards it. maybe it was because of hormonal changes as a teenager or wanting to be cool. Or my previous interest in graphic design & YouTube. I’m not sure, but all I knew was that I liked it. From there, I got into the underground rap scene and “cloud rap” scene as well as streetwear/fashion. Patrick and I would hang out often after school, play videos games together and I even went to my first Rap festival/concert because of him. It was called Trillectro, it happened in summer 2016 at Columbia, MD. I got to see a couple of my favorite artists perform, from Lil Uzi to Kid Cudi. That experience alone made me want to do something to impact the world in a creative way. I thought to myself, if these guys could do it, why couldn’t I?
From this I started experimenting with my fashion and asking Patrick for insight and advice & vice-versa. As time went on, we would both evolve our styles. In this period, I got into thrifting and cut and sewing my own clothes. I posted some of my outfits and clothing I would cut and sew on the r/streetwear subreddit. Funny enough I would get received positively. This gave me enough confidence in my identity as a growing teenager. Knowing that I had a talent in something I enjoyed and other people appreciated.
It eventually got to a point where Patrick and I were discussing about clothing brands after school and we thought to ourselves, wouldn’t it be cool if we started our own clothing brand?
After we asked that question, we came up with a couple name ideas, but they were pretty lame. Later that day I went back home to brainstorm ideas. So, I went on Google and looked at words with cool meanings and I came across the word aberrant. The word ‘aberrant’ means “departing from an accepted standard.” I thought that sounded super cool.
It wasn’t even me trying to be edgy, or a rebel or anything – I genuinely thought being different was something I wanted to push & be the focus of Abrant. To be yourself. Not only yourself but your BEST self, and not care what other people think. So, from there I took the word aberrant, switched up the words a little bit and created ABRANT. Pronounced like croissant but with an A.
Days later, I told Patrick about this name idea, and he thought the name sounded really cool, so we went with it. But we never really went through with the idea of creating the brand until a year later in 2017. Patrick and I were entering our junior year of high school, so we were getting close to graduation. I took it upon myself to start conceptualizing ideas for the brand and logo and see how we can make this dream a reality. During that junior year, I would make one off designs for the brand logo that I would eventually scrap because I didn’t really like them. So, I put the ideas on a back burner until my senior year of high school. This is when things started to get rolling and I started to realize that I’m getting older, and I must make something for myself. I spoke to Patrick, and a couple friends to create the brand ABRANT. We all put up Money from our own pockets to start our first drop. Fast forward to December 2018, in my freshman year of college, our first drop was a success.
Unfortunately, everybody that put up investments for the brand had to focus on their own portions of life so they couldn’t put as much focus into it. Everyone had graduated high school and had to find their way in life. Some lost their interest in fashion & moved to something else. Some got jobs, some went to college, and some started their own thing. At the end of the day, I didn’t want the brand/idea to die. We had already invested so much time and energy into it. So, it was left to me to carry on the legacy on everyone’s behalf. From there it’s history – you know how the brand is now. That’s the beginning of ABRANT. As a 22-year-old man today, I’m glad I went though all these trials and tribulations because it wouldn’t make not only me who I am today, but my friends as well that assisted me on this journey.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Mubarak Oyegunle. I’m a first-generation Nigerian immigrant. I was born there, moved to the USA when I was 4 and everything’s history from there. I got into this business when a friend I met in high school named, Patrick, shared his interest of art and design to me. Particularly towards music and streetwear-fashion culture.
The products and services we provide are creative Directing services such as short films, music videos, & clothing. The problem we solve for our clients is teaching them how to be their best selves. Everybody is living, but not everybody’s striving for greatness. You only have one life, so at the end of the day, why not try to be your best self? After all, nobody is going to care about your life more than you do, so why not take advantage of the time we have alive?

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was maintaining an ego for my own sake. Not everything in life is all about you, and sometimes letting go of your pride and ego can take you far. Seeing everybody as a threat Isn’t a healthy way of living. You go far in life if you have some humility and open mindedness.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We built our audience on social media by consistency posting, making good products, & creative ideas. If you’re good at something, it’s going to get seen If you post it on social media. Sometimes it’s not a matter of IF you’ll blow up, but WHEN you’ll blow up and gain traction off what you do. Social media algorithms capitalize on aesthetically pleasing content & audience interest/viewing patterns. If you make something that’s good, it’ll be seen. Social media capitalizes on what people like. In whatever niche you’re in, if you can make products that other people like, as well as find a middle ground of what you enjoy creating, you’ll go far. But not as far as if consistency is at play. In short, be consistent, and post GOOD STUFF.

Contact Info:

• Website: abrant.co
• Instagram: @Ssoloin
• Linkedin: Mubarak Oyegunle
• Twitter: @DaSoloin
• Youtube: ABRANT

Image Credits
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