DO YOU KNOW WAINAO?
A project born in a dressing room
…....Our story began few years ago in Paris. A friend of us just fell in love with a young woman he met before, and decided to go to a party where she was supposed to be. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to talk too much because the music would be loud, so he really needed to wear a tshirt that would keep her attention and display the best part of his personality. He wanted to show his love for ART, for HISTORY, his SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS, his ORIGINALITY, wanted to look FUN…and all that looking good of course. The problem was that he wanted to say too much with just a tee shirt. All the friends present agreed that there was no cloth on the market that could do that !!!... it was a defining moment because we knew from that point that something needed to be create.. How is it possible that people spend hours and hours on social medias to try to tell others who they really are, and dismiss what is the first (and often the only) thing that people will see from you? People would never put a bad pic for their IG or SNAP profile..but they accept to wear a low quality tee shirt that everybody has, for 35$ +the shipping, with just a swoosh or 3 poor stripes on it. ..There was not a market.., there a new world to create.
The art and history accessible to everyone thanks to T-shirts
The 1ST CHALLENGE was to make the link between those 3 community : people who got something really interesting to say, people who really got the ability to catch the attention of an audience..and the majority of people who just ask for knowledge but want to do it in a fun way and being able to share that experience with others.
THE 2ND CHALLENGE was to keep the same level of excellence we demand on our website, for the tee shirt part, depsite not being a tee shirt brand. We needed to put that great content on a premium quality tee shirt, printed on both faces with a great package ....
THE LAST CHALLENGE was to make our consumers part of the process and to allow them to customize 90% of the tee shirt.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !!..don't ask how...we have our secrets.
We always dreamed of a large-scale discussion platform like INTERNET, whose promise is to connect people. That’s the case but its strength is also its limit.. INTERNET created two separate worlds.The real one and the virtual one. In one you got 62 240 friends and in the other you go to the movie and celebrate your birthday by yourself. People are thirsty to exchange and debate with others in REAL LIFE. For us, this is the next step and we see ourselves as the first of entire new generation of companies. We have created a short format accessible to all. Our project is transversal to all areas of our society (religion, politics, sports, movies, music, philosophy, etc ...). We are the only brand talking about Charles DARWIN and TUPAC, SYLVIE GUILLEM then the WAR OF IRAK.
The project WAINAO is an invitation to the opening, the permeability of the groups. The goal of each wainao is to create an exchange between people: the house painter and the financial advisor, the priest and the collective of rappers, cleaning woman and the police officer etc ...There is only one place where all these people intersect: The street, so this is where we will be and that’s why we choose to decline this project on a website AND on tee shirts.
We started with a t-shirt, that not only displays works of artists on the same creation, but also creates an interaction between the people who wear it and others. The meeting between history and fashion is the meeting of a very serious thing with something more superficial. The idea is to give people something to think about and a great opportunity to discuss but a slight way. Do something seriously does not mean to take it too seriously. We will not upset the world with t-shirts. Our ambition is just (and that’s already big to offer people something playful, intelligent, cool and called sharing.)
Originally a group of friends passionate about sharing and discussion
Abdou, Philippe Benita, JP, Mo', Stan, Sista and Christian ... We are a group of friends who know each other for many years, and who has chosen to come together around a project whose heart is freedom of opinion and speech ... Guinea, Argentina, France, Senegal, Sierra Leone. We got diverse nationalities, of course, very different aspirations ... But if there is one thing we have in common is that excessive taste for debate, discussion,
Trigger controversy and questioning
The idea is to shed new light on past events known or unknown, putting forward opinions or speeches that we are not used to hear.. To some extent, the controversy, that is to say, a questioning, an abundance of contrary and diverse ideas, is for us the nature of art and that is how we see our work. We hope to encourage debate, discussion, the idea is not to impose our views but to allow more diverse opinions.
An independent and totally free initiative
WAINAO IS FIRST AND FORMEOST AN MEDIA COMPANY, whose goal is to create and distribute content on any support. We have no ties or partnerships with any company or individuals: we therefore enjoy full freedom of tone. When other medias are entitled to different inerest and are not allowed to talk about certain people or subjects, we have absolutley no boundaries. The sensitivities of each other? "We respect .........But we do not care." We just say what we think, what we want, and the way we want. Only count the relevance and originality of the subject.
We do not have definitive opinion on all subjects, within the team, very often, we agree, to disagree and that's what certainly contributes to our quality working. The strength of WAINAO is that you can have 2 articles that support the exact opposite positions and never be in contradiction with the philosophy of the project, which is not find the right opinion but just to expose divers point of views. We embarrass the least of moral considerations. More so that the subject is really the approach angle that interests us. The only rule we set ourselves is: "Say something special or in a particular manner, otherwise, shut up and listen !! "
WAINAO can not make something that everybody loves…but WAINAO will make sure that everyone finds something that he loves !!!
