This is truly where the journey started for Busanimen.

Previously known as “Busani the Cut”, we focused our brand on selling and tailoring well-fitted suits for graduates at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa. Other services included men’s styling and grooming.
We identified a huge gap in the market when fashion influencers began wearing skinny jeans. The trend was to fold the bottom of their paints to make them look shorter at a three-quarter length. This made us believe that the same mindset would follow in the formal fashion industry and we decided to become a brand that would go on and pioneer the future.

We had no premises when we started. We opted to position ourselves as a service rather than a product based in a store. This allowed us to conduct fittings anywhere where our clients felt comfortable. We did fittings at restaurants, in their homes, at their place of work, and sometimes in public bathrooms in malls. I would agree that some of these places made us feel uncomfortable but the end product made up for the dreaded experiences sometimes.

We first marketed ourselves through posters, our first batch of posters cost R120.00 for 100 posters, and the response form was quite extraordinary. We further continued to conduct photoshoots in downtown Johannesburg and posted pictures on Facebook and Instagram.

As we had no premises, we held our stock in the boot of our cars. Our inventory management system was the notebook on our phones, and all three of us had a book of clients that we serviced separately. Things were tough I should say, but we made it happen and we made some decent money at that.

Our business was been built on a strong Brotherhood system and a consistent journey. We help each other accountable at all times and sometimes swore at one another when we were messing up. We motivated each other  and had each other’s back when orders were piling up. We believed in each other and pushed boundaries only to make ourselves strong. This is truly what the brand stands for today and will for generations to come.