When you think of sportswear, it’s easy to focus on performance or style—but MIZIZI takes it a step further, fusing fashion with cultural identity. Founded in 2015 by Paakow Essandoh, MIZIZI is a global sportswear brand that’s all about celebrating African roots and creating a deeper connection for the African diaspora. The brand’s name, which means "roots" in Swahili, speaks to its mission: reminding people of their cultural origins and allowing them to proudly express that through fashion.
At just 20, while pursuing a degree in health science at the University of South Florida, Paakow started what has now become a movement that transcends traditional clothing lines. MIZIZI isn’t just about jerseys or streetwear—it’s about connection, celebration, and representation. The brand has grown significantly under Paakow’s leadership, collaborating with major platforms like Forbes and Vogue while becoming the go-to streetwear brand for people across the diaspora.
In this conversation with Paakow, we dive into his journey, experiences and the brand’s mission to highlight cultural identity.
Growing up between Ghana and the U.S., how did your cultural experiences shape your identity and influence your journey?
It's been tough. From a young age, I never felt like I was Ghanaian enough for Ghanaians or American enough for Americans, I couldn't fit in all the way. I realised that at a young age, I kind of turned it into a superpower where I would do my best to adapt to the audiences that I was around. And it was a way for me to fit in and build community. As I've gotten older and especially with building MIZIZI, I've learned the power of accepting different facets of your identity and knowing and recognising that we're layered and that we're diverse. There's no static identity, it's just a collage of all these different ones. And yeah, I've turned it into a superpower and it has allowed me to communicate and work with communities from all over the continent, whether it be South Africa or Ethiopia or wherever the case may be.

I understand the need to camouflage when you get to certain areas but I think that these are experiences that come together in the future and you're able to build on.
So what would you say were some of your passions and interests at the time when you were growing up and how it has now, transferred into what you do at the moment?
It's hard because I wouldn't say that MIZIZI stemmed from any hobbies of mine. A bit of background; I'm an only child of a single parent. It's always been just me and my mum and we've bounced around from state to state and in each of the different locations that we lived in, I've learned to be really independent. And since then, I've always founded or started new businesses, being a little lucrative. I liked to start different things, whether it was selling magazines at school or selling candy or a trash service at my apartment where we were living in Texas. And I had a small background in fashion in high school.
I used to do a lot of graffiti and I turned one design into a t-shirt. Throughout that process, I learned a lot about just fabrics, prints, and price points. By the time I got to USF and went to Florida for college, I was going down a route for pharmacy, but I truly wasn't happy. And it was actually a Kenyan who convinced me to lean more into my entrepreneurial self. If you know anything about Kenyans they can be very endeavorous people and he showed me that it's okay to take a path less travelled. So it was just having those backgrounds where I've started small businesses here and there and having knowledge on printing on shirts, the price points, and what the cost would need to be in order to start something in regards to a clothing line or fashion brand. I decided to lean into it after that freshman year and nine years later it's evolved into what it is today.
We know sports are a really big deal in Africa, football, etc. It’s great to see that representation of the African roots and the culture, but what role does your personal connection with Ghana and the diaspora play within your designs and your brand in general?
I think that MIZIZI gave me an outlet to connect deeper with my Ghanaian roots. Growing up in different states, although my mom spoke Twi [a popular Ghanaian language] at home, I'm just going to call it what it is, I rejected my culture in the beginning. And it wasn't until I got older that I started accepting myself more and becoming more and more proud of it. So MIZIZI has allowed me to connect with Ghanaians deeply, making them proud of me. I feel accepted more, and I have built that community that I didn't necessarily feel like I had while I was growing up.

That makes sense. How do you keep that cultural significance fresh and authentic in every drop or every collection?
I get a little obsessive when it comes to finding cultures. Whenever we decide on a country that we're going to explore, I try to really learn what I can about the current pop culture, the history, and how one thing became what it is today. And at the end of the day, it's really just talking to people that are from these countries, getting to actually know them, learning about them, their histories, their families, going to events with them, sharing food and breaking bread with them. You have to be a genuine friend and appreciate these cultures in order for it to translate authentically through the content, the designs and the visuals that we put out for each campaign.
It all starts with just taking an interest in the culture and then doing absolutely everything that you can to learn about it, to appreciate the small aspects to where you finally get deep enough to learn their inside jokes and their easter eggs, every culture has those. And we try to make sure that we're reflecting that within how we're talking about or just going about the campaign so that people can truly feel seen and it doesn't feel like we're just appropriating their culture.
That makes perfect sense. And it even bleeds into what I wanted to mention next, that you often highlight significant movements in your jerseys like the Mattar blue jersey for Sudan. So how do you see these drops or collections or see fashion in general as a tool for supporting social change and honouring these moments?
Being transparent, we can do a better job of highlighting different movements. In the past, navigating some of these lines have been tricky because when you're trying to represent an entire culture, you recognise there are multiple sides and multiple nuances in conflict, to begin with.
So we've tried to take a more neutral approach, but still show that we do have a stance and wrong is wrong and injustice anywhere is an injustice at home. We try to make sure that we're still supporting, and we're still on the right side of history, but I'm not going to act like we've done the loudest job that we possibly could. We've faced a bit of backlash in the future or in the past regarding some campaigns that although were supposed to be representing the entire diaspora or representing something for an entire country, the root of some of these conflicts are tribal. So when you pick a side, it comes off as picking one person over another.
Seeing as countries in Africa are very diverse, with different tribes and different opinions, I see how that could be a problem. How do you plan on navigating that going forward?
I think we've told ourselves that for any movement or any political conflict that we get behind, we want to make sure that we're well-researched before we take a loud stance on it. And doing more to talk to people from these communities so that we're getting nuanced opinions and the true perspective as opposed to one perspective which may be loudest on social media. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to talking to people and actually getting to know them, getting to know why they feel the way they do so that you're able to see what may not necessarily always be displayed online.

I see this as a learning curve or a learning experience for the brand and for yourself. What other learning experiences have you had as an entrepreneur with your brand or with any other work you've done in the past?
I think in the beginning we were trying to release as many jersey designs for as many countries as possible. And when you try to do that and when you rush things, they don't come out as quality as they could be. I think early in MIZIZI’s journey that was the approach that we had taken. Because of this, we've made mistakes. We've not fully appreciated the entirety of cultures or just came from a tone-deaf perspective. As we've grown older, we've recognised the importance of actually getting the community involved anytime we're rolling out these campaigns which includes talking to them, getting ideas, including their work with their approvals, working with different designers and getting their feedback or design perspective on how one thing may look as opposed to another.
And truly befriending people from these communities. What it all comes down to is how you can connect with someone on a deep enough level to where the work that you put out makes them feel seen. And I think as we've gotten older, we've gotten better at doing so.
The only flaw is that it's forced us to take just a slower approach to some of our rollouts. I'd rather make a small group happy and feel like they're truly seen versus a large group that just accepts something that's mid or subpar just because they're trying to ride a hype wave or trend.
So for you as an entrepreneur, what are some of the lessons you'll say you've learned?
I've learned that communication is literally everything. Businesses are just people to people and people do business with people that they like. You have to talk to your customers, you have to talk to your team, you have to have talks with yourself and make sure that you're coming from a stable or just an unbiased place or perception.
Growing up as an introvert, I would shy away a lot from putting myself out there, having those hard conversations or even speaking in general. So with entrepreneurship, it's kind of forced me to grow into that role where I'm okay with speaking to people. I'm okay with sharing my mind, my thoughts, and my opinions so that I'm able to get a more fruitful and well-rounded perspective back, especially when I am rolling out products that represent different types of cultures and different types of people. And all that to say, it all truly boils down to the communication and the depth of the conversations that you're having.
It's super important. I mean that's why we're having such conversations. I know you've worked with a couple of brands and global platforms like HypeBeast. How do you think collaborations help your brand and the impact you want to have within Africa and the diaspora?
The power of collaborations is that you're able to leverage each other's reach. Working with different companies that may have a bigger speaker phone to amplify a message, you're able to help portray those stories or those cultures to a louder audience or a louder network versus one that may just be your own. I truly think that's the power of collaborations. It allows you to tap into larger markets and tell those stories with help. And I recognise that with MIZIZI, I want to continue this. Although it's been a few years since we had our last collaborations, we've actually been talking to a few companies to see what we can do about amplifying some of those lesser-known stories so that African stories can be told on a global scale with genuine African input in them.
I love that. What new collaborations, projects or collections are you excited about this year or next year?
I can't share the names of the collaborations that we have yet, but I will say we're talking to companies within the sports, music and travel industries. All to help tell African stories on a larger scale. And ultimately, as we look towards 2026 and 2028 with the World Cup and the Olympics coming to the States, we're going to see what we can do to get involved. For new collections, there's something coming this year. We’ve got something in the works.
That's exciting. Last one, If you could choose any creator or designer in fashion, music, art, or film, who could be dead or alive, to collaborate with, who would it be?
I’m mostly inspired by my peers. I learned that your heroes are still people at the end of the day. It's the people that I keep around me that are truly inspiring me. And I want to give a shout-out to, we're not blood, but he's my little brother. His name is Aaron Lawson. He's an incredible kid. He's one of the most talented cinematographers that I've met. His work ethic always shows me "All right, keep it up, keep working harder." So yeah, I think that Aaron is one. He's younger, but I learn so much from him all the time.

I love that. Shows even more, the power of community. Lastly, what's in store for the future at MIZIZI?
I would just say just be on the lookout. we've had to have some internal changes, some structural changes, but we're working. As we're getting older, we may not necessarily always have jerseys available for every country. So this year we're really trying to hone hard on customisations and allowing people to get those one-of-one designs for their country so that they too can feel represented regardless of where they're at and where they're from.
That's really nice. Thank you very much, Paakow. It’s been a pleasure speaking to you.
Images credit: MIZIZI shop and Paakow Essandoh