industry profile: mOjO Snowboarding

When seeing for the first time mOjO stuff, you might get remembered of other fancy products like from Cleptomanic or others, but mOjO is still, way more different. It’s personal and it’s real. But we’re not there yet ..one of the main characteristics of mOjO Snowboarding is, that its products are hand made! The guys over at Hamburg, Germany do support local action sports athletes (mainly snowboarders), but don’t even want to get hooked up with all the Torsteins and Halldørs out there. mOjO is more about family and keeping it real. ShredOn Magazine caught up with the brain behind the sketchy Hamburg label and had a chat to find out, what is behind all this. Read on..

ShredOn Mag: Hey André, how are you?

André Gießelmann: I’m pretty fine thanks. What about you? I just got a shit load of work to do ..but the winter can seriously come now. I’m excited and as you can see – painting right now. Where we would be just on the topic..

SOM: Right! Tell me please, what’s the deal with mOjO Snowboarding?

AG: mOjO Snowboarding is a handmade streetwear and snowboarding label. But the special thing is, that the stuff gets painted by hand really.

SOM: What do you mean, like throwing some water color on it and that’s it?

AG: Also possible. No, but ours is „just a bit“ more professional, haha. We pick high quality raw pieces from other labels, like Continental Clothing or sometimes even American Apparel, take the oldschool way our brush and our blueprints and go for it. And also everything on a fair-trade basis.

SOM: Everything?

AG: Well, there’s still a bunch of hoodies which are not, but the rest: yeah, is all fair-trade.

SOM: Sweet! But how did all this start? Did you wake up one day and thought: „Damn, wouldn’t it be nice to launch an apparel brand, which has got fair-trade stuff?!„

AG: Before my studies in Braunschweig in 2006, I worked as an animator in Spain, or as a snowboard instructor in Saalbach. During that time I did some shirts for my own and some times some of my friends, but no biggie. The kids I was teaching how to ride, were stoked by my shirts and also wanted to have them. So I made a few bugs during college, what clearly didn’t get me so that I could live from that. The other job was the one behind the bar. The thing is just, that I sold my shirts to my friends also during work, which also affected a bit my work flow and everything and the boss wasn’t that happy with that. When he found out, I got fired and there I was. A friend of mien, who’s good with websites hooked me up and asked me to try on the shirts. He would make me the website and everything and we would see where it goes. My friends promoted the whole thing by wearing the shirts and spreading the word for mOjO and that’s how things got started.

SOM: Quite some story, haha.

AG: Yeah, indeed. All this started with the webstore around 2007 then.

SOM: So you’re already roughly 5 years in the game. What were the next steps?

AG: We did a couple of promotions during Christmas time, which was pretty good, because of the whole fair-trade thing and organized a bunch of mOjO club parties, which were the bomb in Braunschweig back then!

SOM: I heard you guys did also a trip overseas to New York to promote, or what?

AG: Well, not really to promote. It was more a trip like everyone else would do it. That friend of mine and me. We carried something like 50 shirts with us and gave them to all kind of people we met on the streets, even a snowboarder once!

SOM: In NYC?

AG: Yeah, some local. I don’t know. The thing is that we shot with the people on the streets and everywhere else, where we found someone to give them some shirts and put a rad edit together of that footage (check below).

SOM: Sounds fun, haha. Cool idea. Did anything change during these years at mOjO’s?

AG: No way. We got our image, our style and that’s how mOjO should be. We stay real.

SOM: So, how does that work, when I want to order a shirt or something?

AG:  We got the webstore for that. You pick your shirt, hoody, or whatever you want and then pick the colors for the customzable elements. Background color or other elements in particular, but that depends on the product. The thing is that on this way, everyone who purchases somehting, gets an one-of-a-kind shirt for example, with a personal story behind. That makes the complete thing more personal and people like that, instead of going to your online-retailer, putting all in your basket, paypal the shit and wait for delivery.

SOM: What about local dealers? Is mOjO getting into the local shops or something?

AG: There were some shops we tried in the beginning, but the problem is that because of our handmade style, logistics and price politics make it quite complicated to get into a Planet-Sports or something, but we’re working on that for next year maybe.

SOM: You also got „a team“ right?

AG: Yeah, basically it is snowboarders, but we also got some Eisbach surfers in there, but talking about snowboarders, there would be Floh Achenrainer for example, or a new 15-year old young gun called Tjark Fritsch. We try to give something back and are not lokoing forward for any big names out there. That would carry the label to a complete different level, which also influences the spirit a bit and that’s not where we want to go really.

SOM: So, people can find shirts, hoodies and beanies at mOjO’s, right? What about some neckwarmers or real snowboarding outerwear? You also released your new winter line recently, right?

AG: Neckwarmers are definitely an idea, same as outerwear. The issue here is just, that outerwear has to include technical features, which make it damn difficult with our fair-trade philosophy as you can imagine. But this is also something where we want to try and learn new things in the long run definitely. The new winter line got released just a week ago, yeah and we’re super stoked about it. It’s the biggest one we’ve ever had so far and you can customize new things in it.

SOM: Like?

AG: As the twines for the hoodies for example or the image, which goes with the shirt in some cases.

SOM: That sounds cool.

AG: It is!

SOM: I might get for our team some stuff as well, who know ..haha. André man, thank you so much for your time and the interview here with us.

AG: Thanks to you guys for having me here!

SOM: You’re welcome! Any shoutouts, or last words?

AG: Thanks to all my friends, my girl friend and my family for all the support so far people!

SOM: Alright, we wish you all the best for mOjO André and keep up the good work!

AG: Thanks man, you guys too!

SOM: PEACE!

To get one of these gnarly mOjO pieces, check out the webstore, or go directly to the website!

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