Swazi Jive ®

Men's online Catalogue

2012-02-09T18:17:00.000-08:00

READ IT LIKE A NORMAL BOOK or use this link if it is not clear Online Catalogue-February

The Story of Hope - Nathaniel James

2012-02-08T05:21:00.000-08:00

Swazi Jive music has a story to share with you this month. A story about a young boy called Nathaniel James. Many of you living in Swaziland,more specifically the capital city probably know Nathaniel, who is better known on the streets as "Mtanya" a name he got for his sweet guitar skills. Nathaniel James met the Swazi Jive team while we were chilling at a restaurant and he came over to our table and captured our hearts with his guitar.

After listening to all the good music we began to talk to Nathaniel and realised that this shy yet talented young boy had bigger dreams than playing for the public at bus ranks and restaurants. Nathaniel shared that he made music for two main reasons 1. in order to raise money for school fees so he can complete form three 2. have a music career greater than Zahara's, but other well-known musicians and managers were hindering his success by exploiting him (making him perform for free and claiming they own him when they really didn't). In my eyes this is a person Swazi Jive music represents, a person that dreamsBIG no matter what. Swazi Jive has since decided to help this young boy achieve his goals with the little resources the brand has access to.

This video aims to show you random clips that we managed to take while introducing Nathaniel to Thandwa and it also aims to capture the emotion this young boy shows when he plays. Nathaniel will make his first radio interview soon!...watch this space

To Play or Download a track composed by Nathaniel Featuring Thandwa (Swazi Jive singer) use the link below

https://www.reverbnation.com/thandwatm

Getpaper - The Hustlers Design

2012-02-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

The most simple and yet effective design this month. Real Hustlers can relate

The New Official fitted caps

2012-01-31T02:35:00.000-08:00

AVAILABLE NOW

News Paper Article on latest partnership

2012-01-20T01:15:00.000-08:00

Blaque Creations partners with Swazi Jive

Exclusive Clothing T-shirt Design

2012-01-20T00:52:00.000-08:00

Inspired By The New Swazi Jive Baseball Caps

You Come Up With the Ideas, They just replicate

2012-01-19T01:15:00.000-08:00

It's Becoming More Evident That Other Clothing Brands In Swaziland Gain inspiration From Swazi Jive clothing..

In this issue: “SOFresh”, “Gauzen”, “Sgonian republik” and the others I never remember….oh yea “IREP Swaziland”

The purpose of this blog-spot is to give our viewers and customers aninsight into the life of the Swazi Jive team. The trials and tribulations ofbuilding such a fantastic brand will be shared no matter how controversial.

So 2012 ishere and most people just couldn’t wait for me to express my feelings on twobig things 1.What I think about the progress we made in 2011 and 2. How I feelabout the other clothing brands in Swaziland….well today you’ll get an idea butI won’t say everything I think cause I try not to curse on this site…F*CK THEMwould really sum up my thoughts but I won’t say that…its sooo unprofessional hehe

Last yearwas a slow year for all of us involved in building the Swazi Jive empire mainlybecause the brand was run by young & innovative individuals that were stillat school. Although this was the case we still managed to create exceptionalclothing concepts for Southern Africa without releasing any clothing whatso-ever, but the other brands (if we must call them that) still fell shortafter releasing one or two vests or t-shirts with “Swazi” something printed on themwhich brings me to the point of writing this article.

Let me takeyou back to 2010 so you understand this point. Two years ago we appeared onboth national newspapers selling the Swazi Jive concept to the kingdom, it wasvery simple : we were building a brand that would be the pride of Swaziland,influenced by local music to create artistic elements that are placed onclothing and then taking it beyond that point to make it a lifestyle brand,hence “Music.Art.Style”….basically there was no one else in Swaziland who had everplaced the word “Swazi” on merchandise as a brand but instead Swaziland couldonly floss traditional wear that had quickly become monotonous & franklythe tourists were tired of seeing the same thing every time they came here.That was our selling point, Swazi Jive, we developed the concept and after ashort period of time we had gained far more popularity than existing brands inSwaziland such as Gauzen who had been selling t-shirts since I was probably ingrade 3 and this guy hasn’t even bumped into sneakers, yet alone a cap, noprogress.

Now as I satat home one day, fresh from hostel I got an invite on facebook from a brand I highlyrespect called SO Fresh (Swazi Origin Fresh)….at first I was like oh cool, thenI started realizing they were now selling the same concept to people as wewere, The “Swazi” brand and they just had a photo shoot, perhaps the secondbrand in Swaziland to do one after us. Then I jotted SO Fresh down as potentialcompetition in my notebook because they had done everything so well, and I believein market oriented businesses. They endorsed well known artists as we had donewith DJ Tendaness and I started seeing the girls that went crazy over uswearing SO Fresh t-shirts, they replicated our concept well. I couldn’t complainit just got us working harder as you can see.

In contrast,there are other brands in SD that are pulling all the work done by the premium brands back e.g “Irep Swaziland” “ Manyosi wear” “Sgonian republik” who don’t even deserve thefree marketing they are receiving right now…The sad part is they all trying tosell the “Swazi” brand to people in the most horrific manner… in other words,horrific designs, horrific marketing and horrific clothing which ultimatelyleads to what people see most when they come to Swaziland mainly because thesehorrific brands are the ones that print in horrifically high quantities. If I don’tstop now I’ll probably curse but you get the idea.

On thepositive side we will continue working hard to produce clothing you can placein your closet next to Ecko and Ama Kip Kip without it looking awkward. To dothat we recently got office space so everyone works efficiently and crushes anycompetition that arises. Once again, the first clothing Brand in Swaziland tohave headquarters, watch this space.

Swazi Jive Baseball Caps - simply F.R.E.S.H

2012-01-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

Official Wallpaper.Download It Now

BUY the cap online & get it delivered

(service will only be available in 48hrs on swazemarket.com)

On-Line Shop!

2012-01-18T04:09:00.000-08:00

Another initiative involving the Swazi jive marketing team.

Swazi Jive clothing will be available on-line on this site.

YnV to perform Makhulu Baas to show Brick n Lace how we do it in SD

2011-12-31T01:37:00.000-08:00

Yung Zii and Viruss will perform a set of 3 songs tonight at the first class event at Cafe Mogambo in Swaziland. One of the songs they will perform includes the hit single "Makhulu Baas" ..

Also related to the brand , our close friend DJ Tendaness will be performing alongside the international stars after a successful show on channel O bassment yesterday.

If you are in Swaziland the place to be is the Cintron X-Over party and if you want to see more local artists delivering good music make sure you are at the S.T.O.R.M festival.

Look out for more shows in 2012 which will include YMn and Calliber!

Kingz Of Swagg II - The first official design for 2012

2011-12-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

after months of preparation and tweaking I finally decided the best time for this design is 2012. There is a story behind every design made for Swazi Jive and all I can say is that this one was heavily influenced by the uprising that was planned for April 2011 in Swaziland. This design speaks for itself and definitely represents the lifestyle of the alpha male.

It will be available in limited colours and in limited quantities at a retail price above E320.00 for sure . so it's definitely not everyone that will afford to look like you once you got it.

available in South Africa and Swaziland. Shipping arrangements with customers can be made

Fireworks Show - Sound Check by YnV

2011-12-18T07:59:00.001-08:00

Millenium Park Behind the scenes through the eyes of s'kay

VIP pass - Your radio show by Swazi Jive music

2011-12-05T12:43:00.001-08:00

Excited To Have Our Radio Show back on air.listen close next week

Music
Fashion Guru
Latest News/entertainment
Interviews
Topic of the day e.g "Is it right to have more than one gf/bf?" where listeners can call in / respond via social networks!

Tendaness The DJ on Channel O Bassment

2011-12-02T09:44:00.001-08:00

Reppn FDO,Swazi Jive music and Swaziland as a whole.Well done boi

This one is for all the believers.This one is also for all the non-believers.s'kay

2011-11-26T04:48:00.001-08:00

Swazi Jive music simplicity....Building an empire bit by bit

2011-11-24T09:57:00.001-08:00

Designed YMN's mixtape cover.Swazi Jive's simplicity seems to be paying off everyday

2011-11-24T09:36:00.001-08:00

Trying to be more interactive with our fans...encouraging entrepreneurial thinking amongst the youth.

Education versus Chasing Your Dreams

2011-10-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

Ithink education limits your creativity and closes doors to rare opportunities.

It trains you to think critically and only opens doors to "safe" opportunities..s'kay

The purpose of this blog-spot is to give our viewers and customers andinsight into the life of the Swazi Jive team. The trials and tribulations ofbuilding such a fantastic brand will be shared no matter how controversial.

It’s been long since I updated the Jive Blog and I blame itall on a great foundation named Allan Gray. I have been away on a camp alongsideSouthern Africa’s greatest young thinkers in the city of gold (Johannesburg,South Africa) where I must say I gained knowledge way more valuable than thegold itself. I was in the midst of great thinkers such as Julian Hewitt (AllanGray Fellowship Director), Boiketlo Mphahlele (St May’s Diocesan School forGirls, South Africa) ,Bilali Mwayeya (Maru-a Pula School, Botswana) just tomention a few. I was able to attend this camp because of my consistent academicperformance but more importantly my will and passion to be a world-classentrepreneur in Africa. During this camp I learnt a lot more from ourconversations on our bunk beds than I did during the classes. As we talked, Irealized something; I wouldn’t have made it to this prestigious camp if I neverstarted Swazi Jive because my grades were zilch compared to the other people’saggregates of 94% in subjects like physics. I began appreciating my decision tostart chasing my dreams at an early age because it has become my very ownunique selling point…

Many people like me have dreams to start and runmulti-national companies while others have dreams to be great musicians (e.gTendaness The DJ) while someone else may wish to be a Basketball player, butwhy is it that we all go to schools that run the same education system where subjectsare already prioritized for us? Maths and English being the most essential andthe arts (which require more creativity and encourage lateral thinkingconstantly) are seen as less important. We are taught in schools as if we are alldestined to be “the same person”, judged using the same grading systems even thoughwe all have completely different aspirations and abilities. I think this is thebiggest dream killer in today’s generation since the grades we receive inschool are erroneously believed to be the determining factor on how much onewill achieve in their life, Bad Grades suggesting you are nothing but a failureand Good grades suggesting you have a bright future ahead. The sad truth is , peoplebelieve this!

I started Selling At School during Break and during events like the fete and we called it "hustling"...I never missed classes just to do this though!

Now if this was entirely true we wouldn’t have greatentrepreneurs like Richard Branson (who is “dyslexic”) and I certainly wouldn’thave started Swazi Jive, considering that the year it was founded I was a “C”student in Business Studies. This basically taught me that there is nocorrelation between your dreams and school grades, and many success stories arethere to prove it, and you are currently witnessing one in the making. Duringthe camp in Johannesburg we were taught to “think out the box” which basicallymeans avoiding the conventional ways of thinking we are taught in schoolsbecause in reality it doesn’t matter how many pages you can memorize and recallin a test. Your success encompasses way more than that, ambition being one ofthe top traits. So the point I’m basically driving to is that you shouldn’t bediscouraged by poor performances in school nor am I saying that performingbadly is fine!..Education is an integral part of anyone’s life. It is thereason why I can write this blog and you can read it!...and on a larger scaleit can be the reason why you get your dream job due to the opportunities thatkeep presenting themselves when you have an education.

One thing education doesn’t teach you is which opportunityto grab. Go with your hunch and stop trying to think critically every time youwant to start something. The habit of trying to make sure everything is perfectis what prevents many people from starting what ever they wish, just do it!(like Nike). When Swazi Jive started there was no pool of capital to splash andwhen HP (Hewlett Packard) started there was no business plan! This proves thatsometimes we all just have to take a leap of faith and pray that it all comestogether in the end regardless of the expectations others have set for us.s’kay

I Hate The (Swazi) Media

2011-09-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Why Swazi Jive will probably not be seen doing a profile in our belovednewspapers again......Lindelo Dlamini

First things first.. for Media,read “Newspapers” since I have more of abone to pick with this section of the media in Swaziland above the rest, andjust in case your already pulling a face and thinking “ungrateful brats, themedia made you!” think again. Swazi Jivewas placed on our hands by God (yes we are Christian, no illuminati businesseven though some of you may have been suspecting, since anything remotelysuccessful seems to be associated with it) anyway, it was placed on our handsby God, to nurture into what you see today, and of course much more in the longrun and no journalist was involved in this particular process.

So why do I hate the media?Simple; I hate how the media stifles the possibility for Swazi artists to “makeit Big “beyond our borders. Examplesalways get a point across, so let’s take a local brand for instance. Gauzenshall be our guinea pig. His brand waslaunched (I mean in the paper) just before Swazi jive. A brand that they claimed would move andshake the Swazi fashion industry, they put a few pics here and there and wrotea fascinating story about the whole thing. A few months down the line an incomparably better brand, Swazi jive, waspublished. Oh it was just as captivatingif not more, going on about how great our clothing is etc and of course weloved it! One of the proudest moments of our lives, even though we lookedsickly in some of the pictures!lol we pasted the articles on our walls, boughtmore than one copy of the newspaper, went mad!! While we were floating away inour bubble of bliss, feeling like we were “making it”.. BAM! Another brandmushrooms and it is also said to be the best thing to happen to the Kingdom!(WHaat? I thought WE were the best thing to happen to the industry??) Well this was only the beginning, after twoweeks or so yet ANOTHER brand waspublished, and yes the paper AGAIN claimed that it was going to turn theindustry upside down..

This continued for about 6 more “wanna be” brands, Iwish I was exaggerating! T-shirts that looked like they were printed on using apen and free hand were described in the same way that Swazi jive was portrayedwhen it was published! This was infuriating! So now every other week there wasa t-shirt brand in the STYLE pages that they claimed was going to take theindustry by storm! How many storms can this industry really take? This is the rubbishthat this media thing dishes out and leaves us to deal with at the end of theday. I mean if a foreigner flips the newspaper to the STYLE pages and findsthis handwritten print on a t-shirt and the caption right next to it says thatit’s the next great thing for the Swazi fashion industry do you expect them totake this country’s artists seriously? Whydo we then wonder why it takes so long for proper Swazi brands to be recognizedif even the most influential aspect of our media cannot master enough sense topublish things that are actually going to depict the efforts of Swazi artistsin a positive light? I HATE it! Insteadof clogging up people’s minds with substandard half baked attempts to breakinto the industry, which end up pulling back the industry as a whole, whydoesn’t it focus on sensitizing people about brands that reflect properexecution of their ideas, brands that exude quality ,brands that have thecapacity to compete on an international scale! Why? Then you wonder why evenSwazis don’t want to wear so called “local brands”!

Now don’t get me wrong. We are very appreciative for theplatform the our local publications have given us, the interviews, exposure etcbut then does it really count if they then publish ten other brands that waterdown all our efforts into changing the scope of the industry?
Well at least a good lesson was learnt from all of this and Iam glad that this is a lesson that we learnt early in the development of thebrand. It’s imperative to realize thatjust because the newspaper published your story will not make you the greatestthing yet, they can say that about anyone because seemingly their ink is not asexpensive as they claim it is.
What is important is that at the end of the day you presentthe tangible evidence of the difference between your brand and the millionother brands mushrooming every day.
SJ continues to master that difference.

Linny*

“YOU CAN’T DO IT” made us do it

2011-09-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

Thehaters we had to get through to receive the love we get today….

“The Willy Bamz edition”

The purpose of this blog-spot is to give our viewers and customers andinsight into the life of the Swazi Jive team. The trials and tribulations ofbuilding such a fantastic brand will be shared no matter how controversial.

Juelz Santana says ‘they look at you like they’ve beendrinking spoilt milk’. Well with Swazi Jive they looked at us with the mostadorable eyes, claimed they had our backs, helped us make dough and then stoleit all back!The reality is, when you have something going for you there’ll betons more new people in your life hoping to benefit one way or another, whilethe ones that were already in your life will change claiming you aren’t thesame. I’m sure you’ve heard many artists express this trend in their music, butI’ve been living it for the past two years.

As many of you would know when this brand started I hadnothing but one graphic design, a little pocket money and a group of friendsthat were willing to help me get started not matter what it took (Everyoneneeds friends like that). Although we were determined and ambitious, ourdetermination and over flowing ambition couldn’t buy us shelf space in boutiquesand stores therefore we needed help, but from who?!A few weeks after my firstsuccessful talent show we met a lady called Anele, founder and manager ofAnel’sim boutique. The belief she had in me and Lindelo at the age of 16 and 17respectively drove us to new heights in many ways. She frequently encouraged usto continue building the brand even during the most discouraging situations,taking her time off her busy schedule to listen to me talk about how bad I wantthis brand to grow and eventually offering us a platform to display our clothingin her shops..Yooohh!!!The excitement resulted in a few sleepless nights andtrips to town just to see my design through the window display of the renownedboutique. At that age you can only imagine what it meant to us to be inbusiness!

This opportunity allowed us to portray the brand as moreprofessional and exclusive since we were not selling from duffle bags but shopsin the main mall of the capital city! The exposure led to increased sales, anewspaper interview and improved brand image. Our juvenile minds made usbelieve nothing could go wrong from here, and so we began our attempt to expandby looking for new outlets that would sell Swazi Jive clothing. Mistake numberone.

As we “hustled” to find new outlets I conveniently met a guycalled William Dlamini, creator and manager of what was the “Willy Bamz UrbanWear” store. This shop had the latest hip hop clothing, mind blowingaccessories, and its concept assimilated well with Swazi Jive’s brand image.After a few meetings and discussions we eventually agreed to work together, hisoffer was , “ I’ll give you free shelf space, sell Swazi Jive as the only localbrand, I want a commission of 15% and that’s it……and Oh I have to be the onlyshop selling Swazi Jive.” To cut a long story short we agreed to what appearedto be a lucrative deal and we eventually stopped supplying Anel’sim boutiquedue to our terms,even after all the help she had given us (probably my mostrubbish business decision). After a few months with clothing flying of theshelf we could afford to expand our product portfolio but then I realized I wasseeing more clothing on the streets then the money in the bank reflected. TheSwazi Jive team got together to hit a mini investigation and we realized he hadbeen over pricing our clothing in order to increase his commission, and wehadn’t received all the money from clothes sold. Basically he used Swazi Jiveclothing to pay his rent! After a heated argument with the grown man Ieventually decided ‘f*ck this, we leaving your store,’ and he told me wewouldn’t make it without his help because he “made us”. Well instead of SwaziJive failing his shop sales plummeted and after a few months Willy Bamz UrbanWear was shut down!..true story

I know you probably thinking we cursed him or something lolnot at all, I just believe this was another learning curve for us and trustingpeople in this business we are in. It is not everyone that will have the aim tobenefit from you when they offer their help because of the altruismcharacteristics some people possess, but I am saying be careful who you shareyour fantastic ideas with. You’ll understand exactly what I mean when you readthe next “YOU CAN’T DO THIS made us do it” article “the Lalu Swaziland edition” where I’ll share how a guy called“Sly”( ex-owner of Lalu Swaziland store) told me he could spit on my face whenever hewanted because I needed his help. Yep,this is nothing but the truth behind doingbusiness in Swaziland!

To be continued………………

I DIDN’T MEET THE KING, THE KING MET ME

2011-09-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

WhyMeeting the king of Swaziland didn't excite me as much as it should have….

Any man who looks the King of Swaziland in the eye is saidto immediately lose their courageous traits and immediately bow down to him.The man will be so scared his chin will remain glued to his chest as he triesto avoid any direct eye contact with the king, the man will basically become inferiorto another man involuntarily. Well this is what I was told moments before theking approached my Swazi Jive stand at the trade fair in 2010. The idea of notbeing able to look at someone I was supposed to communicate with petrified me,and the fact that my “Siswati” isn’t great at all didn’t help me relax. I didn’t understand why I had to speak siSwatiand the fact that I was chewing gum didn’t please the lady that notified methat the king was close-by. As she attempted to make me spit it out she wasdisturbed by the media and millions of soldiers that cleared way for the kingas he walked majestically towards the Swazi Jive stand.

This was the moment that was supposed to give my brand tonsmore “rep”. This was the moment that would cause everyone in the exhibitionhall to give all their attention to Swazi Jive. This was the moment every brandattending the trade fair hoped for, and I got it. Instead of trembling andfeeling inferior I got a surge of confidence as the king stood in front of me.The words that came out my mouth weren’t close to siSwati but I spokearticulate English that had the King of Swaziland spend more time at the SwaziJive stand than he had at any other stand within the exhibition hall. The SwaziJive crew standing behind me smiled as the media snapped away, but I was notsatisfied, I felt as if this was not the way my brand should receive attention!

I’ve always believed we design Swazi Jive Clothing tocapture people’s imaginations and attention at all times. Well that’s themotive behind every graphic object put on our clothing, therefore having theclothing receive attention because of an external source, even if it was theking, didn’t seem appropriate for me. This hit me soon after the king left the stand,right after we celebrated together as the Swazi Jive team on the milestone we hadjust achieved.

The King of Swaziland Mswati III and I (and the police guy)

I got phone calls from the media almost the whole weekrequesting comments from me, as an 18 year old then, on my experience ofmeeting the king. I eventually agreed on doing an article with Observer one ofour national newspapers. LINK. Meeting the king seemed to excite everyone elsemore than me. I wondered why In Swaziland, in order to build something BIGthere must be some involvement from an influential figure first. Did meetingthe King suddenly make our designs more vivid and interesting for everyone? Didmeeting the King create a unique selling point for Swazi Jive or did it justmake us another brand with pictures of the King? Were the pictures being takenbecause I was with the king, or because everyone in the room saw the potential inthe Swazi Jive brand?... I’m sure youcan answer those questions yourself.

I am a firm believer of encouraging innovation and givingpeople a chance to make those ideas in their head a reality. I believe everyonethat creates should get their attention based on the usefulness and originalityof the creation and not who they are or who they know or in this case who tooka picture with the creation. It is not that as a young Swazi boy I didn’t appreciatethat rare opportunity I got. The problem is that this opportunity of meetingthe king that everyone highly values has no long term benefits. I neversuddenly had more capital to venture into more products, I never suddenlygained management skills, and the brand didn't suddenly increase in sizeaccording to market share or people employed within Swazi Jive. The areas wheremost international firms compete in are the things Swaziland should aim toprovide for anyone running or starting a business, not mere photo shootsessions with the king. Swaziland should start thinking beyond the trade fairand the country’s borders. Therefore after all the growth I've made in thisindustry, I can safely say meeting theking didn’t excite me as much as it should have. s’kay

Feel free to comment or share this with your friends. SwaziJive experiences are unique, therefore more articles will be uploaded on adaily basis stay tuned.

Blog posts to look out for soon:

“GAUZEN, SNLV,I REP…..SORRY WHO??!”
“BUSINESS AND PLEASURE”
“FROM E250 A MONTH TO RUNNING A RADIO SHOW”
“SCHOOL VS CHASING YOUR DREAMS”….and a whole lot more.

2011-04-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

WELCOME TO THE JIVE WORLD

DOWNLOAD.SHARE.LIKE & VIEW LATEST CLOTHING BY SWAZI JIVE

THIS MONTH WE FOCUS ON

TENDANESS THE DJ'S TRIP TO LONDON!