Brand Spotlight Gipps
Generals in Intelligence Performance and Perfecting Sophistication best known, as GIPPS is an emerging Pretoria based design house founded in 16/11/2006. The story of GIPPS begins years before it the actual lifestyle brand it has become presently. In 2002 founder and head designer Simon “GIPPS” Maleka used to hand make bags from worn out jeans and shirts in effort to become cool and stylish to fellow friends and pupils. The innovative bags became a hit amongst his crowd and also spark an interest outside his cycle, pushing him to start selling them under the name MASTA C for extra pocket money.
During 2003 to 2005 while in his tertiary level, he stopped selling the bags prioritizing his studies over his newly discovered passion. Even though the bags were not sold, he (Simon) kept designing and making innovative style of bags for his own earning him the nickname “Mafikizolo” named after the Afro-pop group with the same name due to his Sophiatown styled backpack. During this time, Simon developed another interest and started designing clothes. That when he started teaching himself how to use a sewing machine with the help of his mother. The passion for designing and sewing over took his interest in electronics eventually mastering the craft and giving all focus on it trading under the name SYCO.
Mid 2005 to 2006 while job hunting, SYCO became the main-focus doubling in innovative streetwear bags and high fashion clothing and even got its first ever shelf space in one of the streetwear store Hysteric Glamour. The orders started piling up causing so much demand that the company needed to be formalized and that is when GIPPS was born. Some of the bags produced were made with records and they became popular with DJs and their girlfriends. Beside the streetwear store, the bags were sold in some underground vinyl stores.
GIPPS became a fun brand for DJs and because of the skill for custom made high fashion clothing, Simon introduce a customization services and started taking special requests for DJs and music people. The service became a hit, sparking interest from all sort of individuals within the music industry and all other products GIPPS begun with took a back seat. Slowly GIPPS became a DJ and music professional’s service provider and stopped making clothes and streetwear bags. By 2010 GIPPS was a favorite amongst DJs and music professionals making vinyl bags, speaker bags, keyboard bags and drum bags.
Using the sewing skills and intelligent designing skills acquired from making custom-made clothing and bags, in 2011 GIPPS began manufacturing its first range of commercial CDJ bags. The bags were sold in multiple DJ shop and Multi-Racial Records was leading the pack in Pretoria music atmosphere. GIPPS later introduced other range of items to the market like the controller and headphone/accessory bags to keep up with the evolution in the music industry, forcing the company to move from a 6m²-room one-man show to a 118m² workshop with multiple skilled staff. The move also helped GIPPS to add a new Gipps Premuim range in addition to the three other departments that already existed.
In the more than ten years of operation, GIPPS has built a network of clients in and around South Africa and continues to service the needs of music professionals by creating products of international standards.
You can check Gipps catalogue line here
