Omobolade Kolade: The Architecture Graduate Behind One Of Nigeria’s Leading Luxury Crochet Brands

Whoever thought crochet and architecture could be interrelated, with elements of architecture made viable for designing crochet pieces? Omobolade Kolade has perfectly cracked this code with her designs as she merges her knowledge of architecture to create one of the fast-rising crochet brands in Nigeria, Hooked By Lade.

The artist, who refers to herself as a crochet architect, graduated from the Federal University of Technology Akure as an architectural designer. Four years in the university learning its principles and working with structures led her down a path she had always loved.

Before venturing fully into the crocheting space, who was Omobolade Kolade?

From a young age, Bolade had always been interested in crochet. It makes sense because most children at that age had one hobby or the other to keep themselves busy. Whether it was endless class lessons, art, music, or language lessons, parents make sure to keep their children engaged. Bolade, born in Ondo State, but hails from Emure Ekiti, chose crochet at age 10.

Experts have revealed that crocheting helps increase a child’s cognitive functioning while ensuring that they stay focused and giving them a sense of accomplishment.

“I started learning crocheting as a child out of curiosity. It was not for monetary purposes, I just wanted to do art when I was younger, especially things like blankets, belts, and all.” Omobolade tells 234star.

Far from design was law, the designer’s dream course, which hit the rocks as she recalls that she somehow found herself in science class and instead took a liking to technical drawing that eventually led her to study Architecture at the university.

“I don’t want to say I studied Architecture by chance and I wish I could tell you that I love buildings, I love structures that’s why I went to study architecture but no. I actually wanted to be a lawyer, then I found myself in science class, then I had to pick a course and I loved technical drawing.”

Five years later, in 2017, in the creeks of a small community in Ahoada West local government, Rivers state, she found her passion again, and this time she embraced the solace crocheting brought her as she taught children in the community how to crochet.

Following the end of her one-year mandatory NYSC programme, she started working remotely at a construction firm based in Dallas, Texas. Two years later, she quit her job as a commercial estimator and focused fully on being a freelance designer, which gave her enough time to explore crochet more.

Aside from crochet, Ombolade is also an animator and graphics designer, a skill she revealed has helped her when creating social media content for her brand ‘Hooked By Lade’.

“It started when I was in school, final year, and I set it out of the urge to have a side hustle as a student, especially to survive, because a lot was happening at the time, so of course, money is needed. In the process of surviving. I was able to find passion in other things that I laid my hands on so even up to now,” she said.

All of her skills are, however, a means to an end and not an end in itself. As her creative abilities have led her to establish her dream to create a luxury crochet brand. Although she feels her brand is not at that point yet, they are on the right track.

With her team of five, she has been able to create unique handmade bags based on her client’s requests while delivering premium quality and she owes this need for quality to how architecture has influenced her work.

“The influence is massive. I didn’t really see it until I saw how picky I was with designs, I saw that I didn’t just want to do random bags. In architecture, there are three principles of a building, it should have aesthetics, structural stability, and functionality. So, I’ve been able to put these three things into my own principles when making any bag.”

Her work speaks for itself. When you see a Hooked By Lade bag, it’s typically very colourful, uniquely structured, and sturdy. For her, those things are important, that’s why she puts her customers on a waitlist so she delivers quality designs while not compromising on the standards she has set.

“Every bag has a soul, a time you dedicate to create each bag. There is a mood you are in when you’re making the bag, times like that you can’t really value it. That aside, the quality of the yarns, materials, and accessories, that’s why Hooked by Lade is a luxury brand”.

So for Omobolade, Hooked By Lade is not just a crochet brand. It’s a brand born out of the passion for handmade crafts while using sustainable and environmentally friendly materials to create, with a dream to evolve into a luxury handmade brand crafted carefully and intentionally with the best materials.

Although crochet is sacred to her, like every other business in Nigeria there is always the Nigerian factor that stifles the growth of businesses. As of November 2, 2022, one dollar is sold at ₦816.661, and this price has been on the rise for months with no proper directives in place.

“This constitutes 70% of the problems we face in this business. Let’s start with the yarns. Dollar was around ₦400, ₦‎500 as of today it’s ₦‎765, almost two times what it used to be. To ship the yarns used to be ₦‎2500 per kg now it has doubled. Setting that aside, getting payment up until very recently used to be a serious problem Nigeria Remit and Western Union was a mess.”

Locally made yarns are also not an option, as it is difficult to purchase quality yarns for her designs in Nigeria. Like every other SME, Omobolade is faced with settling for high priced imported materials and shipping costs because of the lack of quality yarn production outlets in Nigeria and Nigeria’s deteriorating economy.

A 2022 Nigeria MSME report shows that 80% of small businesses in Africa fail within the first five years of their existence despite having the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world, with the high cost of running the business being a large portion of why these businesses have failed.

The Covid-19 pandemic also did not make running business as a Nigerian any better. Statista reports that “up to 23% of businesses were completely closed in January 2021, of which only 1.4% remained shut down since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Up to 13% of those also closed for at least one month between June and December of the previous year, while the rest opened in December but closed again in January.”

In the face of these challenges facing the average small business owner in Nigeria, Omobolade Kolade is driven by her passion and grit for art to ensure that she successfully turns that passion into creating Nigeria’s foremost luxury crochet brand. A dream she has nurtured for years while producing quality and innovative handmade crochet designs.