Now, flaunt your Goanness

Products with cool slogans have been in fashion for a while. Infact there have been plenty of fashion articles devoted to wearing your personality through clothes with slogans that define you. The same goes for phone covers, mugs, bags and a whole load of lifestyle products.   

And while it’s not difficult to find products which capture the spirit of some popular Indian cities, finding something quirky which celebrates Goa are few. The most common are the cotton t-shirts with a beach scenery and Goa typed across in bold. Anything else is very rare. Noticing this gap, Kashish Naik decided it was time to change this. “The idea was to do something new for Goa which was themed around Goa. Earlier Nirvana used to do some Goa themed attire. However they have since moved away to more abstract art,” says Naik. Although, this was thought up about two years ago, it was only in January this year that Oi Patrao, a design collective creating products inspired by Goa, came into existence. “We had issues with regards to materials and especially with printing. As our designs are brightly hued, doing these with screen printing wasn’t working out. But now that Direct to Garment printing has come into Goa, we decided to avail of this and begin,” says Naik, who works together with his pal Pratik at Oi Patrao. The duo both come from an engineering background but wanted to do something with art. “Apart from doing coding all day, we want our art to come out too,” says Naik. The company first began by approaching different designers and at present have 15 designers working under them on freelance basis. “We do both customised orders as well as work on our own designs inspired by Goa,” says Naik. The company does an array of products from t-shirts, jerseys, hoodies, mobile covers, mugs, tote bag and also branding products for other companies like flyers etc. What makes them stand out is their cool and distinctively Goan inspired slogans. Words like Bare re Jayesh and Kurkurit which are popular among Goans find their way on these products and are bound to instantly put a smile on your face. Another cool addition is the slogan Tujya Bapayn Layla Uss, a throwback to a hilarious video which went viral on social media a while ago.  

They would also like to get into making bobble heads and 3D figurines in future. The surprising things however is that they have had more response from people from cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore as opposed to Goans. “We were actually targetting Goan people,” shrugs Naik, adding that they just have to market their products more.As of now they are operating through social media. However they are looking at relaunching their website soon.   

“We want more designers who are Goan or inspired by Goa to join us. We want more people to showcase Goan culture to others and to show a different side of Goa, apart from just beaches and parties which it is known for,” says Naik, adding that there are many more cool designs in the work too.