Adenike Ogunlesi is a Nigerian fashion designing executive. She is founder of the Nigerian children’s clothing manufacturer and retailer, Ruff ‘n’ Tumble.
Born to a Scottish mother, Mrs. Betty Okuboyejo, who came to work and live in Nigeria. During her stay in the country, her mother came across the popular Adire fabric, and then decided to venture into a business out of making clothes. She described her late mother as one of the most impactful individuals in her life in terms of her courage, resilience, work ethics, standards, and creativity to build something from nothing.
Her mother owned fashion label ‘Betti-O’ was prominent for designing distinctive and flattering clothes with local fabrics (the Adire) for both genders when western clothing was still in vogue.
During Adenike’s second year as an undergraduate Law student at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Adenike opted out of school with uncertainty of what to do with her life. She later reluctantly accepted her mother’s invitation to work in her women’s Afrocentric clothing business at Ibadan.
The fabric business poised her to the realization of what she wanted to venture into, as she discovered her passion for making clothes.
As her business evolved, she enrolled at the Lagos Business School for a course in Business Management and Customer Service. She also took some senior management programs. The trainings availed her the opportunity to broaden her insight on how to grow, expand and brand her outlets.
Ruff ‘n’ Tumble was birthed in 1996 when she first sought to make some pajamas for her three kids. The creative designs of these pajamas made got an outstanding spot as against what are being sold in the market.
Adenike then advertised to a friend and her sister-in-law that she could make pajamas for their children. They indicated keen interest and from there, the journey to the creation of Ruff n’ Tumble started.
She later moved on to other types of clothing which include: playgroup wears like jeans, t-shirts, and skirts for her children. With time, her business started thriving with huge sales of clothes to mothers with kids at the playgroup.
Adenike’s creativity successfully carved out a bright niche for her enterprise, as she leveraged on the gap of beautiful Nigerian-made clothes, and made the good use of it. Adenike made a business reconnaissance to infer how her clothing business can thrive well, and Her findings helped her to come up with the colorful designs for children.
To properly corroborate her business, Adenike began hiring tailors to meet the increasing demands of the business. She then started using her kids as the model for her clothing products to serve as catalog for her works.
Her company’s birth from a dire need has made Adenike’s Ruff ‘n’ Tumble to become a household name for one of the most successful and innovative children apparel companies in Nigeria.
With her increasing number of workforce and different branches across the country, the multi-million Naira worth business has broaden its horizon of production towards getting the needs of the adults met too.
On a recognition note, Adenike’s astounding and outstanding business venture has made Adenike to be a recipient of several awards like: The City people Awards – Female Achiever in the Children’s fashion sector 2001; The Glam Awards 2014 – special honor as a female game changer in the Children’s fashion industry; The Nigerian Entrepreneur Awards 2014 – Award for Creativity and Excellence; She is also a mentor at the Mara foundation and a finalist at the CNBC AABLA (All Africa Business Leaders Awards) in the category of the Business Woman of the year 2014; She was featured in the Africa Open for Business documentary and was recognised as the FATE Foundation Model Entrepreneur in 2005; She has also been a Non-Executive Director of Lafarge Africa Plc since March 11, 2015.
