In 1996, Adenike Ogunlesi was looking for good-quality pyjamas for her three young children. The options available in Nigeria did not meet what she wanted in terms of quality, durability and style, so she decided to make them herself.
The first set was made from cotton, with colourful fabric, lace and a Peter Pan collar. Her sister-in-law liked what she saw and ordered seven pairs. Soon, Ogunlesi began wondering whether other parents might also be willing to buy them.
She started selling the clothes from the boot of her car after dropping her children at school. She also took them to church bazaars and school markets, gradually expanding beyond pyjamas into trousers, shorts, shirts and skirts.
“I took all my kids’ clothes apart to see how they were made, developed patterns out of some of them, and just started making trousers, shorts, shirts and skirts, and all kinds of things,” Ogunlesi recalled.
One market changed the way she viewed the opportunity.
Ogunlesi had taken about ₦120,000 worth of clothes to a market and sold almost all of them. The sales made her realise that the demand could extend beyond the people who already knew her.
“I just closed my eyes to everything else and thought: ‘Okay, what exactly is going on here? There must be other people with this need,’” she said.
She began looking more closely at the children’s clothing market. At the time, she found that the available options were limited, with little variety in colours and designs. She wrote down what she believed competitors were doing well and where she thought they were falling short.
“At the time, I didn’t realise that what I was doing was market research,” she later explained to Harvard Business School. She visited places where children’s clothing was sold, looked at the products, compared prices and considered what she could do differently.
One of the gaps she noticed was the way children’s outfits were being sold. Many came as three-piece sets, leaving parents with little flexibility to combine different pieces.
Ogunlesi decided that customers should be able to buy individual pieces and create their own combinations.
“So I thought if all they want is a shirt, they should buy the shirt and be able to mix it with the shorts or trousers of their choice – just to be free to create a style for their kids, the way they would like their kids to be dressed,” she said.
That approach became part of what differentiated the brand.
From the boot of a car to a store
As demand grew, Ogunlesi moved beyond selling from her car. She hired tailors and began producing clothes for a supermarket, where she was given a section to display the products.
The experience did not meet her expectations.
She noticed that customers tried on the clothes and left them on the floor, leaving the area untidy. For Ogunlesi, it showed that building a good product also meant paying attention to how customers experienced the brand.
In 1998, she opened her first Ruff ’n’ Tumble store in Lagos, using her personal savings and money borrowed from her older brother.
The store soon gave her another indication of the demand for the brand. During Christmas, a long queue formed outside the shop. She rented the space next door and expanded the store.
From there, Ruff ’n’ Tumble continued to develop its operations and reach more customers. The company introduced computerisation and an enterprise resource planning system, began keeping customer information and followed up with customers after their purchases, including those who had not returned to the stores.
The business expanded from Lagos to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan and Kano. By 2015, Ruff ’n’ Tumble had become a recognised children’s clothing brand in Nigeria and employed more than 200 people.
Building clothes that last
For Ogunlesi, durability became an important part of the brand’s identity.
She wanted children to be able to wear the clothes repeatedly and pass them down to younger siblings.
“As a mother, durability is key. I didn’t want clothes that after two or three washes are finished,” she said.
That focus on quality has remained part of how she describes Ruff ’n’ Tumble. In later interviews, she has spoken about the importance of researching global trends while paying attention to local tastes and culture. The company also distinguishes between its customer, usually the parent buying the clothes, and its consumer, the child wearing them.
The company has since expanded beyond retail. Through Gatimo Apparel, Ogunlesi has developed garment manufacturing capacity, while the Betti-Okuboyejo Foundation provides garment-making and entrepreneurship training for young people.
For a business that began with children’s pyjamas, the progression has been substantial. Yet Ogunlesi’s story is also a record of how a business can evolve by paying attention to its customers, studying its market and continually improving its standards.
Her own path into entrepreneurship was also shaped by a willingness to make a difficult decision. She was originally expected to become a lawyer but left law school after two weeks because she knew it was not the path she wanted. Entrepreneurship, she later said, gave her the “freedom to create your own universe” and “the power of choices.”
That willingness to move forward has also shaped how she thinks about mistakes. “Don’t stay in that place, just move on,” she said when discussing setbacks. For her, the important thing is to acknowledge what went wrong, learn from it and keep sight of what she wants to create.
That philosophy can be traced through Ruff ’n’ Tumble’s history. A need for better pyjamas led to a few pairs of children’s clothes. Selling from the boot of a car led to studying the market. Studying the market led to a clearer understanding of what parents wanted. As the company grew, the same attention to quality, customer experience and adaptation continued to shape what came next.
That may be the most useful part of Adenike Ogunlesi’s story for anyone building a business today: the idea may start small, but the standard you set for it does not have to be.
Keep defining, redefining, refining and evolving.
The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.
