In 2018, Abiola Obaonrin (Argot’s founder) told me this story about a group of women called the Nanas Benz. The story goes like this: “At the end of the 1970s, several Togolese women found success in the fabric trade. Their strong desire to affirm their status and success led many of them to make a purchase that was associated with both success and prestige, a Mercedes-Benz. People would call them The Nanas Benz ( “nanas” is slang for women in French) and it turns out, Abiola’s grandmother was one of them.

From that moment, we decided to launch Nanas Benz together - a media that would tell the stories of self-made women. Women we don’t usually hear about but who make things happen around them every day.

At the time, Nike was looking for a local agency that fit their brand DNA and could bring forward voices for a talk they had planned. The talk was part of a 3-day event during which NBA players, Michael Jordan himself and a few other good names came to Paris to promote the new Jordan collection (with some very cool Paris-related collabs like Paris-Saint Germain or the Quai 54 event).

For the talk itself, Abiola and I coordinated with the Nike team before and after they arrived in Paris, recruited the moderator and some of the guests. I also designed merch’ that was distributed to the guests upon arrival.

We were very lucky to have a great panel of talented women and it was a great honor to be able to launch Nanas Benz alongside a brand like Jordan.