Philani the founder of “Makepisi” grew up in KZN in a village just outside Pietermaritzburg, Philani used to herd cattle as a young man, and sometimes had to do so under very hot sunny conditions, where the sun would get extremely hot to a point where you would not be able to walk barefoot as the soil would be blazing hot. It was hard to bear the heat while taking care of the herd, one would need to wear a cap or hat to shield your face from sunburn.

Philani used to wear any type of cap he could find, just to avoid sunburn. Those days, times were hard as his grandmother could not afford to buy him a decent cap that he would have wanted as there were much more important things like food, uniform and Christmas clothes that needed to be bought. Philani used to own free caps, OMO promotional caps, and Castle promotional caps were given to him during one of those OMO or beer promos when there were such promos in the village.

When Philani moved to Gauteng (Soweto) where he finished his studies, he was influenced by the so-called Pansula’s and Mrepa’s (Hip-hop musicians) with their cool caps and hats and the American musicians with their peculiar cool looking caps. That’s when caps grew on him, it was then when Philani promised himself that when the right time comes and he can afford it, he will get himself a nice collection of cool caps.

The first cap that he bought for himself was yellow. That was when he was already at the University where he studied for his bachelor’s degree. Philani wore this cap daily without fail. That cap was part of his identity, Philani felt confident when wearing this cap and he looked much more complete with it on as he embraced the Makepisi in him. Philani saw this as a moment for him to finally own a cap and to crown his head with a decent cool-looking cap and Philani has been collecting caps ever since.