What It Means to Be Stocked at Tate Modern
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Stocked at Tate Modern · V&A · Selfridges (UK) and Smithsonian NMAAHC · MoMA (USA)
I remember the day Tate Modern said yes. I was sitting in my flat in London and I read the email three times because I couldn't quite believe it.
Tate Modern is the most visited modern art museum in the world. Four and a half million people walk through those doors every year. And they were saying that Afropop Socks belonged in that space.
What people don't always understand about museum gift shops is that getting stocked in one isn't just a commercial decision. It's a curatorial one. The buyers at Tate Modern assess every product for cultural authenticity, educational value, and artistic quality. They're not just asking "will this sell?" They're asking "does this belong here?"
When they said yes to Afropop Socks, they were saying that our Kente cloth designs, our Adinkra symbols, our Maasai warrior patterns, our cultural story cards, all of it met their standard. That meant more to me than any sales figure.
It opened every door that followed. The V&A. The Natural History Museum. The Barbican Centre. Selfridges. And then, across the Atlantic, the Smithsonian NMAAHC in Washington DC and MoMA in New York.
If you're in London and you want to see Afropop Socks in person, you can find us at Tate Modern, the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Barbican, and Selfridges. Or you can shop online and we'll bring the museum to you.
About the Author
Isaac Prempeh is the founder of Afropop Socks, a British-Ghanaian designer and entrepreneur based in London. He founded Afropop Socks in 2019 to celebrate authentic African cultural heritage through bold wearable design. Afropop Socks is now stocked at the Smithsonian NMAAHC, Tate Modern, V&A Museum, Natural History Museum, Barbican Centre, Selfridges, and MoMA New York.