GB SPRINTER OJIE EDOBURUN DISCUSSES HIS PLATFORM ‘FLOTPE’
Photography By Rhys Williams
23-year old athlete, Ojie Ebodurun, represents Britain as a track and field sprinter who started his journey after success at the 2013 London Youth Games. However, athletics has been a source of inspirations that led to the establishment of his platform FLOTPE. Through the platform, Ojie works to ‘reshape the way stories are created for sporting individuals’. With the sporting industry almost inevitably limiting the presentation of athletes, FLOTPE documents an intimacy shared from one athlete to another as Ojie works behind the camera. After realising how the freedom of expression was encouraged in other sports, Ojie aimed to create the same transparency. ‘Within athletics, my sports specifically, I don’t feel like there was a space for athletes to actually be themselves, be real and show an unfiltered version of themselves.’ By forming FLOTPE, Ojie contributes to the breakdown of a mainstream and inauthentic representation of his fellow athletes.
As a young athlete, Ojie confidently bridges the gap between athletes and an unseen realm of creativity that exists within sport in which he has identified. ‘For me, bringing sport and creativity together has allowed me to show a side of me that I have probably suppressed for a while, maybe out of fear.’ In breaking down all the components that make an athlete including his own introspective journey, he uncovers the art of sport for those that participate and for those that watch on too. His short documentations so far have drawn on the unseen processes that take place behind the scenes during periods of preparation. FLOTPE’s feature on Imani-Lara demonstrates a more creative take on the athlete, away from her usual setting, modelling the Puma x Sankuanz collaboration which captures athletes like Imani in more than their expected sports gear.
Inspired further by his own sense of creativity, he pushes to draw out a creative outlook obtained by other multi-faceted and versatile athletes like himself. ’I do feel like athletes naturally are creative. You create performance. You train and figure out the best recipe for yourself. That’s creation in itself.’ His collaboration with adidas on their latest campaign “Faster Than” documented by Ojie himself, encapsulates how a number of athletes would define their own definition of what fast means. Through their definition, the athletes speak on their own stories, uncovering their future goals and also the meaning of fast away from sports specifically. ‘It was living representation that athletes can do other things than just running and if you’re serious about your craft, yourself and your work, bigger platforms will see that.’
FLOTPE’s collaboration with adidas only gives us an insight into the type of barrier-breaking content that Ojie will continue to bring together. This year, Ojie continues to perfect and delve deeper into the content he works to put out. As he plans out the direction in which he wishes to lead the brand towards, FLOTPE progresses closer towards achieving ‘an identity in a solidified space’. Steering away from what existing publications currently present, Ojie aims to construct content that allows FLOTPE to remain distinct from others.