A Wānaka tradie with no background in fashion has revived a long-lost New Zealand clothing brand from a backyard shed.
Nikolai Solakof, a former builder and self-described “marketing nerd”, stumbled across a vintage canvas jacket at a Queenstown vintage reseller in 2022.
The label read “Oscar Eide”, but
“I was just really impressed by how well the jacket was made,” he said.
“It had this New Zealand leather collar, amazing utility pockets, and stitching that was just next-level. I couldn’t believe no one knew about it.”
The lack of information on the jacket’s origins set him off on a mission that would span years, lead him across the country and eventually, around the world.
“The only lead I found was an old listing for a factory in Whanganui ... I had a vague idea that maybe I could bring the brand back.”
The search led him to Whanganui, once a hub of New Zealand’s clothing manufacturing industry.
There, after two visits and help from local archives, he met Hugh Ramage, a historian who had written extensively on the region’s fashion history.
Ramage confirmed that Oscar Eide was once a major operation employing over 100 people, before quietly disappearing in the early 2000s as local manufacturing gave way to offshore production.
With no one left to claim the brand, Solakof registered the Oscar Eide trademark himself.
Then came the hard part: figuring out how to make the jackets again.
“I had no fashion experience. I’d never sewn anything in my life,” he said.
“But I treated it like a trade. You learn the tools, you understand the materials, and you aim for a perfect finish. That’s what I was taught on building sites.
“Building and fashion are surprisingly similar; it’s about raw materials and the quality of the final product.”
He began teaching himself how to sew, studying YouTube videos and taking pointers from his mum.
He eventually got in touch with pattern-maker and mentor Iona Woolgrove, who helped guide the technical aspects of production.
“Between us, we’ve brought the brand back to life. It’s going really well.”
To keep the brand rooted in its original quality, Solakof began sourcing premium canvas from Fujikama, a Japanese mill that uses old wooden shuttle looms to weave tightly packed fabric.
When the company didn’t respond to emails or phone calls, likely due to the language barrier, he booked a flight to Japan and showed up in person.
“I had Google Translate running on my phone, walked into their office, and somehow managed to make a deal,” he said.
“Now we’re good friends, and I’ve secured a second batch of fabric for the next production run.”
When the revitalised Oscar Eide was finally launched at the 2025 Wānaka A&P Show in March, Solakof said the reception was immediate and unexpected.
“I thought it was going to be mostly a men’s thing,” he said.
“But it turned out the farmers’ wives were the ones lining up to buy them.”
The success was enough to keep production going, and Solakof has since been expanding into women’s sizes and plans to develop summer products and canvas bags.
The jackets are made in small batches, with no physical retail presence and no outside funding.
Instead, Solakof has relied on Instagram reels to tell his story in short, engaging videos.
The clips, which document his brand’s rebirth and the history behind it, have garnered over 100,000 views and led to orders from the US, Europe, and Japan.
“I think people respond to the authenticity of it,” he said. “There’s no agency, no polish. Just me, in my shed, trying to bring something back.”
The jackets are produced entirely in New Zealand, apart from the imported canvas, which no local mills currently manufacture at the necessary quality.
Woollen textiles are still made domestically, but as Solakof points out, New Zealand has largely shifted toward a service economy.
That has left aspiring manufacturers facing long odds.
“You’re basically playing the game on hard mode here,” he said.
“But I saw that as a challenge. The only way to survive was to make something so good, so niche, that it couldn’t be ignored.”
He’s now working on converting the Wānaka shed into a permanent factory shop, where customers will be able to visit, see the garments being made, and buy direct.
Eventually, he hopes to return to Whanganui, at least for a pop-up event, to honour the town’s once-thriving clothing industry.
Many of the original Oscar Eide jackets he’s found have come from the central North Island and are still in good condition decades later.
He’s even donated several to the Whanganui archives to help preserve that piece of local heritage.
“They were missing pieces from the ‘80s and ‘90s. So I filled in the gap a bit for them.”
“Whanganui used to be full of clothing manufacturers,” he said.
“But when you ask people about it now, most have forgotten. I’d love to do something there just to remind everyone what we used to make.”
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.