First-ever Dal-OVO clothing collection drops at Dal Bookstore

Toronto rapper Drake’s clothing brand came to Dalhousie University’s student bookstore on Sept. 2. The limited-run, three-item collection is a first-ever collaboration between Dal and October’s Very Own.

Students lined up for hours outside the Dal Bookstore before it opened, buying half the store’s stock in the first half hour it was available. The collection includes a $72 T-shirt, a $178 rugby-style pullover and a $188 hoodie.

OVO started partnering with universities in 2021. Dal is only the second Canadian university outside of Ontario to partner with them, after McGill University. This year’s collection features six different universities, five of which are located in Ontario. 

Makayla Makhlouf, who is planning to go to med school at Dal, arrived to wait in line at 8 a.m., an hour before the bookstore opened. 

“I can’t believe, out of the few universities that OVO picked, Dalhousie is one of them,” she says. “I’m really proud that the East Coast is getting represented in this way.”

The Dal collection is also available at OVO stores in the Greater Toronto Area and online, making the Dal Bookstore the only location in Atlantic Canada where students can buy OVO apparel in stores.  

Katrina Ross, the bookstore’s merchandise manager, organized the collaboration. She says the Dal-OVO collab had been in the works for three years, but she waited for another non-Ontario school to have a successful drop before committing. 

The pullover and hoodie sold out Sept. 5. Ross says she is pleased with the drop and expects the bookstore to sell out of their limited remaining inventory by the end of the first week of classes. 

While this year’s collection won’t be restocked, Ross says after seeing the positive reception, the bookstore plans to reach out to OVO to collaborate on a new collection next year.

All six universities have the same designs with their school’s respective imagery. Dal’s launch consisted of fewer products than the other five collections, which included coaches jackets and baseball hats. 

Ross says the Dal Bookstore opted not to include those items because she didn’t know if the collection would receive a positive reception from students.  The store may add more products to potential future OVO collections.