Our Story

I come from the streets of Belgrade, Serbia. As a kid I fell in love with sports. But as many young men in my neighborhood, facing lack of opportunity, I was drawn to the streets. I got out by a pure coincidence, landing a job in Dubai as a flight attendant. Life shifted, but things weren’t so simple...

It was COVID, my job was on the line and salary cut in half. I couldn’t pay my bills... And if I got fired it would only mean one thing - back to the streets of Belgrade. At the start, I didn’t handle this well. I was depressed, drinking, smoking cigarettes, not seeing a way out.One night my wife (girlfriend at the time) Cara, found me sleeping on the bathroom floor with an empty bottle of vodka next to me. I also once borrowed 200aed of my friend to take Cara out on a date, because I was that broke. That hurt.

Something had to change...I started exercising in the fire escape while in quarantine. 
I stopped drinking. I quit cigarettes. I sold drinks out of my car boot in the neighborhood to pay the bills, even did online surveys for $0.02 each. 
And I started researching...I had to find a way to make money, and being inspired by sports and street culture, sportswear made sense.

We ordered 13 gym sets from a Chinese supplier for $300, paid with Cara’s credit card. We took them to the tailor who stitched our logos on them. We made an Instagram page and sold out within a week. But we didn’t have enough cash to scale, or pay bills, so we had to stop. Another failure... 

I continued on with my life, but there was this one thing that was bothering me every time I would go to sleep. I fell in love with running a brand. And even though first time it failed. I couldn’t give up.Three years passed, and I was ready to go again. Invested everything I saved, and got scammed by the supplier. Failure. Again. I laid down on the floor and told Cara “I’m done”. But deep down, I wasn’t. 
And that’s when it was born. All my life can be described with those three words. It’s not a slogan, it’s a way of life - AGAINST THE ODDS.

In 2024 DIOS finally relaunched. We’ve come far and it really means the world to see all of you nowadays recognizing and supporting our brand, and finding inspiration in our message. And by us I mean basically me. Our clothes, I designed them. Our videos, I shot and edited most of them them. If you ordered from us, I probably packed your order too. I’ll end with a promise I always tell my wife...
I can’t promise I’ll make it, but I promise that I will die trying. 

AGAINST THE ODDS. 

Yours sincerely, Luka