Corteiz founder and North-West Londoner, Clint419 has sat down for a rare interview with British podcast, the ‘90s Baby Show, where he offers an exclusive insight to the rise of his UK streetwear imprint and community.
The rise of his Corteiz brand has been intriguing to witness. From the brand’s outrageous marketing techniques to its high profile Nike collaboration that introduced 3 new Air Max 95 colourways in “Gutta Green,” “Pink Beam,” and “Aegean Storm.”
Clint419 has mostly chosen to stay outside of the public eye, making this interview where he tells his story of CTRZ and its rise to the top of an over-populated world of streetwear, a very interesting watch.
Clint419, who grew up near Wembley with his two sisters, always had an underlining love for clothes but was never too interested in the big brands. When asked the simple question on everyone’s mind “Why make clothes?” Clint simply responded with “It made more sense to make my own hoody then go out and buy one… I wanted something for myself that I couldn’t see anywhere else”
Clint explained his unique marketing method for his brand’s Bolo Jacket, where he thought of the idea to invite people to pull up at a London destination in their “London staple” The North Face Nuptse jackets and swap it for a new CRTZ Bolo Jacket.
Being a relatively new brand and not having settled on a price for the Bolo Jacket yet, about 400 people turned up in their The North Face jackets ready to swap them and this helped Clint market his Bolo Jacket for the price of at least £250 (the same as a TNF Nuptse at the time).
With only 50 Bolo Jackets to give out and multiple people turning up in Moncler, Canada Goose and Supreme jackets, the event created online discussions that would last days and every jacket Clint’s team took in was donated to the homeless.
When someone from Nike approached him in 2021 for a collaboration, Clint was in so much shock he admits he was almost rude when he responded with “you’re chatting s**t, you’re not being serious.”
2 years later and the CRTZ x Nike Air Max 95 trilogy collaboration was a huge success to say the least and Clint now joins a short list of Londoners who have collaborated with Nike, such as Skepta and Samuel Ross – the latter being the founder of A-COLD-WALL*.
Everyone who wishes of owning their own fashion brand must dream of starting off the way Clint’s CRTZ has. Even before the Nike deal, Clint419 already had 500K followers on Instagram that he gained purely from word of mouth and no sponsor ads.
With “the community aspect” being Clint’s favourite part about his CRTZ journey so far, check out the interview for yourself in the video above – take my word that it’s definitely worth a watch!
For more up to date news plus the top discounts & sales available – join our community at The Hoxton Trend.
