If you've the vaguest interest in UK streetwear, then the name Protect LDN has almost certainly been popping up on your radar with rapidly growing regularity.
Set up by high school best mates Peter and Egor, the label's back catalogue has featured everything from sought-after graphic tees and denim to sell-out puffers and accessories.
Now, though, the pair are gearing up for arguably their biggest release to date, as they join forces with outdoor veterans Salomon for a bold riff on the ACS. We caught up to chat about what's brought them here, and what comes next...
You guys became friends over CDG Converse. Do you feel Protect would have existed if it weren’t for sneakers?
Peter Fagnoni: It’s a tricky one, but probably not, or at least not in the way it exists now. We're both really interested in streetwear, and that's ultimately how we became friends. The piece that made it was the CDG Converse that I had. But that whole era was the Virgil 10 and the early Cardi, Oswego, Raf Simons vibe. I feel like all of that was really central to everything that surrounded it. So no, I don't think it would look the same.
Egor Erkin: To go back to the CDG Converse, the reason we bonded was when he joined school; I thought he was actually quite lame because he had this terrible uniform and he didn't have to wear it. Then, that same day, I saw his Instagram; I checked his page, and he had those CDG Converse.
At the time, no one in our school knew these CDG Converse. I knew about them just from Instagram. When I saw that, I was like, I’ve got to befriend this guy. He seems kind of cool. So maybe, if I didn't see those CDG Converse, we would never be friends, and this wouldn't happen.
As Peter said, I feel like sneakers, streetwear, Supreme, all those brands and all that era, it was just all intertwined. I think it was really important.
Your first-ever clothing drop sold out in five seconds. How can people get their hands on the Salomon collaboration?
We hope people like them. We went risky, and we love them, and we just hope people feel the same way about them.
Egor Erkin: We've never released a shoe or had a collaboration, so we don't really know what to expect. But we're really excited, and we've been working on it for over a year and a half now. We’re excited to drop them already and see people outside wearing them.
Peter Fagnoni: They’re dropping on our website, ProtectLDN.com, Offspring, Selfridges, and King's Cross. You can go pick them up there.
Peter Fagnoni: That was super unexpected. At the start, we had no idea that would happen. We got a video of it, actually. We filmed our first drop, and it's just like us screaming and being super hyped in the living room.
It’s a limited release; it was thought out to be a UK-only release. We managed to convince them to let us sell them not only in the UK.
No promises on how quickly they'll go. We have no idea. We hope people like them. We went risky, and we love them, and we just hope people feel the same way about them.
You started with denim, and now you’ve got everything from puffers to essentials. Which category has been the hardest to get right?
Egor Erkin: I think jackets are the most complicated product. It’s the most technical one. It has a bunch of pockets and a hood, and there are just so many details that go into a jacket compared to a T-shirt or something. There are just so many variations of a jacket that you can make. All these panels and details and everything.
So jackets, you can play with them a lot, and they have been quite complicated, but at the same time, we don't feel like we struggle with them anymore as much. On the other hand, I think in a sense, anything that we make is just - it always feels like there's room for improvement. You always want to improve something, whether it's a fabric; you make the perfect hoodie, and you're like, I love this hoodie, it's the best. And then in a year you go, I wish we did this and that and change the fabric. So there's always room for improvement.
Peter Fagnoni: An overlooked category... denim is really hard to make. Not just because denim has to feel good; I think you notice the feeling of it a lot more... but at least to me, I treat denim as like, or jeans and bottoms, I treat them as the main focus of the outfit.
Egor Erkin: If the bottoms don’t fit well, then nothing else fits good either.
What’s a piece you’ve made that you’re genuinely proud of, but people completely slept on?
Peter Fagnoni: This was towards the start of our brand when we wanted to try some more experimental stuff. We made this denim set, and at the time we had only been making jeans, and we were like, all right, let's make a denim jacket.
We put so much work into that denim jacket. We had the custom stitching patterns. We had embroidery all over. We had the high neck and thought it was revolutionary. Then we dropped the set, and no one bought the jacket; everyone just bought the jeans.
It was one of those things that was really upsetting because we thought it was game-changing. But it wasn’t. We were young and naive, but I’m still very proud of it. I think more people should have bought it.
Egor Erkin: I remember it was also really expensive, and because it was at the start of the brand, we didn't have as much money to spend. We invested so much money into this jacket, believing that it was gonna sell, and it just didn't.
I think it was at the time when we were selling out crazy and thought we could make anything we wanted. We thought people would like anything we made. We thought everyone would love it. Nobody did.
You’ve done your first-ever sneaker collaboration, but what’s next for Protect?
Egor Erkin: We've been doing it for only four years, and I would love to see how far we come 10 years from now or 20 years from now. I think now it's just improving our products, expanding our collections, expanding into other countries and just keep going.
Peter Fagnoni: We mentioned it earlier, but I think improvement is always the fundamental part. If you're not improving, then you're not doing anything. I think the Salomon collab is this first huge moment.
Egor Erkin: I think we strive for perfection. Knowing we’ll never actually achieve 100% perfection, because it’s impossible. But you still strive for it, no matter what.
Peter Fagnoni: We would love to make more shoes with Salomon. This is our official pitch: let’s make another shoe. Let's keep the ball rolling. Let's keep making fun stuff together.
The PROTECT x Salomon ACS NEXXT Slushie drops October 28.
