From starting Corteiz with around £300 to learning from a £300,000 mistake, @clint419 shared some valuable lessons about self-belief and finding your own path at Instagram's Rule It Anway.
@julieadenuga
Building a brand like Corteiz doesn't happen overnight. Behind the drops, community-led activations and unmistakable Alcatraz logo is a founder whose journey has been shaped by risk-taking and persistence.
Hosted by Julie Adenuga, Instagram's Ask It Anyway saw Corteiz founder Clint open up about the early days of the London streetwear label, the importance of believing in your own ideas and why the next generation of creatives shouldn't rush to seek validation.
In attendance were some familiar TSS community faces, as well as London's most influential creatives, who like us, walked away with valuable insights.
@clint419
Julie: What were the early days of building Corteiz actually like?
Clint: "When I started Corteiz, my family, we had just gotten evicted from our house. So it was like, alright, this is the best time to do this because we ain't got shit.
The only way from there was just up. If I make one pound, I'm still one pound better than I was yesterday.
The first time I started, I had like 30 jumpers. I've been looking for my first invoice that I ever paid. It was like £300, that was what I had left.
@vostsvault
@clint419 and @julieadenuga
I was just like, let me put it into these jumpers and these sweatshirts because why not? And when I did the first drop, I think I made like £1,000 in a couple of days.
I ain't ever done that before, and that definitely validated me in the moment."
via Instagram
Julie: How important is self-belief when you're trying to get people to buy into your ideas?
Clint: "I'm a strong believer that if one person liked it, I could probably make like 10 people like it.
The first jumper I ever made, my boy Ellis really liked this baby blue sweatshirt I made. I used to think, Ellis has got swag. He was wearing the Prada America Cups when we were like 15. But because he liked that so much, I was like, I can make 10 people like this easily.
Sometimes you do have to validate yourself first to make it."
@mikeyangleyo
You just got to believe in it so much yourself first. I'll never buy something from someone who doesn't believe in it themselves.
@undiscovered.ig
"You just got to believe in it so much yourself first. I'll never buy something from someone who doesn't believe in it themselves.
A kid could come up to me right now and be like I've got this thing, it's better than everyone else's thing. He could be so gassed on it that I'm like, I believe you. That's how I was. That's how I still am."
via Instagram
Julie: What's one of the biggest mistakes you've made while building Corteiz?
Clint: "I think you have to reframe what failure means. I feel like failure is just something you haven't learnt yet.
Say I'm going to sell 100 of these, and I only end up selling 50. Yes, I guess monetarily and statistically I could have failed on paper. But I've probably gained way more knowledge about my business and myself than if I'd sold out 100%.
Not saying I don't fail, because I do; I don't really fail if I'm learning from the situation. Because when you keep winning, winning, winning, you're not really learning anything. It's only when you fail along the way."
@daeje_1307
@livisugs and @ch4zman
If I'm not going to wear it no more, I'm not going to give it to the consumer to wear.
"I've made a £300,000 mistake before. I bought fabric thinking I'm going to be in this factory for a while, and then someone came with a better factory.
You can't retract and go back to product that isn't evolved. Someone else might have been like, let's just flush it out and make this. But I was just like, if I'm not going to wear it no more, I'm not going to give it to the consumer to wear."
via Instagram
Julie: What advice would you give young creatives looking for recognition from people they admire?
Clint: "You have to really build with people on your level and you have to grow as a cohort of people.
That's not to say, fuck the OGs, fuck the people that came before me. You really need to be like, you know what, let me build with these people now. When it's the right time, I'm going to build with the people that were there before me.
For example, I remember back in the day, I used to see Skepta everywhere. Skep in 2016, it was such a visceral energy that you wanted to be a part of."
@l3mske
@ben.throwerr
"I've always looked up to Skepta. Back then, I'm thinking, Skep's not taking me in. I felt like I've got ideas, I could do things and blah, blah, blah. But then at the same time, I hadn't done anything.
I hadn't done anything that warranted him to notice what I was doing. Then I had to think, man, let me just continue building.
I remember he wore this Motherlan Rules the World t-shirt and was thinking, how did he get this? That's the first time that I felt like Skep noticed me. I did care about his validation because I looked up to him."
@camer0nbr0wn
"That's when our relationship started building. But I'm happy that it only happened then. If it happened too early, I would have been fried.
There are people who, when people take them in and they're mad young, they get bare gassed. Then they don't end up becoming that person that they should have been because they get too gassed."
"It's like a football player. They get gassed when they're 16, they make their debut, they might score a goal, then everyone's just begging it.
Next thing you know, by the time they're 22, they're fried. They haven't amounted to anything because they didn't go through that pain.
You see that kid that was ignored from 16? When he's 22, that's the one that everyone's begging it with. By then he's built up the mental fortitude to actually make it last a long time."
via Instagram
Julie: What changes have you noticed in the next generation of creatives?
Clint: "I love this new community of young kids that's coming up right now. I think it's so cool to see them doing TikTok, being like mini presenters and doing photography. They're definitely following and creating their own new archetypes.
One thing that I feel like I may have been complicit in, but I used to say, I did this and I've done that, lay out all of the different mini accomplishments. Which isn't a bad thing to do, but there's a certain time for it.
When I follow young yutes and they post like that, I'm like, you're doing it way too early. You haven't changed your life enough and your people's lives around you enough to say it."
@ar8hie , jayvee_cs and @daeje_1307
You ain't got to care about me being proud, you do your thing regardless.
@redjcksn and @giodoesinterviews
"That's not me saying that you shouldn't be proud of your accomplishments at every single level. But I feel like there are certain things that I would say that would be on the back end of no one knowing the mad ting that happened. Like the £300K thing, something positive might have happened. That's when I'm going to talk.
I just think there's a certain level it's got to get to first. Sometimes people just want to shout about anything.
Nevertheless, I'm still proud of everyone who's doing their thing. You ain't got to care about me being proud, you do your thing regardless."
And of course keep it locked to The Sole Supplier for any updates on the upcoming Corteiz x Nike Shox editions which will be dropping before the end of 2026.
