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Earlier this month, London-based premium streetwear brand Unknown went on a week-long tour of the UK. The choice of transport was a branded double-decker bus with a sound system, stocked with hundreds of its signature rhinestone hoodies, T-shirts and printed jackets. Working the tills on this pop-up shop on wheels were brand founders Callum Vineer and Joe Granger, who met hundreds of young fans in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Leeds. Sales were exceptional. “We spent ages planning how much stock we were taking with us. We went through all of the numbers thinking, we’ve definitely got this right,” says Granger, laughing. “We got it completely wrong.”
Unknown was launched in late 2015 by college friends Vineer, 26, and Granger, 25, who worked out of a warehouse in the Hampshire town of Petersfield. They noted a trend for distressed clothing. “We bought a hundred blank hoodies and a hundred caps in a tan colour,” says Vineer. “And we sat up all night cheese-grating them.” The stock was sold through The Basement, a UK streetwear Facebook group that’s now evolved into a Brixton store and e-commerce site.
Similar in approach to other UK-based cult streetwear players such as Corteiz and Stitch, Unknown has tapped into a network of loyal, engaged streetwear fans, using social media interaction and hyped physical drop moments to build communities. Almost seven years on, it’s a fast-growing small business with 30 international stockists on top of a booming direct-to-consumer operation that represents around 90 per cent of sales. In 2021/22, a period of explosive growth, sales topped £2.5 million.
Growing pains, rock bottom, starting again
The journey has been full of challenges, with production the biggest of all as the business transitioned from hand dyeing and distressing garments to outsourcing manufacturing. The founders say they’ve worked their way through “around ten” manufacturers over nearly seven years, searching for a reliable partner. “If you plan out your drop schedule for the year, one late delivery can push you back for a month or two months. Then your cash flow is screwed for the rest of the month because you’ve got nothing to sell,” Granger says.
The duo recalls how samples failed to turn up for Paris Fashion Week in 2019. “We had just splashed out on a nice showroom and had no stock,” says Vineer. “We had the buyers coming in and all we could show them was renderings of the stuff on a computer.”
While they waited for their stock, the design duo went back to their roots, moving out of their office to cut costs, buying blank joggers, bleaching them at home and printing them in the UK. “We went back to hand-dyeing tees in batches of 20 at a time,” says Granger.
While challenging, the experience was an important reset. “We analysed every part of the business, thinking about what we could do better, how we could scale up,” recalls Granger. “I think that was probably a massive reason why everything started to blow up the way it did — it was almost a blessing.”
Stability in production has now been secured, they say with confidence, working with a Chinese factory that also makes for brands such as A-Cold-Wall* and Yeezy. “The quality now is A1,” says Vineer. “We order a whole season collection at once, sell online and ship from there.”
Unknown’s hero item is a jersey tracksuit with red rhinestone crucifixes or silver daggers. Six months after launching 2020, people started going “crazy” for them, Vineer says. A recent drop sold 3,000 units within minutes. The much-coveted tracksuit has created brand awareness and a cult following.
As sales climbed, the duo were able to build a team, with 10 employees now on board, including two who spent six months meticulously planning the bus tour.
Community building
The close personal connections with Unknown’s consumers predates the bus tour. The team works hard to reply to most Instagram direct messages, the founders say. In lockdown, Unknown staged a running competition to keep customers engaged. “We said the first five people to run 30 kilometres could win a free tracksuit,” Vineer says. “We just ran competitions every week. It was really community-based. That's what drives the brand.”
“People went outside at midnight and ran 30K,” Granger laughs, ever surprised at the dedication of the brand’s fans.
By looking beyond London, Unknown found a rich customer base. “People in every city, other than London, were amazed that we had even bothered to come up there. They were like, ‘no other brand from London makes any effort to go visit other cities’,” says Granger.
A collaboration with streetwear label Ed Hardy, inspired by its vintage rhinestone styles, sold out last year. The partnership acknowledged Ed Hardy’s influence on Unknown’s rhinestone streetwear and also tapped into the Y2K macro-trend, which has seen a resurgence of brands including Ed Hardy, Von Dutch, True Religion and Juicy Couture. “Vintage Ed Hardy stuff aligned so perfectly with what we were doing anyway, we tailored it to all of our customers,” says Granger. “We played with vintage pieces and the vintage graphics.”
Global retail footprint and booming DTC
While DTC remains its main revenue stream, Unknown has built a strong network of stockists in Japan, which represents 20 of its 30 accounts. Japan took off for Unknown after the duo met Japanese fashion distributor Shota Takemoto at Paris Fashion Week.
“Japanese streetwear fans were starving for something new to go crazy about,” Takemoto says. “From SS20, Unknown’s sales have been bigger and bigger [each season], there is not a day I don't see [someone wearing] the rhinestone collection in every city in Japan.”
European stockists include Paris concept store Second Chapter and Galeries Lafayette Germany. Unknown has also been sold since Autumn/Winter 2020 by Italy’s Luisaviaroma, where the brand sells “fantastically well”, according to the store’s menswear buying manager Andrea Selvi. “Our customers are searching for premium streetwear brands,” he says. “Unknown is proposing a unique style, recognisable and worn by famous influencers. Plus, the price point is perfect for our consumers.”
Unknown secured its first US stockists during Spring/Summer 2022, picking up LA concept store 430 Fairfax (opposite the Supreme store, on Fairfax Avenue) and New York concept store Ctrl Alt Delete.
Unknown’s business is still dominated by the UK, which encourages the founders to look forward to “room for growth” abroad, Vineer says. The brand is planning a European pop up tour next — maybe without the bus. “Just go make noise in any city. There’s always kind of a chain reaction from there,” he says.
There are no plans for a permanent physical store. For now, Unknown is focusing on broadening its categories beyond the original hoodies and caps, adding accessories, outerwear and even mystery boxes. A core focus at present is the addition of footwear. “We really want to do trainers,” Veneer says, anticipating a launch for late Spring/Summer 2023. Ambition is not in short supply. “I don't see why we can’t just go the whole way,” says Granger. “And be one of the staple streetwear brands on the planet.”
Key takeaway: The British premium streetwear label mixes a hands-on approach, dyeing garments, working the tills at the pop-up shops and interacting directly with their fanbase on social media, to build a multi-million pound brand. Taking on wholesalers to reach a global customer, who is keen on premium streetwear, and extending into new categories such as footwear, is helping the brand build a long-term business.
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