Alcatraz to Everywhere: The Story of Corteiz
From a one-person bedroom operation to one of Britain's most influential labels, Corteiz has grown almost entirely on word of mouth.
Clint Ogbenna has spent the better part of a decade turning Corteiz into a household name. Working under the alias clint419, he’s grown it from a one-person bedroom operation in West London into one of Britain’s most influential labels, almost entirely on word of mouth. But to understand how he got here, it’s necessary to go back to the start.
Before Corteiz, there was Cade, a label Clint co-founded with a friend that landed a cosign in the video for A$AP Rocky’s “Money Man / Put That On My Set.” The brand would fold by the end of 2017. Before that, there was reselling. Clint talked his way into Nike and Virgil Abloh’s invite-only workshops ahead of ‘The Ten,’ granting him the right to buy a pair months before anyone else. He flipped some Off-White 1s for roughly $1,000, put the profit into the cryptocurrency XRP, and cashed out eight weeks later with enough to fund Corteiz’s first samples and a trip to Los Angeles for a lookbook shoot.