Ratchet Clothing

Creative Director
2012-2018

Ratchet Clothing was a crazy phenomenon. In 2011 I was made redundant from Egg PLC and at the time I was training JiuJitsu at 4th Dimension MMA Long Eaton ran by Wayne Kirk (Booster Fight Gear UK). It was at this point that I was introduced to the Bhardwaj family that ran ESP Cars & Fantom Styling below the Gym.

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Over the first few months of my new self employed venture I worked closely with the Bhardwaj family over projects that they currently had running.

One day I was sat in my office at 4D and in walked Dhillan Bhardwaj, at the time he was nearly 16 and he mentioned that he was interested in creating a fassion brand. Not thinking much of it, myself and Dhillan sat down and I created the original logo for Ratchet Clothing.

It wasn't long after this that Dhillan came back in the office to let me know he'd sold 100 T-Shirts. I was convinced he'd got his numbers wrong but sure enough he was right. It was at that point that I then made the first Ratchet Clothing website (Which crashed the hosting server) and also the Ratchet Clothing web store.

Each day I was becoming more and more involved in the day to day opperations at Ratchet Clothing as Wayne was making the clothes with Dhillan, I was making sure online was sorted.

After a few weeks of Dhillan navigating this new business his Dad Binder sat down with me and asked me to run Ratchet Clothing with Dhillan, with me being older than Dhillan there were things that I would manage and Dhillan would take care of the social side of things.

The speed that Ratchet took off was honestly insane, we had to expand the office half a dozen times and most times before the previous expansion was complete.

I'd now started to work full time at Ratchet Clothing creating multiple designs and logos still used to this day, but we were also now printing, dyeing and customising everything ourselves onsite in our warehouse.

A lot of the journey we went on felt like a whirlwhind, one moment I was stood air brushing 100 back packs to then be in central London at an award ceromony and by the end of the week I was in Newcastle opening a brand new shop from scratch.

Something that was key to the Ratchet Clothing Ethos was quality. At first we customised blank garments but soon learned that we needed to create our own in a huge 'Cut & Sew' project. This was something that none of us had ever done before. We made all of our key items including: T-Shirts, Hoods, Joggers, Sweatshirts, Bags and much more. This was a fascinating time learning the process and drawing technical CADs and liaising with overseas & UK manafacturers.

One of the biggest projects that we took on was opening the Flagship store that was located behind our design studio and warehouse. It was a beautiful store that wouldn't be out of place in one of any major shopping centres. Then came shop launch day & I don't think any of us were really prepared for the insanity that weekend brought. We were all working insane hours and it paid off.

Following the shop launch we were contacted by BBC News and this is where the momentum really began. After a few TV & Radio interviews we were then offered a store in Westfield Lakeside (Essex). This was a whole new challenge, opening the shop wasnt just make the stock and deliver it, we had to clear out an store and completley re-vamp the space, we then had to pass Fire & health inspections, we needed to interview and employ full time staff, we needed to find acomodation for Dhillan to live in Essex we also had to buy & learn a new EPOS system for sales and stock.

The media train was really ramping up during our Essex shop and this was when Dhillan was invited to have tea with the then Prime Minsiter David Cameron. We all rushed into action creating a one off custom dinner jacket for Dhillan to wear at the event. The Ratchet team decended to the capital and were taken on a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament and finally dropped Dhillan at No10 for his meeting.

Lakeside was an incredible experience for all of us and whilst we were there we won Two OPAL Awards, that was a great feeling considering we were the new kids on the block.

Westfield were keen to keep us on the road following our success in Essex so our next location was Westfield Eldon Square (Newcastle) All the same chaos of opening Essex with acomodation, Staff & stock along with the overhaul of the store.

As well as stores we had in Essex & Newcastle we also had spaces in the Bull Ring Birmingham and Sheffield. Quality & customer experience/satisfaction was a huge thing at Ratchet Clothing so whenever we opened a shop we had as many of our small team working on them so we would do one at a time.

As well as the shops that we opened, one of the big things at Ratchet were the events. We had Summer Parties, Collection Launches & guest spots for New Music artists at the Flagship Store. One of the biggest events was the Face of Ratchet. This was a modelling competition accross all age groups. This started with people applying through socials and then being invited to a two day event at the flagship store where I would do a test shoot across all age ranges to determine finalists. Once decided we then did a days photo shoot a a professional photo studio that I would photograph each winner for our new collection.

The Monetum didn't really slow down and saw Dhillan being approached by different TV oppertunitys, this was something that we were all involved in as we needed to create new collections for Dhillan to wear whilst on screen.

Overall the things that I learned and skills I developed with my time at Ratchet Clothing were priceless. We all entered a world that we didn't know much about and ended up as one of the biggest independent brands at the time.

My Ratchet Clothing responsabilities included:

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