A guy who started his own clothing store from the boot of his car at local markets has taken his streetwear fashion brand to a global audience.
Fifteen years ago as a school student, Tyrone Glode was fed up with the lack of quality streetwear in shops around Queensland, so he used class time to scope American merch to sell at markets in Woodridge.
Now he’s mixing it as an apparel partner for some of the world’s most talented sporting stars.
Mr Glode is the director of Urban Wear, a local start up celebrating 15 years in business.
He has five stores, the first of which opened at Slacks Creek in 2007, and a major online sales department that ships around the world.
Last week, he was excited to announce a new partnership that will see Urban Wear become the official streetwear partner for Rugby League Samoa for the 2022 Rugby League World Cup due in October.
“We were early adopters in this influencer space where we created brands with influencers,” he said.
“This is an extension of that where we’ve secured a licence with Samoan Rugby League and hit a side of their market that they haven’t traditionally had.”
Under the arrangement, they will create a streetwear clothing line for Samoans that builds a brand around their national team.
“And we want to give our local customers something from the local sports market, so they’re not just having to wear New York or Raiders [gear],” he said.
He said a portion of sales will go to supporting grassroots rugby league in Samoa.
“It will be distributed directly to rugby league Samoa, and from there, they will be able to share it with grassroots rugby league,” he said.
So what exactly is urban streetwear?
“It’s a real tricky one, because it’s not really defined by any one thing,” he said.
“It’s who it’s influenced by, like rappers, hip-hop, R&B, and pop-culture.”
Mr Glode’s journey began at the turn of the 21st century. He was in school, pushing 17-years-old, working for an aluminium factory, and wanted more places that stocked his kind of clothing.
“There wasn’t real authentic streetwear,” he said. “I started looking at the New Era hats, which there wasn’t many of over here.
“It was more just sort of Tupac t-shirts made cheap, sold in the middle of an aisle in the knick-knacky stores.”
Without expecting anything to come of it, he imported a small batch of shirts and caps from America and started selling it at local markets.
“I imported some stock from America, sold it out of the closet, out of the car, from the warehouse, and spent six or so months at the Woodridge markets,” he said.
It was the sort of big-name merch from the likes of New Era and Dickies, bearing the crests of American sporting teams and pop-culture icons.
Those early days provided the proof of concept he needed to make something from it.
“I was 17 at the time, I couldn’t even register the website in my name, so I had to reach out to Mum to do it,” he said.
“I definitely didn’t think I’d get this far.”
