In 2010, George Heaton and his brother Mike took the sewing skills their grandmother taught them and launched their graphic streetwear brand called T-Shirts REPRESENTATIONS. Fast forward to the present day, and the proudly British brand has vastly expanded its offerings and reach. In 2023, REPRESENT boasted $100 million in sales, and in 2024 they opened their first store in LA. a permanent store at Harrods in London, and OPEN their first UK flagship store in their hometown of Manchester. Not bad for a brand that started as a college project.
The entrepreneur spoke with George Heaton to learn about the brand's origins, the strategies he and his brother have used to achieve such monumental growth, and his advice for aspiring style entrepreneurs to bring their vision to life.
The first part
“This was originally a college project. For my design degree, I was going to create something that would sell within the realm of graphic design. At the time, like 2010, there was a huge American streetwear boom. We we created this website, we went to a local printer, and I printed 25 t-shirts that just said REPRESENTATION on the front, I sold them to my friends and my friend's family I wanted to be this British brand to stand out from the t-shirt crowd printed indeed as the first four or five years of what was “REPRESENTED.”
Brand name
“I was sitting in class in college and I wrote a list of 10 names on a piece of paper and REPRESENTATION was one of them. And a friend of mine looked and said, 'Just take it off and it looks good. .' And that's what actually happened.”
A family passion
“My brother, who is my partner, also did graphic design. My grandmother was a seamstress and she taught us how to sew and cut and sew. So I would re-sewn all my clothes as a teenager and I was able to understand how clothes fit and flow and how things would drape.My first hire was an actual fashion student who knew how to make and cut a garment, and then we used my brother tim as suitable models. Not only t-shirts and hoodies are available.”
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Standing out in a crowd
“We introduced a denim garment that was off the market and became our bread and butter for many years. It was quite thin and had a stretch and was very gathered at the bottom. I made it with my grandmother from a pair of jeans called monkey jeans We just tweaked the fit and then sent them to a random factory that I didn't know I was using a well-known factory that would ask for a 5,000 order or something like that And I got this sample and I said, “This it's the jeans I need, so let's see if everyone makes it”. We put it online and it just took off for us. We were selling 100 pairs a day without marketing.
Credit: REPRESENTATION
Going beyond jeans and t-shirts
“I didn't want to be just a denim brand. I wanted to be a fashion brand. I wanted to be able to attack all categories and supply complete clothing for our customers – we were just making clothes for ourselves. So we we went into shoes, we went into pants, we went into leather jackets, we got into wax work and leather goods Right now, denim is maybe 4 percent of our business in 2015 see this in the hard times that denim has been through. ”
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The importance of bricks and mortar
“Having a store is extremely important for advocacy, especially if you're a luxury brand and you're trying to sell at a premium. People want to be able to touch and feel so they know what the fabrics are and the quality of that part they have to understand how much work and effort goes into it.”
Credit: REPRESENTATION
Advice for future fashion entrepreneurs
“It's really important to know what you're strong at and what you're weak at. I've realized over the years that my creativity was being pushed to the side to be able to handle the business. It was terrible for business because that's what I was good at When I was able to hire a CEO, I was able to keep my mind on the creative and the content and the product side, which I like your weaknesses and then rely on yourself for your points strong is such a critical thing, and it was for us in our business.”