Clan de banlieue

The Rotterdam-based luxury streetwear brand began in 2014 as a school project by Richard Lopes Mendes. He was studying retail entrepreneurship and had to start his own business to do so. Lopes Mendes designed a T-shirt that he posted on Instagram; he was one of the few in the Netherlands to achieve success with it. Eventually Richard Lopes Mendes, Sinan Karaca and Levie Merckens released the T-shirt on the market, and so the trio was born. From an innocent exam project emerged a successful brand that grew extremely fast. The brand takes its inspiration from multicultural suburbs such as Rotterdam-zuid, the trio also takes their inspiration from France. Clan de Banlieue its meaning name stands for the French word suburb, this is also seen as "ghetto", Banlieue wants to make this word positive. The clothing mainly consists of tracksuits, hoodies and other kind of stylish streetwear. The brand combines street and fashion so that it can be sold to a wider audience. The range consists of casual looks but at the same time can also be seen as a sporty fit.

The growth

The company's growth began to increase especially in 2019, for example, footballers such as Hakim Ziyech, Gini Wijnaldum and Willem van Hanegem had been wearing the luxery sportswear for a while. The brand also began collaborations with big names such as Robey, Sparta Rotterdam, Champion and Cruyff. For example, Clan de Banlieue designed the third jersey of the soccer club Sparta Rotterdam, and they started their own KNVB amateur soccer club called "FC Banlieue." The brand started with unisex clothing, since 2021 Banlieue also offers specific women's clothing. Among their women's collection are tracksuits, cropped hoodies, crop tops, biker shorts, high waist leggings in the soft colors of pink, blue and purple.

The trio wants to show that you can easily make sportswear look like a luxery fit, they want to conquer the market in the Netherlands, and eventually worldwide. This brand is definitely going to have a bright future. Clan de Banlieue is available at Bruut since early 2022, check all our Banlieue products. Or check other products similar to Banlieue like NINETYFOUR, New Amsterdam Surf Association or Daily paper.