ABOUT

So what do you actually do?

I design and make custom one-off pieces inspired by sports and UK culture.

What has your career path been?

Growing up in Leicester, there’s an independent store which has all the exclusive clothing, trainers etc. and I knew a guy that worked in the store as a buyer. So he told me about his role, and what he does, and I thought that sounded sick – I thought I’d love to be a buyer and pick the stuff for the store.

So I kind of based my career around that, and I studied business retail in college. And after that I didn’t really know what to do. Everyone was telling me to do a fashion course, but I didn’t want to do a fashion course and I ended up doing business management at uni. I also worked at Foot Locker for six years and in my second year of uni is when I actually made the brand Dodici Otto, and this came about because I liked football kits and wanted one that no one else had.  

I’m an Arsenal fan and wanted the black kit, but couldn’t find it anywhere so I thought I’ll just make my own. It wasn’t meant to be a brand or anything at the start, I just wanted a cool kit of my own.

I made it, and showed my boys and they said it looks sick and wanted one for themselves so I made it for them too and from there it caught on. The Instagram was then made and it went mad from there. I did get a job as a buyer and it was a lot of grafting but it was pretty much for nothing and I thought I’d rather put all my energy into my own thing.

And I sacrificed a lot, didn’t go out much, saved money, and it just kept on growing. I’ve worked with Crep Select, Blue Story, Top Boy. The start was tough, and I’ve had moments where I’ve had the chance to go out and do things but I know that in the long run I need to sacrifice because it’ll pay off.

What is the best part of your job?

Probably giving my design to someone, and seeing their reaction and them being gassed.

I’m the one designing the stuff and it comes easy to me for the most part, and to me it’s just normal and it’s weird to see that people actually think my work is sick. I didn’t study art, or do any courses and things like that, it’s all me so seeing people love my work is sick.

Why do you do your job?

For the legacy.

I want to leave something behind, and make a stamp. A lot of things come under that, but this is the driving force for Dodici Otto. When you’re doing your own thing, no one can take it away from you.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

Educate yourself.

I’m not talking about uni or anything, but you have to know what you’re doing in the field you’re going into. Read a lot, research a lot, and learn about your craft.

Believe in yourself too, and don’t be afraid to invest in yourself, a lot of people half invest in yourself and are shocked when things don’t go to plan but you need to give 100% to get full results back.

Check out Jords’ socials below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

I think the best way to answer this is by doing it from the POV of if someone asked me to design a top for them.  

So I wake up around 6 / 6.30 each day and stay in bed answering any questions and emails for around 30 mins, and then go ahead with my day after showing and breakfast.

If someone has asked me to design a top for them, I will literally get pen to paper and start designing. For me, designing is quite quick – let’s say a few hours and will send it back to the client and see what they think about it. We’ll chat about any changes that need to be made, what the client likes, what they don’t like, and then once I have gone through that whole process and the design is locked in, we can create the actual kit. 

I’ll then get it off to the printer to make the physical version – for the most part it is quite repetitive in terms of process. E.g. designing, printing, answering emails, delivering things.

When it comes to printing, I’m heavily involved in this too and everything you see is me. The printing, the designing, the packaging. Everything. When it comes to inspirations behind the designs, I find myself being inspired by a bunch of things. I have a list of designs that I want to do, but what is great that I’ll never be short of ideas because people will always have their own twist on what they want their kit to be, which I can then create in my style.

 I love football, and I wanted to be involved in the space and there’s not many people out there that have custom football kits which is linked in with UK culture. You have Nike, Adidas etc but I wanted to create something that is for the culture. One of my biggest goals is to have my kit on FIFA. In terms of where I see the brand going, I want to do more collaborations with different companies and it’d be sick to do a collaboration with a football team – I’m from Leicester so they’d be a good one. I started Dodici Otto for fun so anything I do now is a bonus. I don’t do it for the money, and it doesn’t feel like a job for me. I enjoy it so much and it’s my hobby, and this outweighs everything else.