Footwear designer Junior Clint is a Gen Z role model

Founding his own brand at just 21-years-old, Junior Clint hopes to inspire others like him to pursue their passions by acting as someone within the fashion industry they can relate to.

Junior Clint is on a mission to transform media perceptions of black male creatives. Founding an entire fashion brand in his second year at university, the young designer is at the forefront of a movement striving to reshape public attitudes towards men of colour.

Working hard to do a lot with a little, Clint built his impressive business from the ground up, watching online tutorials to gain a better understanding of how clothing actually works. Eventually teaming up with Novesta for his first pair of shoes, he embarked upon a journey that has quickly developed into quite a bit more than your average footwear line. Clints is also a platform hard-set on advocating change, particularly change that involves calling upon the fashion industry to better elevate black voices.

‘In the footwear industry, BAME designers are under-represented,’ he said in an Instagram post. ‘When I was starting up, one of the biggest challenges for me was identifying Black independent footwear designers that I could look to for inspiration. So I’m starting the ‘Inspire Change Initiative’ as an attempt to bring-in my brothers and sisters in the field I work in and provide resources to create their own shoe design from scratch.’

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Explaining that people can’t be what they can’t see, Clint is determined to shine a light on his diverse community so that others will feel encouraged to create as well. And, given that Gen Z is a generation obsessed with the exploration of unfamiliar realms of creativity, he’s a prime example of this ethos.

‘Clint explores the 2020 form of expression with a sponge-like attitude,’ reported Versus. ‘He soaks up techniques and attempts to reinterpret them through his own lens.’ Pushing the notion that success is all about freedom to be yourself, I have no doubt that Clint will soon be making waves in fashion.

His unwavering perseverance to inspire others to do their own thing – no matter which barriers may present themselves along the way – is truly admirable, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.