Evolve And Thrive

Alan Wardle, founder of streetwear brand AnyForty, explains why he’s relaunched his shop and created an agency focused on collaboration

Collaboration with artists has always been a key element of streetwear brand AnyForty, founded by Alan Wardle in 2008. Over the past seven years, he has been balancing his client work with running the business, but recently opted to combine the best of both. Wardle has set up an agency focusing on artist collaboration, and relaunched AnyForty as a print on demand business. He tells us more...

What’s the background of AnyForty?

I launched AnyForty on the side of a full-time design job. I definitely launched it just as the golden age of streetwear was blowing up, and quickly the brand grew and grew. All was going brilliantly until four years ago when little independent shops started to fold, the climate got oversaturated and customers got trained to a new shopping habit of waiting for discount codes and sales.