At TDC, we use the term Pre-Original to describe all of the jackets we made prior to our first bespoke collection, which we named “TDC Originals”. A constant characteristic for any Pre-original TDC piece is their upcycled nature.
The idea to upcycle second-hand denim jackets was inspired by a particular ‘cool blue Levis jacket’. This jacket belonged to a friend of ours who challenged us to add value to his jacket. This was interesting because we thought that his jacket was already ‘cool’, which we expressed to him in kind. Being a painter, he saw the jacket as a blank canvas that had the potential to showcase any unique idea we presented it. We went with his idea and embarked on a mission to upcycle his jacket using different cut-outs from our old t-shirts which had branded prints on them. We collaborated with our local tailor to put everything together, and were successful in adding value to the once ‘cool’ jacket. This experience allowed us to explore an artistic aspect of ourselves that we never once thought existed. It also allowed us to realize the potential in working with 2nd hand denim jackets. We decided to apply the same approach on other second-hand denim jackets that we could thrift from local markets such as Gikomba, Toi, and Kibera open air markets.
During our initial foray dealing with 2nd hand denim jackets, we understood that we needed to create a brand that we could use as a banner for all our work. All credit goes to a friend and associate of ours at the time for giving us our name (True Denim Collection). Our iconic logo was then created by one of the founders using the free version of Canva. All these were done in a quick timeframe since we had to launch the brand on 11th of November live on our Instagram page at 11 AM. Looking back, none of us knew how iconic our name & logo would evolve to become.
On the day of the Grand Opening, I can remember us feeling anxious before going live. The timing was perfect as my mom was out of town for the weekend on a work trip and we seized to opportunity to use the space as our venue. We had some pieces that we had already sourced from various markets and upcycled days leading up to the Grand Opening, so it was just a matter of setting up the room, going live and hoping for the best… and boy oh boy, were we in for a treat.
By around this point in time, we had everything we needed to cultivate our initial community, including a cool name, a cooler logo, and a growing social media community of people who were huge fans of the work we were doing. The only thing that we felt we needed to incorporate was an avenue for our patrons to physically interact with our pieces.
At the time, we identified the K1 Flea Market at K1 Klub House as the ideal location for us to do this… if only they could have us. Did you notice the year-long gap between the grand opening and now? Well, that’s because we requested to join the vending list multiple times, and were rejected multiple times before we were ultimately placed on a (maybe) waiting list. At the time, I remember this back & forth almost drove my associate crazy, but thank God he held on as they finally gave us the opportunity to join them as regular vendors. Little did we know that we were entering a very significant chapter of our company’s journey.
To be completely honest with you, I don’t know the exact time around when we thought that we should make a switch from working with upcycled pieces to making our own pieces. I can tell you that by around this time, we had created an efficient system around working with upcycled pieces. But this success shined a light on a number of limitations that we felt were holding our company back from reaching its full potential.
One major factor was the fact that it was very hard to replicate orders of jackets that were already purchased. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. Looking back, I see this as kind of a beautiful thing because it means that every single TDC Pre-Original Jacket is a one-of-a-kind piece.
Another factor can be attributed to our thirst for knowledge. We really wanted to understand every single step that goes into designing and making the perfect denim jacket (more on this in later posts when I cover the collections we’ve worked on). I have so many stories to tell, but I think that if I had my way, I would write a whole book instead of a blog post (maybe one day…).
Instead, I shall bid you farewell for now by sharing with you this masterpiece by the late great maestro Tilu The Creator AKA The RetroGod.
Written by David Chai
