There are certain brands in Manchester that feel bigger than clothes, and CLINTS has been one of them for a while now. Not just because of the shoes, the sold-out drops or the fact Junior has turned a self-taught project into one of the city’s strongest fashion success stories. More because CLINTS has always felt like it came with its own world.
Now that world has had a refit.
Four years on from first opening on Quay Street, the CLINTS team have reworked the space into something elevated, warmer and a more considered experience. The old shop was fit for purpose. The new one says more. Wood panelling runs from floor to ceiling, there are subtle references to chess built into the design, and the whole thing feels less like a standard retail box and more like a space designed to be experienced.
Junior put it pretty simply when we met him there. “We wanted to open up the space and improve the experience” he said. “If you have anything for a long period of time, as you grow the space around it should grow with it and thats how we felt going into the project.”
That idea of refinement has followed CLINTS from the start. Back in 2020 the brand landed hard with the TRL, a trail-inspired shoe silhouette that sold out in under an hour and announced the brand as a serious design voice in the north with something of its own to say. Since then CLINTS has expanded into a full design language, spanning footwear, apparel, accessories and now increasingly the kind of interiors and environments that make the brand feel properly lived in.
That matters to Junior. In fact, it is basically the whole point of having a physical shop in the first place.
“That’s the reason we want physical space,” he said. “Because if it wasn’t presented well, it’s probably better to just leave it online.”
That line gets to the heart of what this relaunch is really about. This is not some dramatic rebrand or a shop trying to become a concept cafe overnight. It is more that CLINTS has grown up a bit, and the store has caught up with where the brand’s taste level is now. Junior described it as coming of age. You can feel that in the details. Nothing is too loud, but very little is accidental either.
Even the checkerboard cues dotted through the space have a backstory. They are a nod to the impromptu chess games that used to spill out around the shop with neighbours and friends. That will soon become a more visible part of the store too, with chess tables planned outside and coffee on the way. The goal is not to pile on gimmicks. It is to make the space feel human.
“We want to have a more hybrid experience in general,” Junior said.
That feels like the right note. Plenty of brands talk about community. Fewer actually think about what makes people want to linger, return, or feel comfortable in a space without the pressure to buy something immediately. CLINTS is clearly thinking about that now, and doing it in a way that still feels in keeping with the brand rather than bolted on for effect.
There is more coming too. Junior briefly teased a CLINTS football boot due this summer, timed around the World Cup and rooted in vintage football references. But the store is the story for now, and rightly so. Because while everyone talks about online reach, this relaunch is a reminder that physical space still matters when you have something real to say with it.
And CLINTS, more than most, usually does.
