February 2020, Amsterdam. The weather was brutal—rainy, freezing, the kind of cold that gets into your bones. Ryan wasn’t there for the usual tourist stuff. One trip to the Rijksmuseum changed everything. He found himself immersed in a mind-bending, psychedelic experience, surrounded by the works of Bernini and Caravaggio. Their art wasn’t just something to look at—it was alive, raw, and it pulled him in. It was chaotic, beautiful, and unapologetically bold, and that feeling stuck with him. He knew right then, and there that he had to create something.

Fueled by his rebellious spirit and DIY ethics, Ryan sat down in his hotel room, pulled up his laptop, and started designing. The ideas flowed fast. He wasn’t trying to build a brand—he was trying to bring an idea to life. Without hesitating, he threw those designs on Instagram. The reaction was explosive.

Nostalgia was a big part of it. The 90s had shaped Ryan—skateboarding on cracked pavements, punk rock blasting, hip-hop culture shaping the way he saw the world. Cultish had to tap into that raw energy and bring it into today’s world.

When he got back to Cape Town, the world had started to shut down. Covid hit. Lockdowns began. But instead of slowing down, Ryan doubled down.

The first product? A face mask. It flopped. But that didn’t stop him. the second drop was different—a capsule of four box tees, all black, featuring iconic paintings screen-printed on the back. The prints weren’t perfect, the process was raw, but that’s what made it Cultish. This wasn’t about glossy perfection—it was about grit, emotion, and pushing boundaries.

By August 2020, Cultish was ready to take the next step. The first website went live, not as a polished sales machine, but as an extension of the brand’s ethos—raw, authentic, and unfiltered. It wasn’t about following the rules or the usual way of doing things. It was about creating a space that felt like us, where the community could see themselves reflected in what we were building.

By December, we found our way into EGG, the first store to stock our tees. There wasn’t a roadmap, but the connection was real. When the tees sold out, it wasn’t because we’d advertised it everywhere—it was because people saw themselves in what we were doing. They felt the energy behind it. This was a brand born from the streets but also from a refusal to follow the rules laid out by anyone else.

The next retail move came soon after. Cultish was picked up by Story, a curated sneaker store in the heart of Cape Town. Stocking Cultish there was a perfect fit. It wasn’t just about putting tees on shelves—it was about embedding the brand into the very DNA of Cape Town’s street culture. Story gave Cultish a place to grow and connect with a new audience.

Behind every drop was experimentation. We weren’t playing it safe—we were testing new fits, new silhouettes, pushing the designs in ways that felt right to us. The oversized tees, the boxy cuts, the imperfect screen prints—they all had a purpose. They reflected a mindset of going against the grain, of embracing the rough edges, and staying true to where we came from.

Cultish wasn’t built by following anyone else’s formula. It grew because we stayed true to the culture that inspired us and the community that supported us from day one. Against the odds, we didn’t just find a seat at the table—we built our own.