Sanjay Sathya

UK Streetwear Giant Corteiz Under Fire for LaLiga Logo Sweatshirt

Football Fashion

Corteiz “Rules the world”, one of the biggest UK streetwear brands, had a unique path to the top.

From adopting guerilla marketing to joining hands with sportswear giants, Clint Ogbenna, the founder of Corteiz has made every effort to make his brand popular.

But little about his football passion has been explored.

Clint himself has a straightforward association with the game, owning the “FC Rules the world” team in UK’s inaugural edition of Baller League.

But he also possesses an eccentric knack of blending football into streetwear clothing.

One of their popular release were the Brazil kit inspired football kits during the 2024 Copa America period, that had the Corteiz logo replacing the traditional “CBF” logo at the center of the tshirt.

Their next big venture was the Mario Balotelli capsule collection, featuring the former footballer in an Italian themed jackets and trousers. A customised hoodie with Balotelli’s famous celebration “Why always me?”, was a highlight of the release.

Corteiz continued to grow their brand incorporating football heritage when they joined hands with Nike, for the Air Max 95 release, a collaborative venture between the two.

Clint featured with one of the famous footballing personalities, Joga Bonito’s sorcerer, Ronaldinho, for the photoshoot of the shoes.

However, Corteiz have come into the spotlight for a wrong reason lately as they continue their association with football with a latest release.

A black sweatshirt with a LaLiga logo on the top left corner with the abbreviation of its slogan, RTW, had been posted by the official X handle of Corteiz.

As it turns out, the reactions were pretty negative about the usage of this old LaLiga logo.

Even their creativity was questioned for sticking on football logos to create some buzz –

The unusual thing however, is Clint himself, came out to reply to one of the critics but it wasn’t an explanation for the logo usage.

Instead, he had warned the tweeter to mind his own business and not question their methods or design.

Interesting to note, Corteiz had once been sued by Nike for resembling their shoe name “Nike Cortez”, and had summoned the founder, Clint for £1850. Later they went on to collaborate with the same.

Nevertheless, Cortiez have people easing out with the logo usage, as it is very common in streetwear brands to use football related logos.

Rebranding any football logo is something normal but dealing with it ethically is the right means of usage.

Maybe we never know, Clint might have had an agreement with LaLiga over the usage, which he is hesitant to reveal about.

Leave a comment