Imagine being given the opportunity to design clothing for the legendary Madonna (recording artist). That’s exactly what happened to Nick Welch, Adrian Kinnavanthong, and Jon Blumberg. They created Ordnry Clothing back in 2012 and needed to find ways to get it seen and noticed by a bigger audience. They knew it would be difficult to start their brand in Winnipeg, Manitoba as it’s a very small city and people don’t travel often.
After seeing how big networking across social media was getting, they decided to shoot their shot and message influencers who they thought promoted what their brand stood for, which is that even though we are all humans, we are all unique and out of the ordinary. One of the people the brand decided to message was Lil Buck. Lil Buck is a professional dancer who has appeared on the Ellen Degeneres Show, co-choreographed the music video for one of Janelle Monae’s (actress/recording artist) songs, danced in Cirque du Soleil, has won numerous awards and so much more. At the time he only had around 10k followers on Instagram, and to their surprise he was all on board for their brand and what they stood for.
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A few days later Lil Buck received an Ordnry t-shirt in the mail and loved it and they built a relationship from there. Later on, Nick went to NewYork for vacation and Lil Buck noticed that he was out visiting and invited him to come hang out. They met up and things went well, and only six months later he had asked Nick if it was possible for him to make a custom sweater for Madonna as he used to be her backup dancer. The custom sweater that they made was white with gold writing and that was the end of that. Madonna never wore it, and some more time had passed when Lil Buck asked the trio if they wanted to come down and actually meet Madonna, and of course they agreed.
They flew down to New York to meet her and brought another sweater, this time it was their original black and white design. They showed up at her studio while she was recording and introduced themselves and where they were from. Madonna replied by saying “Oh, you’re from Winnipeg sorry to hear that,” and they all had a good laugh. From that point on they had built a strong relationship which later led to them being invited to her birthday, New Years’ party, and Grammy’s party. It was at these occasions they were introduced to Katy Perry and other celebs. As soon as Madonna was given her new hoody, the next day she took a picture of her in it and posted it on Instagram without them asking. This was a big stepping stone for the trio as the brand then blew up. Many stores including a Texas wholesaler reached out to buy the clothing.
Nick and the crew asked Madonna if she’d be interested in letting them design her tour merch, but unfortunately since the tour already started it would be impossible. Her next tour plans came around and they reached out again asking if they could design her tour merchandise and Madonna directed them to her manager who agreed and asked for a variety of samples that they could choose from. For Madonna’s birthday Nick went to Italy and brought her a new custom jacket that they designed just for her. This showed her what they were capable of designing. They ended up designing her tour jacket which was a big success.
It truly is mindblowing to see how far Ordnry has come. Click here to find out why this brand is so talked about.
