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Image: Instagram/Alexei Hamblin
At 23, Alexei Hamblin, known to much of Gen Z fashion TikTok simply as Alexie, has done something few designers, let alone young entrepreneurs, ever manage: turn a public call-out of a retail giant into a seat at the rebranding table.
After criticising Sports Direct for producing what he bluntly described as “boring” clothing, Hamblin has now been invited to help reimagine Slazenger, one of the retailer’s most important and historic brands. And true to form, he’s documenting the entire process on TikTok.
It’s a remarkable arc for a designer who started sketching hoodies at 15 and now represents a new kind of fashion operator, one whose studio, focus group and marketing channel all live on the For You Page.
Hamblin belongs to a growing cohort of Gen Z founders building brands in public. As the founder of streetwear label River God, he didn’t just use TikTok to promote drops; he used it to explain the mechanics of building a fashion business from scratch.
His videos unpack everything legacy brands traditionally hide: how to source manufacturers, negotiate minimum order quantities, test designs in small runs and avoid the mistakes that sink first-time founders.
The result is an audience that didn’t find him through fashion gloss but through search terms like “how to start a clothing brand” or “zero MOQ manufacturers.”
In effect, Hamblin turned TikTok into a searchable operations manual for aspiring designers, and positioned himself as a trusted authority on the unglamorous but decisive side of fashion: supply chains, production and execution.
That transparency helped him grow River God from a teenage hobby into a functioning business while studying International Management at Warwick Business School, supported by a Young Entrepreneurs Scholarship that funnelled funding and mentorship directly into the brand.
Hamblin is candid that he sees himself less as a traditional fashion auteur and more as an entrepreneur who uses design as an entry point, someone focused on control, scalability and long-term equity.
It was from that position that Hamblin began openly critiquing mass-market sportswear on TikTok. His assessment of Sports Direct struck a nerve with younger consumers: safe colour palettes, uninspired graphics and products that felt disconnected from how Gen Z actually dresses.
In a pre-TikTok era, that kind of critique would have gone unanswered or been quietly dismissed.
Instead, Sports Direct’s ecosystem did something unusual.
Rather than ignore the criticism, it effectively invited Hamblin inside, asking him to help rebrand Slazenger, a heritage sportswear name with global recognition but waning cultural relevance among younger shoppers.
For a 23-year-old creator, it’s an extraordinary leap, from commentator to collaborator, from feed to boardroom.
Slazenger is not a side project. With deep roots in tennis, cricket and British sports culture, it remains a key asset in Sports Direct’s portfolio.
Handing creative influence to a Gen Z designer best known for TikTok breakdowns represents a significant shift in how legacy brands approach reinvention.
Hamblin is treating the brief as a full-stack overhaul, not an influencer campaign. Drawing on his experience advising hundreds of emerging labels and building manufacturing networks, he’s tackling visual identity, product direction and positioning with the same operational lens that defines his own ventures.
Crucially, he’s doing it all in public. On TikTok and YouTube Shorts, Hamblin is sharing moodboards, early logo ideas and garment concepts under titles like “Rebranding Slazenger in real life.” What would normally be locked inside agency decks is now content—inviting feedback from the exact demographic Slazenger needs to win back.
Hamblin’s rise captures a broader shift in both fashion and marketing.
TikTok is no longer just a promotional channel; it’s becoming live infrastructure for product development, brand strategy and consumer insight.
Creators aren’t just selling clothes, they’re shaping them.
For a company like Sports Direct, bringing a vocal critic into the process signals a new responsiveness to creator-led culture.
Hamblin's actions perhaps also validate a playbook built on radical transparency and operational fluency.
His TikTok feed, once a guide for small founders navigating factories and MOQs, has become a direct pipeline to influencing what millions of people will eventually wear.
At 23, Hamblin is proving that in the Gen Z economy, documenting the process isn’t a distraction from building a brand; it’s the brand.
And sometimes, calling out “boring” fashion is the first step to redesigning it.
FAST COMPANY (SA)