Garms Affiliated is back with a new look, and it’s never been better.
Few brands have experienced the kind of momentum that Garms Affiliated has generated over the last few years. Founded by Ben Errington and Max Galins, the pair initially launched the brand in October 2022 as a premium vintage and own-brand retailer before pivoting into a standalone streetwear imprint, creating a label that’s built its reputation on elevated everyday essentials, combining heavyweight fabrics, oversized silhouettes and understated branding with a distinctly contemporary approach to design.
The brand started as a grassroots project and quickly evolved into one of the UK’s most recognisable names in modern streetwear. Through a combination of community-led marketing, carefully curated drops and a deep understanding of its core audience, GA has cultivated a loyal following that extends far beyond its home market. From signature tracksuits and graphic-led pieces to premium outerwear and denim, the brand became known for balancing accessibility with aspiration, proving that simplicity, when executed properly, can be just as impactful as statement design.
Yet for all of its success, the team behind the brand recognised that growth requires evolution. As the label enters a new chapter under the shortened AFFILIATED name, the rebrand represents a broader shift in how the business operates, designs and communicates with its audience. "Everything feels much clearer to us now," the team explains. "We wanted to use this moment to reset our entire output. At the start of the year, we invested heavily in almost every part of the team, bringing in new, specialised talent and experience."
The result is a brand that remains focused on the values that built its reputation while looking firmly towards the future. To learn more about the thinking behind the rebrand, the lessons learned throughout its journey and what comes next for AFFILIATED, CULTED sat down with the team behind the label.
Over the years you’ve sourced garments from cities across the world, from Tokyo and Naples to Karachi and New York. How did those experiences shape your understanding of quality, design and what makes a piece worth keeping?
Seeing how clothing was built through multiple decades gave us real clarity on how brands earn the trust of their community. That’s what it all comes down to - it takes so much work to earn and can be lost in an instant. Through this, we learned how to develop our own products, with the goal of building that trust, keeping integrity and quality at the centre of everything we make.
Having handled such a huge volume of clothing, what are the biggest lessons you’ve learned about how brands endure?
It’s the build quality, the construction, and often the politics behind the business itself. Independent brands like us are generally much better at sticking to those principles. Larger companies often have investors constantly pushing for higher profits, which always puts downward pressure on quality. At that point, the business is servicing its investors, not its community, and in the end, the community fades.
At what point did you start thinking about creating your own products rather than selling existing ones?
Affiliated started as a small community of loyal customers who cared about what we sourced and really trusted our eye. Over time, we began to develop pieces that we knew couldn’t be sourced, pieces that we personally wanted to wear. We put those pieces in our stores, and when they sold out faster than any of the vintage, we knew we wanted to trust the knowledge we had built and go all in.
How did years spent studying archival and technical clothing influence the way you approached design, fabric selection and fit for your own collections?
We had over 1,000,000 pieces personally curated by us pass through our hands. With that amount of experience, it takes so much more for us to feel genuinely excited about a product. It pushes us to work with more ambitious materials, fabrics that feel incredible in the hand, or have genuinely interesting properties and textures. We want every product to feel impressive, both visually and physically.
Was there a particular garment, brand or era of design that helped shape the creative direction of the new collection?
The new Relay Jacket is probably the best manifestation of the new identity. The construction, the form and the function all come together in one piece. It’s an incredibly complex jacket made using some really impressive materials, and it showcases us at our best - we’re really proud of it.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or interactions with your community over the years?
I met someone a couple of months ago who had collected every iteration of our Signature Joggers that we’ve ever made. He even owned a pair from our very first drop, an in-store exclusive limited to just 50 pieces.
I’ve built an extensive archive myself through my time sourcing rare garments, so I know what drives someone to collect like this. Knowing somebody had that level of respect for what we’ve built as a brand was a genuinely special moment.
Why did now feel like the right moment for a rebrand?
Everything feels much clearer to us now. We wanted to use this moment to reset our entire output. At the start of the year, we invested heavily in almost every part of the team, bringing in new, specialised talent and experience.
We wanted to take this chance to mature with our audience and refine the brand further, leaning into more complicated constructions and elevating every aspect of the product build through trims and fabric even further.
How would you describe the identity of the brand today compared to when you first started?
We’ve carried a few fundamental principles with us that will always be the soul of the brand. We work incredibly hard to make sure that when someone in our community picks up one of our products, it feels genuinely special. That’s what’s always pushed us towards rarer fabrics, more interesting weaves and better construction.
Two years ago, there were only two of us. Today, there are more than fifteen people working on the brand full-time. Every decision, down to the smallest detail, is shaped through countless conversations and considerations. Everything we do now carries a much deeper level of intent.
In an increasingly digital industry, why do physical retail, events and face-to-face interaction still matter so much to you?
We ran an event last month, and it was probably the best day of my life. Being able to speak to people face-to-face, hear why they’ve come and understand why they trust us with their money means everything to us.
Over 1,500 people came to a small installation we built in London, and nothing gives a stronger sense of the energy behind the brand than seeing that in person. That energy is the brand. It’s what inspires all of us to keep pushing forward.
We’re living in a strange time where more and more of life is spent online, and with that comes a growing desire for real-world experiences. We definitely feel that ourselves, which is why we’re planning to invest even more into physical events moving forward.
Looking ahead, what does success look like for A_D? Is it growth, product, cultural impact, or something else entirely?
At the end of last year, we started building an incredible womenswear team. Some of the most exciting projects we’ve seen so far have come from that side of the business, so seeing a genuine community develop around it is definitely one of the goals at the front of everyone’s minds right now.
You can check out the new and rebranded AFFILIATED here.
