The rags to riches fashion brand from Port Talbot that grew from nothing
When Nigel Hunt lost his job at the steelworks in Port Talbot, he feared he had lost it all. He had four kids, a mortgage, loan, credit cards and an overdraft. The job he thought he had for life had gone, and being sacked two days before the company made mass redundancies meant he was left without a financial package to give him time to decide what to do next.He gambled his last paycheck on a dream he had for a clothes business.Wales had just qualified for the Euros, and Nigel decided to pack his bags and head to France to sell his Welsh designs. The former councillor was selling t-shirts on the pavements of Bordeaux, Paris and Lyon where Wales were playing.Fast forward a decade and San Portablo is about to mark its 10th anniversary.Nigel said: "I was in a crisis like how I started, it was probably the biggest crisis of my adult life. I'd lost a job, I'd been dismissed two days before they made 600 people redundant. I had four children, I had a mortgage, loan, credit cards, overdraft, and a job for life had been taken away from me and I didn't have the redundancy package."So I spent my last wages on clothing. I had to hustle really, I had friends, we had some good designs, but we had a stroke of luck, there was an opportunity when Wales just for the Euros in 2016. It's something that I'd waited for all my life, a lot of us had waited for it for a long time, it is a big celebration."Nigel was later joined by his friend Mike Locke, better known to some as Dirty Sanchez' Pancho, and that saw the brand expand.They wanted to challenge negative perceptions of their hometown, whether that was through their traditional "shunk" t-shirt or their tribute to Port Talbot's gift from Banksy. Stay informed on everything Neath Port Talbot by signing up to our newsletter hereMike said he wanted to help his friend. "It was an extremely harsh time for Nige, and I'd always backed the brand and helped," he said. "When Banksy gifted us [the town] Season's Greetings, and Nige was still struggling, I helped put some money behind it to facilitate that design so we could basically just give it the justice it deserves."So from there on I've been a part of the brand."When we moved into the town centre, I gave up my old job and we now run this full time. We were both very apprehensive about coming into the town centre with the rates and the rent and everything, but we were trying to stay optimistic."Nigel added: "What we've learned is you've got to take your opportunities, right? If you want to be in a business like this, when opportunities come, you really got to try and take them, so Banksy came in 2018 and that was a big opportunity for us."The perception was initially that we were just a Port Talbot brand, that only Port Talbot people could wear, because we were targeting Port Talbot people, no doubt about it."We wanted to become the biggest brand in Port Talbot. Once we did that then of course there's some people that go, 'I can't wear that because I'm not from Port Talbot' and that was a perception that we had to take down."I think when Banksy came we made the best t-shirt we could make. That really helped us to become a cool Welsh brand as opposed to a cool Port Talbot brand. I think one of the challenges we've got now after 10 years is to become a cool UK brand.They want their designs to celebrate the area.Mike said: "It's the key to celebrating us, and the town and not being seen as this pass-through town that's hiding in the shadow of the steelworks. It's really tragic what's happened to the steelworks. My heart goes out to all the people who lost their jobs there, but at this moment in time the town is shining bright, and it's moving through a cultural phenomenon really."It's become like Cymru Cool, like Port Talbot Cool, you know, it's got that vibe about it. Luckily with the shop, we live and breathe it every day. The way that we've embraced the culture and the street art culture which was prevalent here, we made a real scene out of it. It's something that we are very proud of."The town has, they say, built on the legacy Banksy gave them and what was a small street art scene has grown. "That's really been something we've run with and it definitely started to make Port Talbot a sexier place really."They originally started with a stall in the middle of Aberavon Shopping Centre, then moved to a pop-up shop and now they have a large store right in the centre. They acknowledged that it was a major risk when it came to rates, rent and costs of running the store, but they say it "was the single best move we made."San Portablo also work closely with other businesses in the area including Afan Ales, San Portablo Arts, Shunk Fest and In It Together Festival. Nigel said: "I think what's key for both of us here is that San Portablo hasn't just been a clothes shop, we've been a cultural hub for 10 years and we've been facilitating other cultural events and linking people up. That's given us a lot of gratification and we're seeing those seeds are being grown."Mike said: "Our ears are always to the ground. We live this town, we breathe this town. This is us, there's no gimmicks or anything and this is what we love."They praised In It Together Festival which takes place annually at Margam's Old Park Farm, as they said it was a great opportunity for them to have a stall in their first festival in 2022, and they weren't expecting the reaction they had. Nigel said: "When we went there, what we didn't anticipate was it was as if we had hired a huge flash mob of people wearing our gear. We must have seen like 40 different designs that we'd done."At that time we were doing hats, we were doing shorts, T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, shirts. Everything we sold, the whole range and the spectrum of colours that we sold, it was all on show and it looked beautiful and it created a massive desire for people to want to wear our brand and that was when we really became a cool Welsh brand."I think for outsiders to see it as well it's impressive. They feel that they're in something, they're seeing something new, something fresh. It's going from strength to strength, and that again shows that you can do culture in south Wales, because you've got Green Man, but there's been nothing on the M4 corridor of anything near this scale."It's shown that Wales can do culture."Mike added: "In It Together has been a monumental thing for the town and it's great to see. We've grown with the festival and we are grateful for the festival coming here and it has been great to help support."They put much of their success down to the support of the local community and their customers. They now have a stall in Cardiff Airport, meaning people are stocking up before going on holiday. Nigel said: "Our customer base has been a big factor in our success more than most brands in that most of our promotion has been our own customers who go to wear it. There were 19 lads in Marbella in a lovely bar all wearing red for Super Sunday, and even 90 school kids up the Burj Khalifa in Dubai."Even members of Fontaines DC were buying the brand after their recent stop in Wales, and of course the proud Port Talbot born-actor Michael Sheen has also popped in to the shop to show his support.So, what's next for San Portablo? Well, they will be celebrating their 10th anniversary later this year. They're hoping to release special edition t-shirts, diversify the brand more, make more short films, and even plan a major fashion show.Nigel said: "I think we want to do more films, more fashion shows, more designs, diversified products. It's an exciting time, we haven't been around for a strawberry season, it's a decade, so we're obviously going to celebrate it. I want to put on the biggest fashion show Port Talbot's ever seen, possibly Wales's ever seen at Margam Park."Mike added: "Celebrating the town's culture, at the same time because that's just like who we are."People are starting to realise that we're not just living in the shadow of the steelworks. This town has always been a silent gem, shall we say."
