The North Is Ace

All my merch runs aim to celebrate our Northern uniqueness, instilling a sense of pride, belonging & community. I then filter these ‘big picture’ ideas through my design geek brain, which has always been intrigued and inspired by ‘brand vandalism’, logo-flips and bootleg merch.

So far, several of my merch runs have taken well known clothing brands and given them a distinctively Northern logo-flip. Clothing logos felt like the perfect angle; the highly sought after and limited edition capsule collections of the streetwear industry were the ideal sort of buzz I wanted to generate with these Northern inspired pieces.

Perhaps the most successful of these collections is The North Is Ace. A logo flip of a very famous outdoor clothing label, The North Is Ace was my breakthrough design. It was one of my early experiments of designing things with a Northern twist, and the first one that really resonated with other people. What started as a paper-based design piece that I made to entertain myself has since become the blueprint for how I now choose my merch ideas.

The North Is Ace artwork is about celebrating the North Of England; the landscapes both beautiful and brutal, the people both amiable and weird, and everything in between. The place you may leave, but the place you are still proud to call home. The North Is Ace screen-printed posters were the first Secret Industries products to signal a change in direction of my ‘for sale’ artwork.

Since then, I have produced several paper printed versions and several merch based iterations, with the most recent merch version released in March 2025. This latest edition of t-shirts saw an updated graphic, printed in bright blue on both black and white shirts. All Secret Industries shirts come with a coordinated goodie bag of stickers, badges and designed ephemera and I try and keep as much of the supply chain for production based in The North. Designed in Preston, printed in Liverpool and Leeds, worn throughout The North

The North Is Ace is currently available both as shirts and art prints. You can check them out at any of my upcoming market stalls or on the Secret Industries web$tore