Cyrus Tetteh had grown 

tired of the feeling that his 
grades in the classroom were 
determining his value, and he 
wanted to do something about it. 
He started thinking about ways 
that he could create a platform 
for 
himself, 
and 
ultimately 

decided that he wanted to share 
his creative vision with others 
in the form of a clothing brand: 
Cool Club Clothing. I had the 
opportunity to sit down with 
Tetteh, a 2015 alum, and reflect 
on the process of starting his 
own brand while at U-M, and 
where he wants to go from here.

Can you tell me a bit about 

yourself and why you decided 
to start Cool Club Clothing?

“I’m originally from Detroit, 

Michigan. I lived there my whole 
life before deciding to attend 
the University of Michigan. … 
When I started taking classes 
— just normal freshman classes 
— I was getting tired of feeling 
like my value was based on my 
grades. I didn’t want my value 
as a person to be represented by 
the letter grade … And I came up 
with my own clothing line: Cool 
Club Clothing in 2012. I haven’t 
stopped since. I got a lot of 
support on campus … I did what 
I needed to do and I was just 
living and trying to have fun.”

You being able to find a way 

to do your own things outside 
of the traditional confines 
that a lot of students face is 
really interesting to me.

“The whole thing is that it 

started with the idea of me 
wanting to break free and 
figure out the things that I like 
to do and things that make me 
happy while still making me 
feel like I’m progressing in life. 
One thing leads to another, and 
you find the things that you 
love. It started with music. I 
wanted to create clothing that 
would promote my music, and 
then people would start asking 
me for things, saying, ‘Oh, you 
should do this in this color, you 
should do hats or maybe you 
should do this.’ I started making 
more things and it turned into a 
clothing line. I just really want 
to encourage people to do things 
and try things. Especially the 
people who feel confined by 
their grades like I did.”

So when you started Cool 

Club Clothing, did you have 
any overarching goals? What 
was your vision for the brand?

“Starting off, I made a couple 

of shirts for me and my friends 
to wear with the first design 
that I had made. … The growth 
[of the brand] was sort of driven 
by the people. … At the end of 
the day, I just wanted to create 
a platform for myself to climb 
that ladder to ultimately have 
that creative freedom and be 
able to give back to people. 
With the clothing, I wanted to 
take it as far as it could go. I 
didn’t know what that was. It 
was never concrete — whatever 
opportunity came my way, I’d 
jump into it.”

Can you talk a bit about the 

biggest hurdles that you had 

when starting the brand?

“The main questions were 

what will my first designs be 
and how do I get them on a 
shirt? I was sitting and doing 
my math homework one night 
when I got bored. I flipped 
over my homework and started 
drawing the first Cool Club 
logo. My roommate at the time 
offered to help me make my 
logo. Before he had done that, 
I had never used InDesign, 
Illustrator or Photoshop. He 
introduced me to all of those 
things, so I got those and I’ve 
been on since then. … Being so 
small, it can be expensive to 
make your clothing, so it’s a 
matter of finding the best place 
to do it. It was a lot of trial and 
error, but it worked out.”

Can you talk a bit more 

about the trial and error 
aspect?

“Everything 
was 
really 

driven by the people, but there 
was a process of figuring out 
which materials worked and 
didn’t work and which shirts 
fit the way I wanted to was 
something that took some time.

Learning that you can’t please 

everyone and learning how to 
communicate with customers 
was difficult, but I knew that a 
bad customer experience could 
be 
the 
difference 
between 

someone 
who 
would 
never 

try the brand and a lifetime 
supporter.”

You’ve mentioned a few 

times that the growth of 
the brand was driven by 
the people. What was it like 
starting a brand on U-M’s 

campus specifically?

“It’s an experience like no 

other. Until you’re a super huge 
brand, never will you be able 
to walk outside and see people 
wearing 
your 
brand. 
There 

was a point in time where it 
was regular to walk outside, 
especially during the winter, 
and see people wearing the 
Cool Club hats. And because of 
that, you kinda get lost in it. … 
Being on campus, it was cool. 
I got a lot of support along the 
way, and the resources that we 
have — the fashion orgs and 
everything else — provide so 
many opportunities to promote 
your brand on campus.

It made it this thing around 

here. And that was cool. That 
really helped me a lot and gave 
me a lot of confidence. It slowly 
made me feel like I had a leg to 
stand on. I felt like my value 
was being determined by my 
creations instead of my grades.

I appreciate the love I got 

from 
Michigan. 
I 
had 
the 

chance to work with some of the 
student-athletes. I got to work 
with Denard Robinson — we did 
a little pop up shop. It was cool, 
man.”

So after you graduated in 

2015, can you touch on how 
it was moving away from 
campus?

“When 
you 
talk 
about 

hurdles, that’s definitely the 
biggest hurdle.

On campus, it felt like it 

was cool. It was this trial and 
error process and people were 
supporting it. When I left 
campus, it felt like it was me 

versus the world instead of a 
small community. I had to dig 
deeper into my artistry, sit 
down and bring some life to my 
design.

I worked with my high 

school, Cass Tech, and did a 
collection with them, which 
helped because they have such 
a big alumni network. Right 
after that, I did a collection 
with Devin Funchess. That was 
cool because he was going to the 
Super Bowl that year, had just 
come from Michigan and he’s a 
really cool guy.

It wasn’t until the summer 

of 2015 when I realized that I 
needed to stop doing all these 
collabs and work on defining 
my brand within the city. I 
wanted to find a way to get 
out my own name rather than 
using someone else’s brand. I 
spent some time working on my 
designing skills to take my skills 
to the next level, and came up 
with my Detroit Players Club 
design, which was my most 
successful design to date. That 
felt like the introduction of my 
brand to Detroit.”

Moving forward, where do 

you see things in five years?

“Really, 
photography 
has 

come in and changed things. 
At first, I picked up the camera 
to 
promote 
my 
brand, 
but 

now I’m working for the city 
as a photographer. I’ve been 
enjoying photography, I’m liking 
the foundation it’s building and 
it’s bringing money in. I want 
to continue to make clothing, 
but I’m definitely going to be 
focusing on my photos.

I really want Cool Club to 

keep growing. I have some 
designs that will be coming 
soon. I want Cool Club to be a 
creative outlet. That’s all I ever 
wanted it to be — an outlet for 
when I feel like putting out a 
design or I want to work with 
a certain brand. I don’t want to 
leave it hanging, and I want to 
keep using it as a creative outlet 
to make statements. Maybe it 
turns into a platform to raise 
awareness for certain issues.

I’ll still be doing my thing 

in five years. Right now I’m 
just living between the two 
[photography 
and 
clothing]. 

I’m trying to go hard at both, 
honestly. Just trying to find a 
way to balance the two.”

Do you have any advice for 

people who may feel the same 
way you did as a freshman and 
want to create something like 
you did?

“My advice is to just get 

started. Get started and don’t 
look back. That’s the most 
important thing that you can do 
as someone who wants anything 
for themselves. You can’t think 
about it for too long. Nothing 
is ever going to be perfect, but 
if you know what you want and 
you can see it, you can make 
it happen. It’s your vision, so 
trust your vision and start 
taking those first steps. Do 
what you need to do to make 
it happen. You never know 
what could happen once you 
take those first steps. The best 
way to learn is to go through 
the process, and it really is a 
process.”

4B —Thursday, September 28, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

COURTESY OF CYRUS TETTEH

Cyrus is currently an artist out of Detroit

COURTESY OF CYRUS TETTEH

The Cool Club: Cyrus Tetteh’s journey from being just 
a U-M student to building a Detroit clothing brand

ARTIST PROFILE

NARESH IYENGAR

Daily Style Editor

COURTESY OF CYRUS TETTEH
COURTESY OF CYRUS TETTEH

