What Is CLOT Brand? Edison Chen, Kevin Poon, and Hong Kong Streetwear
What is CLOT brand? CLOT is a Hong Kong streetwear label established in 2003 by Edison Chen, with cofounder Kevin Poon central to the early business story. Built to bridge East and West through apparel, events, and JUICE retail, it became one of Asia’s most visible street culture names for U.S. shoppers who know the Nike collabs first.
Cover photo: tathei — Edison Chen in 2005 — CC BY 2.0. Also on Wikimedia Commons. Resized for web.
CLOT sits on a Hong Kong path that looked toward Tokyo as much as Los Angeles. Kevin Poon has described early trips that connected the crew with labels such as A Bathing Ape. For that Japanese circle, see our pieces on BAPE and NIGO and Hiroshi Fujiwara and fragment design.
Who Founded CLOT?
JUICE Store’s About page dates CLOT to 2003 as a Hong Kong streetwear label founded by Edison Chen, with a stated aim of bridging East and West through apparel and goods. WWD’s 2023 “Clot 20” report says Chen cofounded the company with Kevin Poon twenty years earlier.
A May 2006 eBay Hong Kong press PDF lists founders Edison Chen, Kevin Poon, and Billy Ip for Clot Inc. as an urban lifestyle company. In a 2012 Hypebeast Trade interview, Poon said Edison handles more of the creative side while he looks over the business end. Highsnobiety’s later interview with Chen matches that split: Chen as the public creative face, working with Poon on how the company runs.
What Does the Name CLOT Mean?
Poon told Hypebeast the name came from people gathering: “a coagulation of thought, ideas and backgrounds.” That crew language still shows up in brand copy. The JUICE CLOT collection page calls CLOT “a creative moment that celebrates individuality” and ties the work to bridging East and West.
WWD adds an early chapter often skipped in sneaker timelines. In 2003 the company began as event planning and music production, then grew into a streetwear label and retail concept. Apparel product lines are dated from 2004 on the JUICE CLOT page.
Tokyo Trips, Causeway Bay, and JUICE
Poon’s Hypebeast interview places a key spark in a Tokyo trip with Edison Chen after his Los Angeles years (finance study and an Interscope Records internship). In Tokyo they met people from brands such as Bathing Ape and NEIGHBORHOOD, then pushed the idea of bringing that culture into Hong Kong retail.
They opened the first JUICE store on the second floor of a Causeway Bay building. Poon described an early three-person operation in a small Kowloon office: buying, stock, lookbooks, and renovation ideas done in-house. JUICE About later frames the store as CLOT’s fashion and lifestyle retail arm, listing doors in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Chengdu, and Los Angeles. Treat those city names as About-page geography, not a live store census.
WWD’s 2023 piece quotes Chen on a more lifestyle-driven Juice format in Los Angeles and a long-term hope of finding a retail partner for many more Juice doors worldwide. That is an expansion aspiration in the interview, not a completed count.
East Meets West as a Design Habit
JUICE About and the CLOT collection page both put “bridging the East and the West” at the center of the brand story. The idea is not only bilingual marketing. Chen’s work repeatedly pulls Chinese cultural references into silhouettes that U.S. and European streetwear audiences already recognize.
In Highsnobiety’s magazine interview, Chen describes CLOT as his “first baby” and frames a “New Age Ethnic” idea: Western influence mixed with an Asian identity, shared online culture, and fewer hard borders. Keep that as design philosophy. This article does not retell entertainment-industry drama.
CLOT x Nike: From Kiss of Death to the 20th Anniversary
Nike’s Japan SNKRS copy for the Air Max 1 x CLOT “Net” reissue states that the 2006 Air Max 1 x CLOT was the first CLOT × Nike collaboration shoe. It credits founder and chief designer Edison Chen with fusing Nike footwear tech and foot-reflexology / traditional Chinese medicine pressure-point ideas, calling that East-West bridge the brand’s visible idea.
Sneaker News dates the original Air Max 1 “Kiss of Death” to May 1, 2006 and notes a see-through toe treatment that made the insole’s pressure-point graphics readable. Later chapters that matter for shoppers include the 2009 1World Air Force 1 with Chinese-patterned silk and a tearaway upper, the later Silk Royale Air Force 1 series, Terracotta-inspired Jordan projects, and 2023 anniversary Dunks.
A July 2023 JUICE editorial presents the CLOT x Nike “WHAT THE? CLOT” Dunk as a 20th-anniversary tribute built from design cues across those earlier releases, with a July 29, 2023 global raffle at select JUICE doors.
CLOT, fragment design, and Hiroshi Fujiwara
Chen’s Highsnobiety interview names Hiroshi Fujiwara among mentors. For CLOT’s 20th anniversary, JUICE published a conversation between Chen and Fujiwara about a CLOT × fragment design × Nike Dunk. Fujiwara said the work is “never really a collaboration, it’s a conversation,” with no middle person even when Nike is involved.
The Dunk drew from Fujiwara’s favorite CLOT shoe of the prior two decades, the White Silk Air Force 1, and reused the tearaway silk idea that began with the 2009 1World project. Chen said they had known each other for more than twenty years. That thread is why CLOT often appears next to Japanese streetwear history for U.S. readers. More on Fujiwara’s own path is in our fragment design guide.
Shanghai “Clot 20” and the Asia-to-Global Path
WWD covered the September 2023 “Clot 20” exhibition in Shanghai at C Park Haisu, framed around the five Dao elements. Chen told WWD that Shanghai was where the brand’s first Mainland community, office, and store took shape. The show displayed more than 100 designs, including samples tied to Kanye West’s Touch the Sky Hong Kong stop and early Clot x Nike Air Max 1 work.
For U.S. shoppers, that anniversary framing matters more than any single drop. CLOT’s path runs Hong Kong crew culture → JUICE retail → long Nike visibility → fashion-week and exhibition scale, while still talking about Chinese youth and East-West exchange.
Why CLOT Matters for Asian Streetwear Shoppers in the U.S.
If you follow Asian streetwear from the United States, CLOT is a clear Hong Kong case study. It is not a Harajuku label, but its founders studied Tokyo’s scene, stocked that culture through JUICE, and then pushed Chinese references onto global Nike silhouettes. The Kiss of Death, silk tearaway Air Force 1s, and Fujiwara conversations are how many American sneaker and streetwear fans first learned the name.
For more context, read the Asian Streetwear Guide and What Is Streetwear? 15 Streetwear Outfit Ideas.
FAQ
What is CLOT brand?
CLOT is a Hong Kong streetwear label established in 2003. JUICE Store dates founding to Edison Chen and describes an East-West design mission. WWD says Chen cofounded the company with Kevin Poon; a 2006 eBay Hong Kong release also lists Billy Ip among early Clot Inc. founders. The company grew from events and music into apparel and the JUICE retail network.
Who are Edison Chen and Kevin Poon?
Edison Chen is CLOT’s public founder and creative lead in brand and press copy. Kevin Poon is the cofounder who, in a 2012 Hypebeast interview, described handling more of the business side while Chen focused on creative work. Highsnobiety’s Chen interview describes the same creative/business split.
What is JUICE store?
JUICE is CLOT’s fashion and lifestyle retail arm. Poon told Hypebeast the first shop opened upstairs in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. JUICE About lists doors across Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Chengdu, and Los Angeles, and notes launches and pop-ups beyond apparel alone.
What was the first CLOT x Nike shoe?
Nike’s Japan SNKRS copy and multiple sneaker retrospectives point to the 2006 Air Max 1 x CLOT, known as “Kiss of Death,” as the first collaboration. Nike describes foot-reflexology / Chinese medicine cues and an East-West idea. Sneaker News dates the original release to May 1, 2006.
How is CLOT connected to Hiroshi Fujiwara?
Chen has named Fujiwara as a mentor. For CLOT’s 20th anniversary, the two worked on a CLOT × fragment design × Nike Dunk built around silk tearaway details and Fujiwara’s love of CLOT’s White Silk Air Force 1. JUICE published their conversation calling the process organic rather than formal.