Tom Garland- Founder-Edition Partners

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Tom Garland founded Edition Partners, a London-based creative growth studio, in January 2023. 

His career spans record labels (Sony, Warner, Universal), Red Bull's experiential marketing peak, and seven years at Highsnobiety where he became Senior Director and Head of Strategy, working with over 100 brands before the Zalando acquisition. 

Edition emerged from research with 52 brand founders struggling with growth strategy. 

The studio has worked with Lacoste, Marni, Nike, Burberry, and the Rolling Stones.

Tom recently wrote this incredible piece where he goes into detail on the launch of Satisfy's first shoe. 

https://edition.partners/articles/satisfy-therocker-footwear-launch-interview

Here are some of the main themes and quotes from our conversation, 

1. The Street as Pre-Institutional Culture

Tom reframes "the street" not as a place but as culture before commercialization — where hip-hop became luxury fashion, skate became brand language, and grime became generational uniform:

"Instead of thinking of it as kind of low culture, which pre-Virgil Abloh was how it was viewed in certain spaces, it's better to think of it as pre-institutional culture, where new meaning is created before the world catches up and spins it into a meme."

2. Sport as the New Cultural Operating System

Just as streetwear defined the 2010s, Tom argues sport is now the dominant platform for identity-building — creating opportunities in micro-niches from desert running to golf:

"Sport is the new streetwear... Sport is now the platform for people to create their own subcultures, their own identities. People are switching out this idea of being a pretty influencer for being a trail runner, or indeed just finding their own hero stories."

3. Culture is Built, Not Borrowed

Brands cannot parachute into communities and expect credibility. Tom points to Red Bull's sustained investment across music and extreme sports, and Nike and ASICS's multi-year journeys earning legitimacy in skate:

"You can't just parachute into skate or music or anything and expect credibility. It's those who commit long term."

4. Product as Strategy

In a world of infinite choice and AI-flattened creativity, Tom believes differentiation comes from restraint and proof — not more content or collabs:

"In a world where we've got infinite choice, the most powerful brand signal is just to have the best products, and that requires no advertising."

5. Ask What Still Matters

His framing for 2026: stop chasing trends, start building institutions with a genuine point of view:

"We need to desperately stop asking what's next and start asking what still matters... the next few years won't reward the loudest. It will reward the clearest."