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Samuel Ross was 20 years old when he began work as Virgil Abloh’s first-ever intern. His duties included a then-unlaunched brand concept named Off-White. Today, 12 years on, Ross reveals the 100 per cent sale of A-Cold-Wall — the brand he founded in 2015 — to his previously minority partner Tomorrow Ltd.
While Ross and Stefano Martinetto, co-founder and CEO of Tomorrow Ltd, do not disclose the precise terms of the private deal, Martinetto shares that the GMV (total revenue before deductions) of A-Cold-Wall amounted to £16 million in 2023. “It’s been amicable and fair. The terms of the sale reflect a strong future for A-Cold-Wall. What began as a bedroom startup nine years ago is now a global business with multiple concept stores,” says Ross.
After first serving as the label’s licensed distribution partner and hitting 52 doors by the end of 2017, Tomorrow Ltd made its first minority investment in A-Cold-Wall back in 2018. “That was the very beginning of a new business model for us,” adds Martinetto.
Since then, Tomorrow has emerged as a dynamic incubator of emerging brands across fashion, executing key operational functions from manufacturing to distribution, while affording its creative partners the freedom to develop their brand identities. Other Tomorrow investments since A-Cold-Wall include Coperni, Martine Rose, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Colville and artist Daniel Arsham’s apparel project Objects IV Life. It was also an early partner of Ambush, before the label was acquired by New Guards Group. In 2020, it invested in the progressive London retailer Machine-A.
Martinetto says that while that earliest investment in A-Cold-Wall was for a minority stake, “We are talking about a full acquisition today, and our most recent deals have been majority investments. The reasoning behind this is that the resources needed to launch and protect a brand are way more than in the past. And through doubling down with the winners, we see opportunities.”
Ross and Martinetto have been close professional confidants since 2018, and the CEO credits the designer as being instrumental in both Arsham and Rose’s onboarding to Tomorrow. “Samuel was instrumental in my decision to invest in Martine, and I suspect also in Martine’s decision to accept that investment.”
The brand will now be led by managing director Giovanni De Marchi, and creatively led by art director William Slocombe and brand director Liam Hassimi. Martinetto says that the team has decided not to appoint a new creative director and “instead they will take a collective approach”. He adds: “A-Cold-Wall is a small brand, but it’s a global brand, and it’s expanding. As well as the UK, of course, its audience is mostly in North America, China and Korea.” There are currently two bricks-and-mortar stores in China, and several more shop-in-shops across the world. Martinetto says that further expansion is planned.
As for Ross, he is stepping away satisfied. “A-Cold-Wall has 10 full-time employees, and most have been there for six or seven years. There’s this very intimate way of working because people actually can scale and grow a career and have control over what the brand produces. Which goes back to my original idea of being a young startup and finding a new way to grow in fashion.”
His next idea will be revealed in due course. However, he adds: “My goal now is to design products and other entities under my own namesake, which is my identity.
Correction: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Liam Hassimi. A previous version of this article misspelt Hassimi's name (20/2/24).
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