The Menswear Style Podcast is a leading men’s fashion and menswear podcast exploring men’s style, clothing, grooming, lifestyle and the business behind some of the world’s most exciting fashion brands. Hosted by Peter Brooker, each episode features conversations with menswear designers, fashion entrepreneurs, innovative brand founders and industry experts from across the global fashion and apparel industry. Discover the stories behind established and emerging clothing brands, from the first idea and challenges of launching a fashion start-up to building a successful international business. Guests share their experiences and insights across fashion design, sustainability, manufacturing, marketing, branding, eCommerce, retail, social media and business growth. Whether you’re interested in men’s fashion and style, discovering new menswear brands, starting your own clothing label, or learning how successful fashion businesses are built, the Menswear Style Podcast takes you behind the scenes of the modern menswear industry. New conversations with the people shaping the future of menswear, men’s style and fashion.
Justin Deighton, Co-Founder of Two Tribes / London Brewery
•Menswear Style •Episode 191
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
0:00
|
28:12
In this episode of the Menswear Style Podcast, host Pete Brooker talks to Justin Deighton, founder of Two Tribes, the London brewery and lifestyle brand that emerged from the worlds of music, design, fashion and counterculture.
Two Tribes is much more than a beer company. Built around the ideas of fun, freedom, curiosity and creative discovery, the brand brings together brewers, artists, musicians, chefs and makers from different creative communities. Its philosophy is simple: great beer, great people and interesting collaborations.
Justin explains how a career spanning more than 25 years in the music industry ultimately led him into craft brewing. After starting out as a DJ, he worked in record labels, promotions, A&R and music production before launching his own creative production business with his wife. Following the sale of that company and a gap year travelling with his family, Justin began looking for a new direction.
What caught his attention was the emerging craft beer movement.
Justin draws a fascinating parallel between the independent music scene of the 1990s and the craft beer revolution of the early 2010s. Just as bedroom producers and independent labels were challenging the established record industry with new sounds and new ideas, small breweries were emerging from garages, lock-ups and industrial spaces and changing the way people thought about beer.
To properly understand the industry, Justin first took an apprenticeship of sorts, joining a local brewery in Brighton and learning the business from the ground up. He explains why getting hands-on experience was so important before committing to his own brewery, despite never intending to become a traditional brewer himself.
The conversation also explores how Two Tribes was born through a chance meeting with property entrepreneur Paul Campbell, owner of the Tileyard creative complex in King's Cross. With hundreds of music businesses and creative people already based there, the idea of combining a brewery with a cultural hub proved a natural fit.
Justin talks about the realities of funding a brewery, combining personal money, investment and asset finance to get the business off the ground, and why passion and persistence matter just as much as capital when launching any new venture.
Creativity is a major theme throughout the episode. With Justin's background in music and his long-term collaboration with creative partner Leo, Two Tribes has developed a distinctive visual identity that stretches beyond the beer itself. The pair continue to work across design, music, branding and marketing, turning the brewery into a broader creative platform.
We also discuss Two Tribes' innovative AI campaign, created using Midjourney. The project invited the brewery's own audience to experiment with artificial intelligence, creating artwork based around different themes, colours and styles, with favourite designs ultimately selected to appear on Two Tribes cans.
Justin explains why projects like this are important to Two Tribes: not simply as marketing campaigns, but as ways of giving the community an opportunity to participate in the brand and become part of its creative story.
The episode also explores the role of community radio, live events and collaboration, including Two Tribes' relationship with Voices Radio and the brand's Campfire venue in King's Cross. Rather than simply selling beer, the brewery has created a space where people can meet, discover new music, eat, drink and collaborate.
From independent music to craft beer, entrepreneurship to AI, this is a fascinating conversation about building a lifestyle brand around culture and community — and about why the most interesting businesses often sit somewhere between industries rather than neatly inside one.
Discover Two Tribes at twotribes.co.uk and follow the brand across its social channels.
For more menswear, lifestyle, culture and creative business stories, visit menswearstyle.co.uk.
Hello, welcome back to another episode of the menswear style podcast. I'm your host Pete Brooker and today on the show we have the co founder of two tribes just in Dayton. Two Tribes brewery emerged from London's counterculture. They unite brewers, artists, musicians, chefs and craft creators with shared values of fun freedom, curiosity and creative discovery. They are a community of people who come together to share a love of the moment, their name reflects their constant first to bring new creatives into the fold to explore what they can bring from their tribe. To this, essentially, two tribes is about cold beer and collaboration. It's that simple. And you can also check out two tribes online to tribes.co.uk. And here to describe the brewery and the journey in his own words, his co founder, just in Dayton, Justin, are you the co founder or founder?
Unknown:
I am the founder, but co founder, I suppose, is my wife.
PB:
You get in trouble if I call you the founder?
Unknown:
No, she's she's been on the journey with me. And when we originally kind of came to starting to tribes, she actually came up with a name. Oh, really? So and also, you know, as I say, she was by my side when we were doing that. And, and part of that journey as well. She's she's gone on to do much, much more exciting things for me. But she's definitely, you know, been by my side for the whole journey. So, I'd like to, I'm the founder, but my wife isn't my founder as
PB:
well, Justin, I'm going to include that in because I think that's actually quite interesting. But for the uninitiated, perhaps you could introduce yourself properly. And to your friends, how do you best describe to tribes?
Unknown:
My name is Dustin Dayton, and I am the co founder of to how do I explain what two tribes is about ultimately, two tribes is a brewery. We're a beer brand. But more than that, we're actually a beer brand that really is about a lifestyle, a lifestyle culture or lifestyle brand. You know, we want to incorporate a lot of the things that interests myself and my co pilot Leo, who I work on all the creative with throughout the business, and you know, our heritage is music industry, design and, and just kind of, you know, kind of club culture, fashion. All of these things are incorporated in everything. We do it to tribes. So, yeah,
PB:
interesting. So, just take us back to when two tribes began. You mentioned before that you were from Chelsea and but you're now down in Brighton that right?
Unknown:
Yeah, I mean, I've I've lived all over London. And the originally from Chelsea. But I've I didn't live in Chelsea for. So yeah, basically, I worked in the music industry for 25 plus years from originally, being a DJ, then getting a job or record label, being you know, promote doing promotions, club promotions, radio promotions, in the early 90s. And then that led me to kind of work on launch, launching record labels, and then going on to launch my own record label. So I did that. My first record label I launched in 1993. So with that, that took me on a journey where I was producing, running a record label a&r in a record label promoting a record label which which incorporated DJing across the UK and then on to Europe and the world. So it was very much my life for a long In time, they're not around 2000 I 2001, I decided to start working with my now wife with a company that was called a predict a creative production partner for the music industry. So what we did, we originally started off designing record sleeves and basically producing record sleeves, but it was more project managing the whole release. And then we moved on to CD packaging. Working with advertising agencies, and perfume packaging fashion, grew that business over 10 years. And then fortunately, we were able to sell that business. So. So that was kind of the point where I looked around and and so you know, what am I going to do?
PB:
Now, what year is this, so what point
Unknown:
around 2012 We did that. We went on a gap year with the kids just to kind of get out of our system, which was great. And when we came back to the UK, we kind of looked at opportunities that chimed with our skills, but weren't necessarily in the music industry. And the f&b industry was always a kind of something that interested my wife and I. So we looked at many things, but there was there was an element of what was happening with beer and the craft beer scene at that time. That kind of chimed with mine, or our skill set, or we felt comfortable with. And that was you know, back in the 90s you had guys that were making music in their bedrooms and pressing up 1000 white label records and driving around their local city and selling the records to independent record stores. And, and you know, dance music was moving very fast, it was very, was very exciting. And, and, and these guys that were doing these independent things and and changing the dial, we're actually creating your movement and creating a whole new scene that these kind of bigger, dominant music companies didn't know what the hell was going on, because they were all dinosaurs really. And I felt there was exactly the same thing happening in kind of 2012 2013 with independent breweries in the Clark craft beer scene. Right? It was guys, there was guys brewing beer in lockup or garage or backyard or whatever. And, you know, kind of filling up a van and drive him around till the end pubs or bars and, and selling beer that was not commonly known in the styles that they were they were brewery. And that's, to me is is really exciting. And that's, that's, that's why I ultimately got involved and started to you know, kind of research it and and see if I could get myself involved in it.
PB:
So what are the stepping stones at this point? Do you then go and buy a couple of Demi John's and try and get suddenly going yourself? Or are you going in and there'll be a higher end and a
Unknown:
higher level? It turned out there was a guy locally because I'd moved to Brighton by then there was a guy locally that I knew and he had a couple of businesses but one of them being a kind of a brewer craft brewery or, you know, a small brewery. It wasn't necessarily brewing the beers that were were interested in me. It was more brewing ales. There was a brewer there that had a lot of knowledge. And the guy that had that business basically was, you know, fallen out of love with it really wanting to do other things. So there was an opportunity It's easy for me to go in there and learn and understand the business, understand the industry and understand the product really learn to brew not Not that I ever wanted to be a brewer, but I believe, if you're gonna get into something you need to, you need to learn from the ground up to be able to really understand what you want to achieve, as interested.
PB:
So did you know this guy at all before you approached him? Or was it just very not
Unknown:
doing this and, you know, we just talked about, you know, what he wanted to do. And it was that sort of thing, really. So that, you know, I saw it as an apprenticeship really, before I went off, did my own brand, or my own brewery. This was the apprenticeship I needed to do, which you know, to be honest, wasn't easy. Because kind of, you know, someone who hasn't kind of conformed to working for anyone or, or following any anyone's kind of ideas apart from your own since they were early 20s is quite hard to kind of, you know, shoehorn yourself into a business that you don't you're not necessarily passionate about the product, but want to learn and understand. And that was the best way to do it. And as I say, well, it wasn't easy, but you know, it was, I'm really pleased I did it. I'm really pleased to do.
PB:
So I'm just curious, you got to you had the gap year, you've come back and you've had a look around. And now you think like this is a project, I'm going to be an apprentice here. Did we kind of have enough money lying around for you to also just, like, take time off and do this project? Or was there stuff going on?
Unknown:
It wasn't you know, I sold a business, it wasn't life changing that I went and bought an island instead of another business. I knew I needed to work. And I obviously I've still sort of only just around, you know, late 30s. So, you know, I needed to do something. And I yeah, I kind of I had money because of course, you know, say I had money but I needed to you know, I needed to be wise with it really. But you know, getting into brewing can be quite expensive.
PB:
But that was going to lead me on to the next question, did you? Did you seek kind of crowdfunding or in or angel investment over this? Totally bank.
Unknown:
It kinda is. Serendipity, really, there was a i, i got back in touch with contacts that I knew in the music industry. And I hoped and are being introduced to a guy called Paul camp, who actually owns the tile yard complex, which is the creative quarter or whatever you want to call it, of where we live now, as far as in Kings Cross where the brewery is and where our campfire Taproom is. So I got introduced to him, he was at a point when he was looking at investing into a business that would enhance title yard.
PB:
Coal drops yard to this somewhere close to that.
Unknown:
It's very close out drops. Yeah, it's just your way. So he, you know, at the time taljaard was, is still but it was the time it was it was around 100 Odd recording studios, music companies that were all based in sort of the same area. And there wasn't a lot around there, there wasn't a lot to keep the people that works there. You know, it wasn't like anywhere where they could really go and have a drink after work or socialise or whatever. So he was keen to kind of provide that with me bringing the brewery idea and obviously, you know, to tribes as a brand idea, which was very much associated with music and my background, it fitted so he invested for us to basically build the brewery which I did with my money, his money and and, and some asset finance as well.
PB:
It's a very, like you said earlier quite serendipitous meetings, I guess. And you know, combining your journey in the past and where you are. Now, in order to get that off the ground, I'm just thinking of it for anyone listening, that is also trying to get their own brewery off the ground, how they can maybe follow in your footsteps? And I guess you can't really because it's kind of who you know, where you are in your life, various passions, would you say?
Unknown:
Just as any business really, I think you, you, you just said, their passions. If you've got a passion to do something, you know, Nothing's easy, right? Doesn't matter how much money you've got, or whatever. Or knowledge, you're always going to have hurdles that you've got to overcome. With business, and, you know, I think you've just got to have the passion and drive to keep it going. And, and, and get over those hurdles. And, and just move forward always, and be positive about what you're doing and believe in what you're doing. Because, you know, if you start doubting your visions, then then it's going to make it a lot harder to overcome any obstacles.
PB:
Yeah, I was just thinking this, as we're talking, you mentioned, your, your past of being a creative, I guess, a musician being on the scene. This does feel like one industry where you also get itch, that creativity, if you know, I mean, you can also be, you can also kind of stretch here and stretch your wings in this industry. And just I'm gonna just fire up a couple of graphics for anyone that's happened to watch this on YouTube, but I'm just going to walk through some of not not just what's inside the camera, but also what's what's outside the camera? Do you find it quite rewarding? Creative creativity wise, if that's a word? To do this stuff?
Unknown:
Yeah, totally. Absolutely. That that's, that's kind of my, you know, that's my, that's my happy place. You know, I'm, I'm very fortunate that I, I was able to kind of bring Leo, on board with this journey. And, you know, he's, he's amazing. Way better than I'll ever be. But together, we've, we've formed this kind of creative force that the evolved from doing to tribes, and, you know, right, from the early stages of, you know, just doing the tap badge or whatever, you know, we're now in a different space, if you want to put a different world where, you know, we're thinking a lot about marketing assets and brand. And, you know, it's taught both of us an awful lot. But we've been on a journey together. And now I feel, we're kind of, you know, as I say, it's our happy place, we can we can, we can get locked in and do do design or creative or whatever, or even we still make music. And we do that together a lot. And there's our happy place.
PB:
It must be quite convenient, also being a DJ, because you can get to do your own launches. Like if you've got a new product coming out and you party, it's like, well, who we're gonna get into the entertainment. It's like, well, you're looking out so you can always Yeah,
Unknown:
yeah, there is a certain there's an element of that. A little bit of that. I don't mind doing it. Every now and again, is a bit of a hobby, and I do still really love it. But you know, when I was in my prime, I used to get really pissed off if people asked me to do the warm up and now now I asked to do it. You know, we do, we, we've also partnered with a community radio station in Kings Cross called Voices radio. And that's something I'm passionate about is supporting younger kids coming through. And, and, you know, basically giving them the opportunity to grow and, and, you know, sort of get their creative juices kind of out to the world. And, you know, that's great. So, you know, that's something we do where, you know, it's a community radio station for us to if we're doing a launch event, and we use his voice is DJ and you know, they get it they get some money for doing that, then then that's, that helps them continue doing the stuff they don't get paid for if you're not me. So, you know, that's really where we use I suppose, minor Leo's music talents, but we don't necessarily perform ourselves all the time
PB:
as a force for good And, and on that. I wanted to talk about the AI campaign that you've, you've got going, and perhaps you can just walk us through that, how has how has that come about?
Unknown:
Well, it came about that, to be honest. Leo and I were kind of heard through the grapevine about mid journey, which is basically the kind of platform that we've created our sort of AI server on. And a lot of people within Creative Industries, we're playing around with this, this new resource of AI, to, you know, just for fun to start with. We obviously got, you know, got intrigued by it, and it just kind of played around there. And it just evolved from there, we were like, Well, look, you know, the kind of our cans have collage artwork on them, which are sourced images that are that Leo and I collect over time,
PB:
it's very pop art, would you say? Or is there another name for it? You know,
Unknown:
we're kind of, you know, we are kind of pop up fans. How lots is one of our favourite pop art artists. And, you know, that's our style. So it made sense for us to be able to engage with our audience, with our drinkers with our, you know, call it fans or whatever to get them involved in, in the design and, and, you know, releasing a beer, basically. So, yeah, it just kind of evolved from that.
PB:
And so this is purely the packaging, the branding, so they get the chance to put their own images and artwork on the cans. Yeah. Yeah, using a AI Artificial Intelligence.
Unknown:
Yeah, the way that the way that it works is we built this server within the mid journey platform, which who we've collaborated with on this. And you know, anybody can go on there, and, you know, suggest different themes, or styles, colouring and come up with and sort of, you know, mid journey, we'll come up with images with your suggestions.
PB:
So cool. I've just realised what this is, I've just wrapped my head around it. So yeah.
Unknown:
Basically, that's what it is. We opened it up to two tribes, audience and, you know, gave them a free rein to do as many entries as possible. And if they log on to our server, and just far away and come up with ideas, then they were, you know, we would we will be able to view them and pick our favourite ones to, to put on a cam.
PB:
Nice. And do you? Is this still open? Was it competition running? Or are we
Unknown:
running that's closed now. But it's very successful, I'm sure we'll be doing something else with with it. Because it you know, it's a very sort of exciting project. And it's also it's a great way to engage with with our drinkers. Yeah, I love it.
PB:
I think it's genius. And, for example, could someone approach you and go, Hey, I've got a great idea. I'm just going to feed a load of stuff in here and make my own label my own can and they give it to you and you go, I guess we could do that for you privately, but it'll cost X
Unknown:
it's not really something we know it's really something that I would want to spend time on if you know what I mean. I would obviously feed back to anyone that wanted to you know, get some advice and stuff or whatever, but ultimately, you know, to tribes takes up you know, kind of doing things just for cash is not really kind of my my agenda,
PB:
but we'd be on that That'd be nice. Well, listen, I'm just in where can people go to a try the beer but also order it buy it and get it in their homes.
Unknown:
You can order the beer on our webstore which is to type stock code at UK and we will deliver to your door, and then it's in various different independent book shops around London. So yeah, I better, best place our webstore really
PB:
awesome. And can people visit the brewery tour? Can they come see you
Unknown:
will come to camp fire, which is our venue. We built a, you know, it's not really a tap room. It's it's, it's a bar that we built out of a couple of shipping containers and. And we also have a fire kitchen. So it's
PB:
in Brighton. Know that thinking squats in London. Cool. All right, so just just down the road. Yeah, yeah. How often do you get down there?
Unknown:
I'm in London 334 times a week, depending on my week.
PB:
Awesome. And people can come in and announced or do you have to phone ahead?
Unknown:
It's open to the public whenever.
PB:
Oh, great. All right. Well, listen, we'll leave all the links over on the show notes over at Menswear. style.co.uk. But if you're in London, and by the way, if you're in Brighton as well. We were talking offline about how I used to work in Brighton, I think. I don't know if people realise how close Brighton is to London on the train. I mean, it sounds like it's far away because it's coastal. But it really is just a 3040 minute train ride.
Unknown:
Depending whether there's leaves on the line.
PB:
Yeah, I mean, depending if there are people to drive the trains obviously then that's a shortest trip
Unknown:
in Brighton as well. Actually. There's a lot of pubs that serve two tribes in Brighton come down and visit when the weather's a bit warmer. Well, that makes
PB:
sense. I mean, right. And it's also like one of the one of the more bohemian cities still, I think in the UK, that is open to new ideas is open to artists. It feels like all the creatives left Shoreditch and just went down to Brighton mean, maybe they're already down there, but they just joined them. Yes, so Well, Justin, It's great talking to you. Love the brand. And like I say we'll leave the link in the show notes. And next time I'm down the campfire hopefully I'll bump into you.
Unknown:
Cheers man. Thanks. So Thanks Justin
PB:
you've been listening to the menswear style podcast be sure to head over to menswear style dot code at uk for more menswear content and email info at menswear style dot code at UK if you'd like to be a future guest on the show. Finally, please help support the show by leaving a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening to this podcast. Until next time
.jpg)