Jenyo Aladejebi immigrated to Canada at the age of 2 from Nigeria. His family resided in the small Scarborough neighborhood of Malvern.

Comes from a large family of academic, he’s the middle child of 4 loving sisters that all possess some degree or doctorate credentials. Jenyo has his Masters in Communication from the University of Windsor.

His parents wanted to him to complete all education levels. “Go to school forever”, as he called it.

It was important, but there are other skills you may need to acquire. A big thing in Nigerian culture is for a man to support his family.

They were hesitant at first hearing about a fashion line. As time went on, they have been very supportive of his dreams. Always checking in and spreading the word to family and friends.
The support makes him feel as though he’s on the right track, but his parents may have reservations about it. Reinforces the idea of staying clutch, got to pursue dreams.

Here’s how the clothing line business unfolded. Clutch Life 85 launched in 2014 as a graphic t-shirt and apparel company. Best described as a variety of clothing that seek to inspire to your aspirations, be who you are and something greater.

“It’s a one-man show. Started out with two business partners. Now it’s just me.”

It started out as a part time business venture, to gain a secondary flow of income, and then life happened. After being laid off from a telemarketing sales job, Jenyo changed careers. He’s now focusing on building a foundation, so that one day the fashion line will become his main source of income.

Inspiration came from a lack of freedom going to a Catholic high school with uniforms. He liked seeing his friends in urban brands like Nike, Jordan, and Fubu. Sadly, the brands were not affordable.

He started wearing blank shirts but eventually gravitated to graphic tees. Some of the shirts really stood out, like shirts really spoke to his personality and character.

After spending hundreds of dollars, he felt something was missing, like there was something lacking on shirts. He started to think about what he wanted to see.

He started imagining a t-shirt brand and questioned what would it mean and what would the line carry.

“Every day you have a chance to win at something in your life.  Meaning taking the opportunity at being better and to pursue your dreams.”

In early stages, Staying Clutch made sense for the company name. It really resonated and stuck with him.

Within his personal life, he was dependable amongst his friends and family. He took that to heart and internalized it into his clothing line.

His most popular design is the T Dot collection. It’s all about representing Toronto. The world-wide section incorporates any flag into the T Dot logo.

“It’s been really cool reaching out to people from a variety of different places. Seeing the joy of their faces when they see they’re flag within a logo that represents the city of Toronto. It’s like representing two things at once.”

Jenyo is looking to take the brand to new levels. He wants to give back and spread awareness. Use the company to travel, bring Clutch and Toronto world-wide.