Meet Kenny Annan-Jonathan, a black entrepreneur and the creator of The Mailroom, a sports marketing agency. He is also the first creative director for Crystal Palace, an English Premier League football club.
Annan-Jonathan began his career as a graphic designer before branching out into fashion. In the mid-2000s, he started a clothing company that quickly became one of London’s most popular streetwear labels.
His apparel company grew in popularity, drawing celebrities and athletes such as Crystal Palace’s Wilfred Zaha. His collaboration with Zaha extended beyond styling to supporting him in developing his own brand. They co-founded the Long Live brand together.
“We built a good friendship and after some time of purchasing our clothes, he wanted to create his own brand and they asked me if I could help him to build his own brand, which led me to create a new brand that we would become co-owners in, called Long Live [Studio],” Annan-Jonathan told Forbes Africa.
Then Annan-Johnathan saw a void in Zaha’s brand. There were not enough people assisting Zaha in the business world. Annan-Johnathan then took on the role of his counsel during talks, garnering Zaha’s trust. His collaboration with Zaha ultimately led to his success. He had so many offers that he couldn’t meet them all, so he founded The Mailroom to satisfy rising demand.
“I knew I was into the creative arts but I didn’t know what space I wanted to go into. I started with graphic design which led into fashion. I don’t have any form of higher education because I left school at sixth form from Southfields Community College, and after that I have been figuring out the world of business from the age of 18,” said Annan-Jonathan.
His work drew the attention of Crystal Palace’s owner, who gave him the role of creative director, making him the club’s first creative director.
“Before I became the creative director for Crystal Palace, I had emails that were sent to the owner of Crystal Palace saying, I believe there was a space for a creative director here and this is before anyone started thinking about it.
“Especially when it comes to fashion, it’s about having your finger on the pulse and when it comes to a conversation about who the athletes are, naturally fashion comes into that because that is a way of them expressing who they are. So, I just said if these two things are colliding, in the future, you can naturally see a road map to see that fashion is going to be incorporated into sports a lot more,” the sports marketing veteran, who has Ghanaian roots, noted.