Topher Taylor, PR & Brand Manager at Clonezone looks back at a busy year
It’s been a crazy year at Clonezone (as usual). I always feel like I’m repeating myself when I summarise what we’ve been up to over the past 365 days, but this year has been particularly eventful. Let’s highlight a few special months.
JANUARY
January is when we catch up
after the madness of Christmas and prepare for the year ahead. Our year began with cementing our relationship with Jamie HP’s SBN parties, a sex club that gives men a safe place to meet new people and watch porn boys play. The month ended with actor Michael B. Jordan wearing a harness to the SAG Awards, sending lots of curious shoppers our way.
FEBRUARY
February was super fun. Our month
began with our Fetish Gear photoshoot for the new lines shot by fetish photographer Matt Spike on a beautiful boat on the Thames. Our models Daniel, George and CJ filled out the undies well. On 12 February we won ‘Best Retailer’ in the Boyz Awards – so thank you again to all the readers for your support.
MARCH
March was crisp and chaotic. We saw a huge drop of sexy new fashion for Spring/Summer 2019 from brands such as Project Claude, Nasty Pig and the arrival of Fetish Gear in Clonezone stores. The month ended with Clonezone Birmingham winning ‘Best Retailer’ in the Midlands Zone magazine readers awards.
MAY
During May, we launched CZ Dark (our new fetish floor at CZ Manchester) with a supporting fashion show. Up next was the Prowler Gay Porn Awards featuring a mid-show fashion show. The next day we had porn legend Rocco Steele appear at Clonezone Soho to promote his new line of sex toys, Rocco by Perfect Fit. Then we jumped straight into Birmingham LGBT+ Pride with the team at the heart of the celebrations.
JULY
July launches with LGBT+ Pride in London which is ‘a madness’. We enjoy it, though. Our Soho store is quite literally in the middle of celebrations. As Pride ends, we launch head first into Fetish Week London during which we host pre-events at Clonezone Soho. It’s safe to say we get quite tired.
AUGUST
August is Manchester Pride month. This huge celebration takes place in the heart of the village with people congregating outside of Clonezone Manchester all day. It’s loud, hot, and an intense day for us. We were joined by porn star Mickey Taylor, online influencer Kit Wilde and other stars to keep passers-by entertained.
OCTOBER
October was as unique as things get at Clonezone. The month began with us featuring on The Real Housewives of Cheshire (as you do). And we were super proud to organise an event on behalf of GMFA’s ‘Me. Him. Us,’ campaign in Clonezone Soho, to push its importance. The campaign was designed to increase the representation of South Asian men in queer spaces. We also welcomed two new team members to the Clonezone HQ family: Richard Tropez and David Walker.
NOVEMBER
November was the build up to and celebration of It Starts With Me’s HIV Testing Week 2019, pushing the importance of knowing your HIV status. Every Clonezone store got involved and we had rapid HIV testing taking place in as many stores as possible. I visited METRO charity’s HQ in Woolwich and did a rapid HIV test live on camera too.
DECEMBER
December begins with World AIDS Day, where we hosted a National AIDS Trust fundraising event at Clonezone Soho. We stocked the official NAT sparkly ribbon brooch with 100% of proceeds going to the charity. We then spent the month helping our customers make sure that they have their sexy gear and accessories in time for XXXmas.
Finally, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Clonezone. We’ve had a very busy year and it’s all thanks to the hard-working teams in Clonezone stores, in HQ and of course our loyal customers – old and new.
Thank you.
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