It all started with a white X on a black square. Minimalist, almost anonymous, Big X was created out of the urgency imposed by mounting bills. In 2014, Kleber Fortes, then 25 years old, had abandoned the football fields after playing for smaller clubs in Brazil and Europe. He needed to give his life a new direction. He then took a chance on manufacturing t-shirts printed by his brother Henrique, a web designer , two years younger.
Thanks to the former player's contacts, the t-shirt won over soccer players , gained prominence, and became THESAINT, now a benchmark in Brazilian streetwear . The brand closes 2025 with four physical stores, a presence in around 200 multi-brand stores, a partnership with the NBA , the launch of its first women's collection, and eight-figure revenue—a 200% increase compared to 2024.
With R$ 800 borrowed from their hairdresser mother and civil servant father, the brand was born in Kleber and Henrique's bedroom, in the family home on the outskirts of São Bernardo do Campo, in the ABC region of São Paulo. The debut was a success.
It only took Gabriel, then a player for Fluminense, to appear with the giant X on his chest for the piece to attract attention, cause a buzz, and become a staple in the wardrobes of footballers, artists, and influencers.
The operations, however, were improvised — without a registered company, without a structured e-commerce platform, without inventory. But an order at the end of 2014 would trigger a change of pace: Neymar , then playing for Barcelona, wanted some items. An order capable of changing the game.
“If we continued operating the way we were, however, we would lose the chance to grow,” says Henrique, creative director, in a conversation with NeoFeed .
The brothers sped up. They formed THESAINT, rented an office, and launched the platform. Phew! Neymar got his jerseys and the brand... exploded.
The rapid evolution of THESAINT demanded greater professionalization.
That's when Lucas Cavenco, 32, also a former player who, after retiring from football, worked in the financial market, took over as CEO in 2020.
“For the business to advance even further, a larger structure would be necessary,” the executive reminds NeoFeed . “Currently, operating an independent fashion brand is difficult.”
Lucas then suggested a strategic partnership with the Oáz group, a fashion and lifestyle ecosystem led by Bento Guida and his mother Trudi. The value of the transaction is kept confidential, but the boost was decisive. At the end of 2022, THESAINT opened its first physical store.
Bento suggested Oscar Freire Street, one of the most coveted addresses in São Paulo. Kleber, Henrique, and Lucas were skeptical. They associated the patrons of the Jardins neighborhood with luxury consumption, far removed from the underground streetwear culture. But they were wrong.
On Oscar Freire Street, the trio discovered THESAINT's "superpower," as the CEO defines it: "We realized that people from different niches found something in common in the brand."
Original design
Unlike traditional Brazilian brands in the segment, which generally replicate foreign trends, THESAINT has established itself in the market with its own unique aesthetic. The Encontro collection is emblematic. In homage to his family's origins, Henrique created a print with half of his grandmother's face on one side and half of his grandfather's face on the other—deliberately divided in the center, as if it had been poorly stitched.
When it went on sale, it quickly sold out. And the line evolved to include other designs, always combining two halves of the same theme. The one featuring Dennis Rodman with the player's number on the Chicago Bulls team is one of the brand's best-sellers .
As has become tradition at THESAINT, someone wears it, some notice, and many others adopt it — a celebrity appeared on American television wearing one of Encontro 's pieces. Thus, the newly established partnership with the NBA was born. Five new collaborations are planned for 2026. With whom? That's still a secret.
A great idea from Kleber, Henrique, and Lucas is to work with drop releases. Collections with few pieces give THESAINT a character of scarcity and exclusivity, promoting desire and loyalty among consumers and positioning the brand in the premium segment. It's no coincidence that the brand's average ticket price, R$ 550, is much higher than that of other brands in the same genre in the country.
The strategy also facilitates cash flow and inventory control by reducing financial risks and maintaining the freshness essential to the pace of contemporary retail, especially streetwear .
It's also impossible to disregard the timing . Back then, in the outskirts of São Bernardo, the Fortes brothers (or FOrTEX as they are known) created X, streetwear was just starting to become a hype .
Two years earlier, American designer Virgil Abloh (1980-2021) had launched Off-White , combining "street fashion" with haute couture—so much so that, at the time of his death, he was the creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton . The movement grew, and oversized silhouettes, with references to pop culture, became a style influence.
“ Streetwear has established itself as one of the most striking trends in contemporary retail and fashion. It involves the production, promotion, sale, and resale of casual pieces in an innovative way, often outside of traditional channels,” reads the report Streetwear — The new exclusivity , by the consulting firm PwC. “It has subverted the traditional logic of fashion: the public has an active voice in defining what is cool .”
Streetwear is among the fastest-growing niches. Valued at US$371 billion in 2025, the global market is expected to reach US$637 billion in the next seven years—a compound annual growth rate of nearly 8%, according to a study by Fortune Business Insights.
Back when streetwear wasn't the fashion powerhouse it is today, Kleber and Henrique had to figure out how they would communicate with the world. They chose the name THESAINT in homage to their mother — "She's into all religions and knows all the saints," says the creative director. But why in English?
“We thought that if we said it was a Brazilian brand, they would associate us with cheap, low-quality products,” he recalls. “It had to be foreign.”
Therefore, initially, the brothers presented themselves as resellers of parts for a Swiss company owned by a friend of Kleber's from the time he played in Brazil. However, this narrative soon gave way to pride in their Brazilian origins.
The English name serves as a symbol of global ambition. If all goes according to plan, in 2026, THESAINT will open operations in the United States and Europe and establish a presence in Japan, where it is already present in some showrooms .
This reach is reflected in the names associated with the brand, including singer and businesswoman Anitta and Dutch striker Memphis Depay, who recently won the Copa do Brasil with Corinthians.
