Richard King and Sam Webb: founders of Creek Lifestyle

Creek Lifestyle didn’t begin with a marketing strategy; it began with two childhood sweethearts, a shared pull in the direction of the ocean and an opportunity encounter with a small wooden-fronted store in Blakeney.

Richard King and Sam Webb first met as youngsters in Upminster. Back then, a lot of their spare time was spent escaping the suburbs: driving to the coast, going crusing at any time when they might and having fun with lengthy days on the seaside. A four-year romance ultimately ran its course and the pair went their separate methods – Richard to Cornwall, Sam staying in Essex. Both married, had kids, divorced and carried on with their lives.

Then, in 2012, got here a cellphone name that rewrote the story. Sam rang Richard to want him many comfortable returns; they met for dinner and, as Richard places it, ‘here we are now’ – companions in life and enterprise, and infrequently removed from the water. These days they divide their time between the River Crouch in South Fambridge, Fowey in Cornwall and, since 2022, Blakeney on the north Norfolk coast. ‘I think you can see where our love is strongest,’ says Richard. ‘By the water.’

Richard and Sam – Sam is sporting their gansey, impressed by conventional Norfolk fishermen’s jumpers (Image: Contributed by Creek Lifestyle)

Norfolk, although, has a selected pull for Sam. Her dad lived in Cromer, an uncle relies in Downham Market and, on her mom’s aspect, the household custom was to take a home in Thurne in summer time and over Christmas – a rhythm that ran all through her childhood. When she and Richard first began courting as youngsters, they’d head as much as Norfolk collectively, clocking up numerous journeys alongside the coast. As adults, as soon as they reunited, the sample resumed: journeys to go to Sam’s dad and uncle, tenting close to Sea Palling and Burnham Market, and strolling for miles with their spaniel, Ziggy.

It was on a type of tenting journeys close to Burnham Market that Creek Lifestyle’s story took a decisive flip.

Someone talked about a bit store in Blakeney and casually remarked that, if it ever grew to become obtainable, it might be a goldmine.

Sometime later, by comfortable coincidence, Richard and Sam ran into the owner. ‘He said: “You can have that from the end of the summer,”’ remembers Richard. At the time they w

Creek Lifestyle in Blakeney. (Image: Contributed by Creek Lifestyle)

ere really a totally completely different enterprise, however the pull of the little store received.

‘We signed and sealed and did the deal and we never bought the other business. We ended up with a shop thinking, hang on a minute – what do we do now?’

The reply was Creek Lifestyle: a house, clothes and accessories model impressed by the rhythm of nature and the pull of the coast.

Their store, taken on in November 2022, is the bodily expression of that concept – a spot the place you possibly can, as they prefer to say, ‘create the coastal lifestyle wherever your home is’.

In some ways, they have been uniquely positioned to make that leap. Their authentic enterprise, The Cotton Textile Company, nonetheless headquartered in Brentwood, Essex, manufactures clothes, textiles and equipment for among the UK’s greatest trend, way of life and sport names. Their output ranges from towels for elite grass-court tennis tournaments (‘with the exception of Wimbledon,’ says Richard) to textile ranges for English Heritage retailers. They even as soon as utterly re-styled a resort for a popstar’s spouse’s model launch, offering made-to-order towels, robes and equipment to match the label’s aesthetic.

‘Creating Creek Lifestyle – our clothing and blankets and towels and kitchen textiles – we understand how to do that,’ says Richard. ‘It’s what we’ve carried out for years for different individuals. Now we’re doing it for ourselves.’

The inspiration for his or her Norfolk gansey. (Image: Contributed by Creek Lifestyle)

Increasingly, that additionally means bringing manufacturing nearer to residence. All Creek Lifestyle’s kitchen textiles and blankets are made within the UK, and the duo are specializing in working with eco-friendly pure fibres for clothes, made both in Britain or Europe.

New merchandise are rooted in place as a lot as in practicality. This 12 months, Creek Lifestyle is launching a piece shirt – ‘a kind of shacket’ – manufactured in Great Yarmouth, adopted by a gansey-style fisherman’s jumper impressed by the north Norfolk coast. The enterprise has been working with Sheringham Museum to delve into the historical past of ganseys and add that heritage into the Creek Lifestyle story – a neat full-circle second, on condition that the Blakeney store as soon as provided fisherman’s ganseys to the native fleet.

Since April 2025, Creek Lifestyle’s Inky Seals assortment has additionally supported marine conservation: a share of earnings from these designs goes to the SEA LIFE Trust, which campaigns to guard oceans and marine life. That partnership sparked the creation of Scoot, a pleasant seal character who fronts a rising vary of kids’s clothes and accessories and helps inform the story to youthful clients.

Sam in north Norfolk. (Image: Contributed by Creek Lifestyle)

Creek Lifestyle stays a household affair. Sam’s kids, cousins and nieces seem often in photoshoots and on social media, whereas Richard’s kids, who reside in Brighton and Pembrokeshire, are more and more woven into the model imagery too. Ziggy the spaniel is a well-recognized presence within the enterprise’ feed, padding throughout marsh paths and curling up in blankets after lengthy walks.

‘We do a lot of walking,’ says Richard.

‘I love my sea swimming – Cley and Holkham are my favourites – and I’ll typically match within the Holkham parkrun after we’re up right here. We like good, sincere native meals, too, and Norfolk is filled with pubs and eating places that try this.’

Richard modelling one in all Creek Lifestyle’s aprons (Image: Contributed by Creek Lifestyle)

As Creek Lifestyle grows as a wholesale model – with stockists now in Cornwall and Suffolk and extra to come back – Richard and Sam are spending extra time within the locations that impressed the enterprise. For them, it’s as a lot a couple of life plan as a marketing strategy. ‘Sam feels like she’s going residence to Norfolk,’ says Richard. ‘We’re on the stage of our lives the place we’re excited about after we grasp our boots up – the place are we going to hold them?’

For now, at the very least, the reply appears clear: someplace you possibly can odor the ocean, really feel the wind and watch the tide roll in. Which is precisely what Creek Lifestyle is inviting the remainder of us to do.