How travel can inspire a change of direction
Alex Cook brings ideas from his time on the road into Vanquish, a new clothing range with Earth friendly ideals that branch from tribal roots.
There’s no such thing as an ordinary life, everyone has their own defining moments, extreme situations and special times. Egremont born Alex has had his fair share of them too but those experiences have helped him move on and follow a new path.
From Mixed Martial Arts fighter to project engineer. Traveller and podcaster to clothing manufacturer, it’s fair to say Alex’s accomplishments are a mixed bag. But for Alex each stage of his life was a logical progression.
“I was very interested in MMA when I was younger and had a number of fights in the early days but felt I had to leave home if I was going to have a chance as a fighter. In 2005 I trained with a martial arts coach based in Nottingham, before moving full time to the Wolfslair Gym in Widnes. I was training with the top names in the sport like Michael Bisbing who was the first UK champion of the UFC. It was a fantastic experience.”
But after years as a fighter and weekend doorman, Alex decided life back home might be better.
“I was 29 and I thought if I’m not going to make it at my physical peak I probably wasn’t going to make it.”
Alex went back to college, studied mechanical engineering and went to work at Sellafield but an interest in the megalithic structures built by the tribes of South America brought him to Peru in 2014. It was only a short journey but it changed everything and inspired him to make another leap. Alex bought a camper van and worked out a vague outline for a European tour.
“I didn’t know it at the time but I bought a dud of a van.” said Alex.
Taking the ferry to Bilbao in Northern Spain he travelled anti-clockwise around the Iberian peninsula, moving south through Portugal. Alex is a bit of a history buff so his trip wasn’t wild parties, more like wild open spaces and historic sights.
“At 38 I felt there was room for self-improvement. I wanted to make the effort to be more open and get to know people and this trip helped. I left with good intentions of not coming back for a while and it was a shame it didn’t work out like that. I wanted to see where things took me but the van was packed onto a trailer and I came home with it.”
He travelled around most of Spain before the van finally conked out in Barcelona 5 months later.
With no van but a big dose of the travel bug Alex started visiting destinations by plane. He took trips to Morocco, Iceland and The Azores. Everywhere he went the history inspired him, when he finally planted roots back in West Cumbria he had a new idea.
Vanquish means to thoroughly defeat your enemies and it fits with the ancient warrior castes Alex respects. Taking inspiration from Vikings, Aztecs, Mayans, Inca and Samurai Alex felt there was something they had that’s lacking in the modern age. He hopes his new clothing range Vanquish reminds us we can overcome our modern day enemies like anxiety, fear, doubt or even physical manifestations. A true warrior lies just beneath the surface in all of us.
“I’d see the runestones in Iceland or tribal designs in South America and I thought a lot of those designs would look great back home.” said Alex “But for me it’s vital we keep things Earth-friendly which is why we use organic cotton in the clothing and sustainable materials like bamboo. Our producers, printers and suppliers are all registered Fair Trade which maintains that workers are paid responsibly and treated with dignity. Wherever we can we keep everything local.”
Alex says his days of travel are far from over but his commitment to Vanquish means they’ll be shorter, stranger excursions that quench his thirst for knowledge.
You can listen to podcasts, find more on Vanquish and order online at www.thanktheuniverse.org
Photos by Alex Cook
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