Combat medic and former creative director of Odesa’s Ogonёk shop Iordan Konstantinidi presented his brand RBTNK — it is a relaunch of his eponymous Rabotnik line, created in 2020. The first drop of RBTNK features T-shirts with patches dedicated to defenders, medics, volunteers, rescuers and journalists. DTF Magazine tells more about the new brand
About the launch of RBTNK
Three years ago, in 2020, Ogonёk presented a collaboration with the brand KSENIASCHNAIDER — a collection consisting of T-shirts and caps with the inscription ‘Employee of the Year’. Then the drop was dedicated to ‘all those who did not give up and continued to work during the year when there was a quarantine’.
In 2021, a new brand Rabotnik with an expanded range of items emerged from the collaboration. T-shirts, caps, notebooks and cups began to be supplemented with the updated inscription ‘Rabotnik of the Year’. According to Iordan, he and his team were developing a new project for his brand in 2022, but everything came to a halt after a full-scale war broke out.
Iordan Konstantinidi joined the AFU, first as an orderly and then as a combat medic. He is currently working as the head of the battalion’s medical center.
‘I went to serve, and, of course, at that time I gave up the brand because there were other tasks. At that time there were no ideas at all, no strength at all, but there was a certain pressure inside — I was very angry that I could lose my dream along the way. So I didn’t lose hope’.
In the spring of 2023, after changing his position to administrative, Iordan developed an idea of ‘what the brand should be this year’, but the ‘cornerstone’ was the name.
‘Before the full-scale war it was called Rabotnik — it was written in Latin because we wanted to create a neologism in English, a word that meant ‘a person who works’. I wanted to keep the meaning but get rid of the russian word. My private Telegram channel came to the rescue and I asked my subscribers for advice. So Rabotnik became the abbreviation RBTNK’.
He adds: ‘I deciphered the name as ‘really busy, talented n’ kind’ and everything fell into place. Those words describe the people I created the brand for, and the idea of the neologism remained’.
RBTNK still fits the slogan the team came up with in 2021: ‘if you work hard, you’ll dance cool’.
Iordan explains it this way: ‘Nothing has changed for me since then. Yes, I’m military now, but I can allow myself to dance, listen to music, sing with my fellows and relax after a hard day’s work, because it’s impossible to live any other way. We are still the same people. We are all the same employees who want corporate parties, team building, and that’s important. Without it, it is impossible to build a team. If you want your team to fulfill their tasks, you have to spend time with them in a non-combat environment, outside of work’.
About the items from the first drop
RBTNK’s debut release features black T-shirts with four removable patch designs — each inscription can be chosen in men’s and women’s versions, in Ukrainian or in English: Defender of the year, Medic of the year, Volunteer of the year, Journalist of the year, Rescuer of the year.
‘This drop was created for all those who over the past almost two years have become new people, mastered new and war-related professions, — Iordan explains the concept. — Now they can change their Rabotnik of the year T-shirts to Defender of the year, Volunteer of the year, and others. We once came up with the main slogan of the brand: ‘your work is your superpower’. All these people are my superheroes, but not because they put on a uniform, but because of what they do in that uniform. That is, because of their work. And for these superheroes, I wanted to preserve the memories of the present time in the form of material things’.
He adds that he ‘doesn’t seek to prove to people that they are better than others’, but rather seeks to let people know that ‘it’s okay to think you’re the best’.
‘Every time you get over yesterday’s self, you’re already a better person. Material things are very helpful in capturing moments like that’.
You can pre-order T-shirts from RBTNK’s first drop at Ogonёk’s website. Shipments and sales will begin on December 23.
About the new brand communication
RBTNK presented not only a new name and collection, but also an updated format of communication with the audience, ‘featuring gamification elements’. The website presents the items in the format of different characters of the game, which have a certain set of skills and individual patches.
According to Iordan, they consciously decided not to shoot a lookbook for the collection, ‘emphasizing that anyone can be the hero of this ‘game’’.
‘Every one of us, every military person, has at least once perceived the fulfillment of certain tasks as a computer game. Because often it is simply impossible to realize that it is all happening in reality. When you imagine yourself as someone else, for example, as a character who passes a level of the game — it’s much easier to succeed… There are no faces in this drop, that’s why the campaign is exactly like this: dark and hot because of the smoke. The only thing you can understand is that it’s a man or woman with certain character attributes. And a patch is a mandatory attribute of a game costume: when you’re wearing it, you’re in ‘the game’’.
About the future of RBTNK
Iordan plans to present a full-fledged brand collection in 2024.
‘I think we will never stop using the drop format because it’s a situational case and I really like to respond to the challenges of the world. Every year we will set new challenges, new goals and celebrate new ‘best years’. However, RBTNK needs to become a full-fledged brand, it needs to become an additional pillar for me because it is important to me. As long as I serve, I will work in parallel, and what will happen in the future — time will tell’.
