Mihhail Zigadlo is the founder and creative force behind Racer Worldwide, an Estonian streetwear brand that fuses nostalgic storytelling with bold, boundary-pushing design.
Launched in 2017 when he was just 16, Racer began as a school project – not with a plan, but with a drive to create something cool with friends. What started as a few film-camera photos on Instagram evolved organically into a globally recognised brand shaped by curiosity, experimentation, and collective energy.
Racer quickly grew from a two-person side project in a basement into a full creative collective that captures the pulse of Eastern Europe’s post-2000s youth culture. Its designs – mixing denim, distressed leather, past influences, and ironic slogans – act as cultural reflections, drawn from shared memories and everyday influences. For Mihhail and his team, inspiration comes from everywhere: the clothes they wore at 12, what their parents wore in the ’90s, or even a bootleg souvenir found in Chinatown.
Video: Kristjan Taal
Over the years, the team has expanded to more than ten people, most of them friends or original fans. Their roles remain fluid – people move between creative, production and operational tasks based on energy and need. Mihhail himself floats somewhere between creative director and CEO. “We don’t have fixed job titles. The only constant is that we keep creating and trying new things,” he says.
Despite its rapid growth, Racer Worldwide has never been tied to a single aesthetic or subculture. Instead, it embraces stylistic freedom and reinvention – seeing each collection as a cultural snapshot, a mix of serious and humorous, vintage and futuristic. Their approach is collaborative, irreverent, and proudly Gen-Z. They build their brand the same way they built their friendships: through memes, skate edits, shared playlists, and DMs.
By staying close to their audience – through social media, unfiltered storytelling, and a behind-the-scenes podcast series – Racer has built more than a brand. It’s a community. A family. A living, changing organism born out of post-Soviet Estonia, shaped by ambition, and driven by the belief that fashion should be fun, expressive, and never fixed in place.
From print-on-demand white sweatshirts to custom knitwear and global shipping, Racer Worldwide shows what Estonian streetwear can become when it’s fearless, honest, and collaborative at its core.
