The Origin of Pitz

Pitz wasn’t created in a meeting room or born from a business plan. It rose from lived experience — from the streets, the music, the people, and the culture of Barnsley. Pitz is more than a brand; it’s a platform built on integrity, creativity, and the belief that stories deserve to be told honestly.

This is the journey that shaped it.

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From Coal to Gold

To understand Pitz, you first need to understand the environment that forged it. The roots of Pitz stretch through forgotten streets, collapsing coal mines, youth culture, and the creatives who used expression as survival. Every moment — direct or indirect — played a part in forming the identity behind the brand.

The voice guiding this story is Layton, the Creative Director behind Pitz, whose early passion for writing rap lyrics and teenage dreams of becoming an artist shaped the path that followed. Long before Pitz existed, Layton was recording music wherever he could — makeshift home studios, parked cars, or empty houses — driven by the same resilient mindset that runs through the brand today.

“The seconds fly by when the clock starts ticking, try until I die and I’ll never stop wishing, holding my own on this cold lonely road, turning coal into gold — no, I’ll never stop wishing.” – Layton – “Coal to Gold” (2006)

But this isn’t a biography. It’s the story of how a place, a culture, and a community created the foundations for something bigger.

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Godley Street

The origins of Pitz trace back to Royston, an ex-mining village in Barnsley where stories weren’t written — they were lived. Godley Street, a dead-end cul-de-sac with a rough reputation throughout the ’90s, became one of the first environments that shaped what Pitz would eventually embody.

Inside houses, Uprising tapes blasted through bedroom walls as MCs shouted over rave beats. Smoke drifted under doors. Arguments bounced down the street. Kids learned about the world faster than they should have. This environment wasn’t inspiration — it was reality. And that honesty would later become one of the core values behind Pitz.

One moment stood out: Tupac Shakur’s “Changes” playing on the television. Raw emotion, storytelling, truth — a completely different world introduced into a Barnsley living room. That spark would help define the creative DNA that Pitz champions today:real voices, real stories, real lived experience. The earliest seeds of Pitz were planted on Godley Street long before the brand existed.

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The Lost Boyz

In forgotten areas with little opportunity, creativity often becomes the only outlet people have. Royston was no different. A small group consisting of teenage tearaways and rebellious young adults calling themselves The Lost Boyz began recording on a cheap condenser microphone in an upstairs flat on Newtown Avenue.

They wrote about violence, poverty, frustration, and hope — documenting the very world that shaped them. Their sound wasn’t polished, but it was honest. That honesty became a major future influence on Pitz.

This group coined the term “Pittarn” — a word born from local slang (‘Tarn’ for Town). It reflected what Barnsley felt like then: closed mines, limited escape, a community surviving the aftermath of industry closure. The word carried grit, identity, and a sense of place. Years later, its spirit would help form the foundation of the name Pitz.

Creative paths crossed. Ideas exchanged. A culture formed. These interactions — especially with artists like Cryptic Moves, Freeman, Realeyez, Young Dreamer, and Spitz — would later feed into the brand principles Pitz stands on today.

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The Grim North

Nearly a decade later, Barnsley’s underground scene shifted again. A new collective called Grim North, led by rap artist J.blooze, began hosting live hip-hop events in the town centre.

These nights reignited a creative pulse that had faded over time — a new sense of possibility for local artists. It was at these events that the future direction of Pitz began taking shape.

Among the crowd was DJ Shed, a figure unknowingly connected to the Pitz story long before any collaboration. Again paths crossed, ideas aligned, and the next chapter of Pitz quietly began forming.

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Pitz Was Here Before

After a while, the connections made through Grim North began to fade. The idea of continuing the legacy of live events and supporting local talent had already taken shape. This led to the creation of Pitz Promotions.

When the name was mentioned to DJ Shed, he revealed that he had already run live rap nights under the same name years earlier.

This showed that the spirit of Pitz wasn’t new — it had already existed in Barnsley, quietly shaping the path for the brand to grow.

With DJ Shed’s blessing, the vision was reignited. Pitz Promotions expanded into two additional areas: Pitz Prints, focused on creating merchandise, and Pitz Productions, focused on music and audio. Built from scratch with a “do it yourself” ethos, these ventures culminated in the Pitz Promotions Re-Launch Event in 2022, followed by five subsequent events, solidifying the brand as a hub for local creative talent.

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Making it Work

The next step was securing a physical home for Pitz — a place where ideas, artists, and projects could actually grow. But creativity alone doesn’t cover rent, renovations, or bills. So, like every chapter before, Pitz took what it could get and made it work.

In November 2023, Dodworth Road in Barnsley became the first commercial home of Pitz. The only available unit was an old, disused sandwich shop — unmaintained, outdated, and far from ideal. But it was affordable, it was accessible, and most importantly, it was possible. So it became the foundation for what came next.

With almost no budget but absolute commitment, the old sandwich shop was transformed into a functioning creative space, home to what became Pitz Studio. It wasn’t perfect, but it had purpose — a place built for people willing to work hard to reach their creative goals.

Pitz didn’t beg for grants, chase clients out of desperation, or dilute its integrity just to cover the monthly bills. Instead, it held firm: value first, honesty first. The mission was to dig into the community, find the hidden talent no one else noticed, and give them a platform worth stepping onto.

The struggle was familiar, but the aim was different now. From upstairs flats to basement venues to a forgotten shop on the edge of town, Pitz continued to build, plan, and prepare. The foundations were finally set — and the sights were higher than ever before.

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Pitz

Pitz isn’t a finished product — it’s a work in progress, shaped by every person who walks through its doors and every story that deserves to be heard. What started in bedrooms, basements, flats, and forgotten spaces now lives as a growing creative platform rooted in integrity, honesty, and community.

Pitz will continue documenting its chapters as they happen — new events, new spaces, new collaborations, and new talent rising from the same places that shaped the brand from the beginning.

This story isn’t over.
It never will be.
Because Pitz isn’t just something we make — it’s something we build together.

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