Canberra cult hero Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad sparks merchandise line
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad has developed such a cult following you can now buy bumper stickers, t-shirts, even coffee mugs with his face on them.
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So you ask Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad if he’s seen those ‘All The Way With CNK’ bumper stickers?
“Yeah, I have,” the Canberra fullback cackled this week.
“Crazy, ey.
“I still can’t believe people are buying them.”
Same deal, he said, the new CNK t-shirt range.
Throw in too, coffee mugs, hoodies, even phone cases emblazoned with not only the smiling face of this rising Raiders No.1, but that new twist on an old US political campaign.
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But as for the youngster having ever heard the slogan before?
"Nah," Nicoll-Klokstad shrugged. "I've got no idea where it comes from".
Wonderful, isn't it?
Some 55 years after American president Lyndon B Johnson rose to power on his 'All The Way With LBJ' cry, a band of entrepreneurial Raiders fans have decided to revive the slogan in honour of the Green Machine's latest young star.
Better, all money raised by sales of the new CNK range — designed by fan Jack Cronin and available on Redbubble — is going directly to the Ricky Stuart Foundation.
And while the gear hasn’t yet reached the heights of, say, Willie Wigs back in the day … well, brace yourself if Canberra upset South Sydney in Friday night’s finals blockbuster.
Arriving at the Raiders this year after just seven games in two seasons with Warriors, CNK has suddenly been catapulted into the realm of NRL cult figure.
Not that, initially, the 24-year-old had any idea.
“Every now and then, I like to step away from social media,” CNK explained.
“Delete all my accounts just so I can keep a clear head. Avoid getting mixed up in all that sort of stuff.
“So it was my partner who initially found the stickers and shirts online.”
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And as for his thoughts?
“Crazy,” the Raiders No.1 continued.
“It’s the same when kids come up to me now saying ‘you’re my favourite player’.
“I just laugh and say ‘nah, you’re lying’.
“It seems so unbelievable because even my favourite players are still running around in the NRL. Guys like Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and James Tedesco.
“So for me to be having an impact on people’s lives, no matter how small … it really is hard to believe.”
Growing up in New Zealand with 10 siblings, Nicoll-Klokstad had no shortage of hardships in a childhood that saw him lose an older brother, Tyson, to muscular dystrophy, have mum Monica imprisoned and then shift to Australia himself in his mid teens.
But come Friday night, the young Raiders recruit will have both parents watching on from a sold out GIO Stadium, which is sure to include plenty of those ‘All the Way’ tees.
And as for whose merch Nicoll-Klokstad was wearing himself as a kid?
“Definitely the WWE wrestlers,” the fullback revealed. “Guys like The Undertaker and Goldberg, who was my absolute favourite.
“I actually have a lot of great memories that involve collecting belts and wrestling with my brothers as a kid.
“Although dad, he was always blowing up at us, saying we couldn’t wrestle.
“But then when he’d go out for a while, even pop across the road to the gas station, we would go at it.
“By the time he’d come back through the door, we’d all be so red and sweaty … he must’ve known what we were up to."
Better, the Raiders fullback is now seeing his own childhood love being adopted by sons Kyrie, 1, and Rio, who turns three in December.
“My boys are now at the age where I’m starting to wrestle with them,” he grinned. “And I love it man.
“When my eldest was young, I always used to powerbomb him into the bed. And now that he’s getting older, talking, I’ll come home from training and he says ‘power bomb daddy, power bomb’.
“It’s unreal.”
Originally published as Canberra cult hero Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad sparks merchandise line