The story
9 Strokes didn't start as a plan. Founder Joe Matos served four years in the U.S. Air Force and left the service in 2005. Fashion wasn't the goal — it's something he fell into.
Camera in hand, he found his way onto the runway circuit, shooting shows from the floor and posting the work as @JoeMatosRunway across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. It connected — TikTok alone grew past 850,000, for a combined audience nearing 900,000, earned in the room, show after show, season after season. But where a lot of people shoot the shows chasing likes and follower counts, Joe saw something different: a real business, and a service worth standing behind.
Because the footage was never the point — it's fuel. The right clip is the reel that gets a model booked. It's the coverage that makes a buyer give an emerging designer a second look. 9 Strokes was built around that simple idea: do the work properly, charge for it like the business it is, and put that content in the hands of the people who can actually use it to grow.
“A lot of people do this for likes. I do it as a business — because the content we create is how models and designers actually live out their dreams.”
What we believe
We believe the people who do the work should be paid for it — the photographers behind the lens, and the models and designers in front of it. Treating this as a business instead of a hobby isn't the cold part of the story; it's the reason we can show up, deliver real coverage, and keep doing it season after season.
We also believe access shouldn't be reserved for a short list. Fashion weeks hand official coverage to a handful of names, and everyone else is left outside the rope. 9 Strokes exists to widen that door — to get our contributors credentialed and in the room, and to put the resulting content where it does the most good.
The service we provide
For a model, the right footage is the reel that lands the next booking and gets an agency to pay attention. For a designer, it's the coverage that puts a collection in front of buyers, press, and the audience it deserves. We give models and designers the content they need to grow their platforms, build their careers, and live out the dreams that brought them to fashion in the first place. That's the service — and it's what everything we shoot is built to do.
What we do
We shoot it, we report it, and we broadcast it — three ways of turning a live show into something a model, a designer, a brand, or an outlet can actually use.
Shoot. Broadcast-ready 4K coverage from the fashion weeks that matter — New York, Miami Swim Week, and beyond. Film and stills, backstage to runway, with hero content turned around in hours, not weeks.
Report. We report each fashion week’s official schedule by the numbers — who won the week, who got booked, and the Creator Ad Value behind the moment — so the story and the data live in one place.
Broadcast. A fashion channel built to play inside retail, hospitality, and DTC spaces, plus The Wire, where outlets and brands license our footage directly instead of chasing it down.
The mission
Shoot the work, pay the people who make it, and put real content in the hands of the models and designers chasing a dream — so they get seen, they grow, and the next one coming up gets a shot too. That's the business, and that's the point.
Photography
Beyond film, 9 Strokes shoots stills. Joe Matos has photographed fashion and runway for over seven years — editorial, campaign and portfolio work shot worldwide, from Miami to New York Fashion Week and beyond. See the photography →
Work with us → · Become a contributor → · License the footage →