How does Brooklyn Beckham make money: From barista to photographer and chef, a look at his career ventures
Brooklyn Beckham played for Arsenal’s youth academy but was reportedly let go when he was 16.
Without question, there would have been an expectation for the sons of David Beckham to follow in the footballing footsteps of their father, and this must have been particularly hard for his eldest son, Brooklyn. In 2022, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham told Variety that “My dad wasn’t sad, because he was like, I just want you to be happy. But of course I was sad. It was my whole life since I was literally 2.”
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham also said: “To try and live up to what my dad did in football, I was just like, that’s going to be a bit difficult.”
When he was just 15, the then Brooklyn Beckham got a job as a barista in a local coffee shop in West London and reportedly earned £2.68 per hour. Brooklyn then later tried his hand at modelling and became the face of streetwear brand Superdry.
Following his modelling stint, Brooklyn Beckham enrolled in a photography degree at Parsons School of Design in New York but left at 19 to defer the course with an internship with British photographer Rankin. Brooklyn Beckham went on to shoot a campaign for Burberry’s new fragrance campaign.
At the time, fashion photographer Chris Floyd told The Guardian that “David and Victoria Beckham represent sheer willpower and graft. Especially her, she’s climbed that mountain all by herself. They represent hard work and then their 16-year-old year son comes along and it’s sheer nepotism. He hasn’t done it from hard work, which is counter-intuitive to what his parents represent.”
Chris Floyd also said: “Part of me takes my hat off to Burberry and says that’s clever, but the photographer side of me says for god’s sake,” said Floyd. “Brooklyn Beckham’s got however many million Instagram followers, that’s what’s attracted Burberry. The people his age are Burberry’s target market or the future target market.”
In 2017, Brooklyn Beckham’s debut photography book What I See was published. According to the synopsis on Amazon, “WHAT I SEE, the first book by Brooklyn Beckham, is a series of snapshots of his life. Each chapter tells a different story through pictures by and of Brooklyn, accompanied by captions and passages of text in his own words. Unique, authentic and stylish, WHAT I SEE is a glimpse behind the lens.”
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham then moved on from photography to cooking. He told Variety that when it came to photography, he said: “I really enjoyed it for a couple of years,” and added that“I love taking pictures of my wife. I still have all my film cameras, but now it’s just more of a fun thing to do. They were kind of all hobbies. I was still trying to find that one thing I would literally die for, and I found that with cooking.”
In 2024, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham launched his own hot sauce, Cloud 23, that has been described as a ‘premium organic hot sauce brand. In October of that year, his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham took to Instagram and wrote: “brooklyn 🥹 i am so proud of you @cloud23 is so special!🪽 i love you so much! i love watching you live your dreams 🤍.”
When it came to his hot sauce, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham told Grazia that ‘I worked so hard on not just attaching my name to a hot sauce and just putting it out. I decided every little aspect. I’ve never worked so hard on something.”