Well as 2021 wraps itself up with a big Covid bow, I think looking back at some good times seems like a sensible thing to do, at least just now!
From my own humble beginnings on street stalls, and craft markets, I really had no idea where making and printing designs on t-shirts could take me.
You often hear that luck is something you work at to be in the right place at the right time so that ‘break’ is never entirely just down to luck. I think that’s true, after all, nobody is going to knock on your door and ask you to buy whatever it is you make unless you get out there and show them. When I exhibited for the first time at the Spring Fair in 2001, I was driving a rusty old VW Polo that had more holes in the bodywork than a pack of mints. I had no idea then, that the first person to place an order would end up being my business partner for the following 2 decades, Dolph Zahid.
Similarly, when Dolph opened his first T-shirt shop in Brighton in 1991, he dreamed of more and worked hard to open a further 7 stores employing almost 30 people. Success is often something you don’t recognise till you stop and look back.
With a strong retail background and fast-selling designs, it wasn’t long before other shop owners started asking if they could stock our ranges of characters.
Soon we had a warehouse and a phone that never seemed to stop ringing as we packed up boxes each day to send to all corners of the British Isles and Europe
Again, lady luck (or was it just stubborn tenacity) played a role in our next development. An agent from Brand Licensing Show called us 2 days before the event itself asking if we would attend in 2001. We thought licensing was to do with opening a pub, so were clueless. But ‘nothing ventured’ as they say, so after a very long night of printing out our designs we rocked up in London with absolutely no idea what to expect.
The rest as they say, ‘is history’ as it was WHSmith who wanted us on stationery and this massive success resulted in us working with just about every major retail chain here, and a great many others around the world in at least 40 different countries.
So as we close up 2021, I am pleased to say we have some more exciting news to announce in early 2022 with another adventure ahead of us which after a few years of uncertainty and upheaval is most welcome.
I hope you all have the best Christmas you can with whomever you are able to get to and may 2022 be a more prosperous and stable new year.
