Out of Play
Thomas Royall: The swimwear label John Terry invested in that’s dressing Premier League stars for their holidays
WORN by the likes of Raheem Sterling, Willian and Jamie Vardy, Thomas Royall is the footballer’s choice when it comes to swimwear.
The Premier League’s elite have readily shared snaps wearing the brand’s snazzy shorts on social media, while holidaying in the world’s most glamorous holiday destinations.
The London-based business was set-up by Wycombe Wanderers star Sam Saunders in 2015, alongside former Birmingham City defender Liam Ridgewell.
Within a year, it piqued the interest of Chelsea legend John Terry, who jumped on board and invested in the company.
Thomas Royall has continued to go from strength-to-strength and is stocked in high-end department stores, Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
Now, they’re going beyond men’s shorts, introducing bikinis, as well as kids clothing and baseball caps to their range.
It’ll all be presented in a fancy launch for their SS18 collection in posh Mayfair next month.
SunSport dropped into Thomas Royall’s HQ in West London to catch-up with Sam.
We modelled a pair of his trunks and was disappointed to discover budgie smugglers weren’t in season.
The 34-year-old began by telling us how he got started in swimwear.
“I got a serious knee injury four years ago, got frustrated and started thinking about life after football,” Sam said.
“I mentioned it to Liam, who’s been one of my best mates since I was eleven years old, that I wanted to launch a business outside of the game.
“He was of a similar age and mindset to me, so he was looking at other things too.
“To be honest, it might have been one or two many pool parties in Las Vegas that inspired it, but I thought there was a distinct lack of options out there with swimwear.
“What we found, in the day parties especially, was that people were planning their outfits like they were planning their night outfits.
“However, there wasn’t the same kind of options, so we thought we’d come up with some quality garments.
“Competitors are still quite child-like with their prints. We wanted to make it a little more snazzy and see where it went.”
Sam admitted that his business plan, at first, was a little naive. However, that may have been a blessing in disguise when launching a new start-up.
“I honestly thought I would start with just a few shorts, stick them online and Instagram, sell them to the boys and that would be it,” he said.
“But in business it didn’t happen like that. We had to make a minimum amount of stock.
“We also had to find a production company that was willing to take us on. And in a year it seemed to snowball after that.
“I went into it so naively, which was probably a blessing. You don’t think about website hosting, putting it online, packing, posting, insurance…
“I had to learn a lot of stuff, but if you make a mistake once, you learn from it and don’t do it again. It’s really been a great life lesson for me.
“For example, I didn’t even realise when you put them into stores, then the stores pay you two months after they’ve been on their shelves.
“You’re effectively paying for stock six months before you’re getting returns on it, so that kind of stuff is testing for the brand.”
In 2016, Sam was amazed to discover he had a fan in John Terry, who ordered a batch of swimwear before heading off to Dubai.
It started off a business partnership and friendship that continues to blossom.
“Whenever we get a PayPal sale it comes up on my phone,” Sam explained.
“I was walking through Westfield and as I was shopping the name J Terry popped up. It was a decent size order, as well.
“I looked at it and saw there was a Surrey address linked to the purchase and thought it must be him.
“Then a few weeks later, I saw a picture of John on Instagram wearing the shorts.
“I spoke to a friend of mine, who had the same football agent as him, and asked if John minded tagging us on his Instagram posts to do us a massive favour.
“My mate told me that John really loved the shorts, how they were posted and packaged to him and presented in nice boxes.
“We had a few meetings after that and he wanted to get involved. Since we’ve been working together he’s been brilliant.
“I didn’t know him before, only as John Terry the footballer, but he’s a good guy and always offers his input.”
Explaining why he named the company Thomas Royall, Sam revealed the Royal family were in his thoughts and he wanted something that sounded quintessentially British.
Their signature royal blue trim is a feature on all their products.
But when launching the clothing label, Sam wanted to do it inconspicuously because he sensibly reasoned that would give the brand longevity.
“From the start of it I kept it completely under wraps it was mine, hence the name Thomas Royall,” he said.
“I didn’t want to be known as another footballer trying to start a clothing line.
“I wanted to be taken seriously. That’s why I went undercover with it at first.
“I was never going to stick my own name on it or squad number, we’re not doing this for five minutes, we want longevity in the brand.”
Sam confessed it’s a difficult task juggling running a successful fashion house alongside a full-time football career.
Fashion might be something he loves, but he’s well aware that football is his number one job.
“It’s difficult. We’re very dependant on the girls that work for us in the office that help run the business on a day-to-day business,” he said.
“I go in once or twice a week, but football is my number one job.
“It’s something I need to dedicate myself to, otherwise I’d be out the game.
“This is another passion of mine, and I want this to be successful enough to be able to turn around and say, ‘Thanks, football you’ve been brilliant, I can walk away now.’
“A few years ago someone said to me, ‘Make sure you’re finished with football before football is finished with you.’
“Football has a real knack of chewing you up and spitting you out . When you’re done, you’re done.
“I want to be in the place with this where I’m able to put my eggs all in one basket when I’m done playing.”
Despite not having enough hours in their day, Sam, John and Liam are very involved in the designs Thomas Royall create.
However, sometimes they can’t agree on what they like best!
“We’re very hands-on with the designs,” Sam divulged.
“We look through the designs, we have print meetings and all pick what prints we like that we want to use.
“To be fair, the target market is ourselves. So, I’d like to think between the three of us, we all have different tastes that will appeal.
“Sometimes there’s a bit of a stalemate where all three of us like something completely different.”
Sam, who will be doing his football coaching badges this summer, has been touched by the support he’s received from other footballers with Thomas Royall.
“When Brentford got promoted to the Championship, all the boys had the shorts on when we went to Las Vegas.
“To be honest, we’ve been lucky with footballers because they’ve always backed us.
“Footballers are inspirational guys, a lot of them like their fashion, they look in good shape and it’s good for the brand.
“Everyone knows when you finish football it’s a hard gig. It’s a great career, but it’s a short career.
“You’ve got a lot of life to live when you’ve retired, so if there’s anything going on for one of the lads, everyone tries to support it the best they can.”
With a starting price of £75 for men’s shorts, Thomas Royall could be deemed too pricey for some.
But Sam assures SunSport that the quality is in the service provided.
“We’re not a high-street price, so we’re not putting out high-street quality goods,” he said.
“A lot of time, effort and detail goes into Thomas Royall.
“We know that people have worked hard to earn their money and they make a substantial purchase on our shorts.
“But we make sure we can give something back in the quality goods we provide. We’d never go against that idea to sacrifice what we’re providing.
Sam hopes that Thomas Royall will be the “one stop holiday shop” people will use before they go away.
He showed us fetching patterned shirts that are new to the men’s collection, which he is excited about.
“We’ve still got a long way to go before I can quit football and do this full-time,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can have a good summer again this year and see where we are.
“We’ve got to follow the sun. We’re looking for agents and distribution in other countries that we can trust because when it’s winter here, it could be summer somewhere else.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re selling all-year-round.
“It’ll take time, and with what we do full-time, we’ll never be able to jump on a plane and go out and have a meeting ourselves in a different country.
“We’re just making sure we crack the UK and Europe, change the range, and hopefully next year we’ll move into more travel wear.
“It’s gone from being in my kitchen, drawing pairs of shorts myself, to sitting in our office now planning a launch party for our new collection in Mayfair next week.
“Who knows what will happen next. We’ve come a long way in four years, so let’s see where we are in another four.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday with explosions heard soon after across the country and its foreign minister warning a “full-scale invasion” was underway.
Weeks of intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia failed to deter Putin, who had massed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along the borders of Ukraine.
“I have made the decision of a military operation,” Putin said in a surprise television announcement that triggered immediate condemnation from US President Joe Biden and sent global financial markets into turmoil.
Shortly after the announcement, explosions were heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and several other cities, according to AFP correspondents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his address to the nation at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 21, 2022. Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP
Putin called on Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and justified the operation by claiming the government was overseeing a “genocide” in the east of the country.
The Kremlin had earlier said rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv.
The extent of Thursday’s attacks was not immediately clear, but Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the worst-case scenario was playing out.
“Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Kuleba tweeted.
“This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
Biden immediately warned of “consequences” for Russia and that there would be a “catastrophic loss of life and human suffering”.
NATO’s chief condemned Russia’s “reckless and unprovoked attack” on Ukraine.
Putin’s move came after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional appeal late on Wednesday night to Russians not to support a “major war in Europe”.
Speaking Russian, Zelensky said that the people of Russia were being lied to about Ukraine.
Zelensky said he had tried to call Putin but there was “no answer, only silence”, adding that Moscow now had around 200,000 soldiers near Ukraine’s borders.
Earlier on Wednesday the separatist leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk sent separate letters to Putin, asking him to “help them repel Ukraine’s aggression”, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The two letters were published by Russian state media and were both dated February 22.
Their appeals came after Putin recognised their independence and signed friendship treaties with them that include defence deals.
– ‘Moment of peril’ –
Putin had for weeks defied a barrage of international criticism over the crisis, with some Western leaders saying he was no longer rational.
His announcement of the military operation came ahead of a last-ditch summit involving European Union leaders in Brussels planned for Thursday.
The 27-nation bloc had also imposed sanctions on Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and high-ranking figures including the commanders of Russia’s army, navy and air force, another part of the wave of Western punishment after Putin sought to rewrite Ukraine’s borders.
The United Nations Security Council met late Wednesday for its second emergency session in three days over the crisis, with a personal plea there by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Putin going unheeded.
“President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine, give peace a chance, too many people have already died,” Guterres said.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, warned that an all-out Russian invasion could displace five million people, triggering a new European refugee crisis.
Before Putin’s announcement, Ukraine had urged its approximately three million citizens living in Russia to leave.
“We are united in believing that the future of European security is being decided right now, here in our home, in Ukraine,” President Zelensky said during a joint media appearance with the visiting leaders of Poland and Lithuania.
Western capitals said Russia had amassed 150,000 troops in combat formations on Ukraine’s borders with Russia, Belarus and Russian-occupied Crimea and on warships in the Black Sea.
Ukraine has around 200,000 military personnel, and could call up to 250,000 reservists.
Moscow’s total forces are much larger — around a million active-duty personnel — and have been modernised and re-armed in recent years.
– High cost of war –
But Ukraine has received advanced anti-tank weapons and some drones from NATO members. More have been promised as the allies try to deter a Russian attack or at least make it costly.
Shelling had intensified in recent days between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists — a Ukrainian soldier was killed on Wednesday, the sixth in four days — and civilians living near the front were fearful.
Dmitry Maksimenko, a 27-year-old coal miner from government-held Krasnogorivka, told AFP that he was shocked when his wife came to tell him that Putin had recognised the two Russian-backed separatist enclaves.
“She said: ‘Have you heard the news?’. How could I have known? There’s no electricity, never mind internet. I don’t know what is going to happen next, but to be honest, I’m afraid,” he said.
In a Russian village around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the border, AFP reporters saw military equipment including rocket launchers, howitzers and fuel tanks mounted on trains stretching for hundreds of metres.
Russia has long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining the NATO alliance and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.
Speaking to journalists, Putin on Tuesday set out a number of stringent conditions if the West wanted to de-escalate the crisis, saying Ukraine should drop its NATO ambition and become neutral.
Washington Wednesday announced sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which Germany had earlier effectively suspended by halting certification.
Australia, Britain, Japan and the European Union have all also announced sanctions.
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