The Brand With The Pipe

So seeing as we love making a nice polo shirt we thought we would celebrate the man, who in our opinion helped to design, endorse and create one of the most iconic British brands of all time, Mr. Frederick John Perry. Fred to his mates.

As you all may or may not know Fred was a bit of a tennis sensation, a player that this country has never reproduced and doesn’t ever seem likely to do so again. Fred was far from your typical ‘jolly hockey sticks’ stereotype, he was born in Stockport to humble beginnings and traveled with his family to several spots across the North-west of England due to his father’s job. I am sure you all have the ability to look him up on Wikipedia or wherever you cool kids get your information from to find out more, but we are far more in his sartorial significance.

Fred started his own clothing company when in the late 40’s a mate of his, Tibby Wegner, said there was money in being ace at tennis whilst wearing clothing and that the shirts he wore on court didn’t perform that well. The only people really doing anything exciting with sports shirts then were a tiny French brand called Lacoste (I wonder whatever happened to them?) So the Stockport sensation decided he would try his hand at creating a top white he could wear at Wimbledon. Fred was a bit of a fan of smoking pipes, so this was the original planned logo to be stitched into the shirt. After a bit of discussion he settled on the laurel wreath to symbolise his home court of Wimbledon… boring. Mods, Skinheads, Wide Boys, Perry Boys, Madchester… you know the rest.

So in order to pay homage to one of our favourite sport personalities and the almost wildly-misjudged branding issues of all time we will be reproducing the first ever polo shirt Fred wanted to make. Featuring the highly controversial ‘mottled’ collar he couldn’t get past the Wimbledon uniformity rules and of course the pipe. Oh and it’s made in England too, just like Fred.