Thank you for stopping by our shop here at Ashtabula (home of the Footysuit), and welcome to our story!
START UP
There are two people behind ASHTABULA - myself (Bevan Read) and Brett Rennick. We are your typical footy-loving blokes who grew up in small country towns in Central Queensland. We went to boarding school together during High School and have remained good friends ever since. (Before going any further I should add that I've been a mad Cronulla Sharks supporter since I was 8. For his sins, Brett is an avid Roosters Fan - yes, that's right - the Soft Cockerells! There is no better day than when the Sharkies beat the Roosters - which has happened about 7 times in the dozens of years we've been mates!)
In 2003, in the midst of a hectic family life (my wife and I had a couple of little girls under 2, and a new start-up business - life was a blur!) I found myself looking at Football Clothes for babies; and was less than inspired with what I was seeing. All around the world - NFL, EPL, Italian Football, South America - everywhere I looked it was the same - same products; little effort; no imagination. It was like no-one was really trying! From here, the idea of a Footysuit was born! For the next couple of years I started playing around with the concept - finding clothing factories in Asia - getting samples made - drawing up designs! No sample ever came back that matched the vision I had in my head. My wife and I soon had 3 little girls and family life/work life took over. The Footysuit samples disappeared to the back of the wardrobe and I became consumed with other things. Some would say I probably shouldn't be putting Footy clothes on my little girls anyway, but I never stopped thinking about how good they could have been!
Fast forward a number of years to 2011 - all the girls were now at school - life seemed to have a bit more balance - things were tracking okay ...... until that day my wife dropped a little pregnancy test in front of me!!! 2 solid lines!!! It'd been that long since I'd seen one I didn't recognise what that meant!!
In August 2011 my wife gave birth to a little baby boy. We named him Tom. We had given up any thoughts of having a boy years before, so you can imagine how excited we all were, and before we knew it we were getting showered in baby gifts - a Tottenham shirt; Sunderland jumpsuit; Leeds United kit; Wallaby jumper; Melbourne Storm football; Sharks Towel; Sharkies Singlet; Roosters hat. Everything was football!! It was like someone upstairs was trying to tell me something - this little man arrived in our lives completely out of the blue and with him came a message - stop dreaming; find the courage to have a go!
Soon after, the Footysuits came back down, more samples got made, and I found myself on Brett's back deck one Friday afternoon. A few beers and too many rums later, and the two of us set about plotting how we could turn this vision into a reality!
Neither of us really knew what we were in for; nor could we imagine the amount of work that lay ahead - but we kept "chipping away" (one of our favourite phrases!). After hundreds of long days and sleepless nights; countless samples; many factories; dozens of frustrations and plenty of hurdles - the first Original Footysuit went on sale in June 2013. It’s a journey that is still so young, but a journey that has taken us to so many places and provided so many memories (we once had Tom doing "uppies" on the NRL Boardroom table wearing his Melbourne Storm Footysuit).
The little bloke you see in most of our images is Tom William Read. He has been our inspiration since before he could stand! We still get so much joy in watching him running around in a Footysuit; although I've never been comfortable with him modelling the Roosters one! He's recently turned 3 so we have started doing bigger sizes (we need to keep him working)! He still likes to wear a Footysuit but he's pretty much had enough of the modelling career. Most photos these days cost us a Freddo Frog!
Thankfully his little sister, Demi, has taken on the burden of modelling in the past 12 months!
With each new team we add to the collection we are still as excited as when they first launched. At last count we had over 100 teams from around the world and we are just as busy trying to get the next 100. There is one thing that continues to drive us - it’s the smiles we see, and the joy we hear from people who dress their babies in a Footysuit. There are few things more cute; and they guarantee a smile!
THE FIRST FEW YEARS
Looking back we were quite lucky early on that someone told us “you can never survive in this industry with just one product”! I say “lucky”, but God looks after good people, right? That’s what we tell ourselves anyway!! 😁
Hence no sooner than we were celebrating the arrival of the Footysuit, than we were once again consumed with creating new products. The Girls Footysuit followed next – and if we had a dollar for every time we heard the word “cute!!”, we’d be skiing in Aspen by now.
Then came some Baby Gift sets, Girls Dresses …. and then our beloved Onesies!! And by Onesies I mean Onesies for mums and dads! Fortunately, the world was in a Onesie phase, so they went pretty well for a few years. We managed to get them on Fletch & Hindy (Matty Johns Show) and Big Darryl (Footy Show). It certainly helped in making the Footy Onesies a mainstream product during this time.
I saw a few people wearing their Maroons Onesies to a State of Origin once, and thought to myself – they’ll be warm; they’ll be comfortable – maybe they’re the smart ones!! But I bet my arse they aren’t getting into any nightclubs afterwards!
The Onesies became part of Footy Fashion during the 2010’s. Soccer World Cups; Rugby World Cups – they were popping up everywhere.
Also during this period we started expanding across many Football Codes. The All Blacks followed the NRL, then the Wallabies, AFL etc etc. We did a heap of Footysuits for the NFL in America (via a licensing partner) and also College Football. It sounds impressive, but when you start splitting the money many ways, it wasn’t really worth the time. We also made Footysuits for lots of clubs in the EPL, English Championship and English Super League; a few in Europe. It was nice to see them spreading around the world!
Our baby photoshoots were always fun – chaotic; stressful; and like herding cats!! 😬 NEVER schedule a photoshoot with 5 babies together at the same time!!! Don’t ever do this!! The best babies were those that could stand, but hadn’t learned to walk. They were like gold!!
They say most start-ups don’t survive three years! Looking back, we were pretty lucky that we did – cash is tight; there’s never much money to pay yourself; you’re working long hours, and the business tends to consume your life. We were pretty lucky that our families were on board with everything we were doing, and we kept “chipping away”!
A CHANGE OF NAME
What’s with the name?? It’s a question we get asked all the time!
When we first started, our business was called “Footysuit”, and our only product was a “Footysuit”. As we started doing more products, a name change seemed sensible, hence the search for a new name began!!
Seems pretty simple, but after 10 months we’d come up with nothing (well, nothing that we both liked). Brett walked into the office one Monday morning and wrote “Ashtabula” on the whiteboard. Like everyone has done, I said “what the ____ is that”?
Turns out he’d been watching a College (USA) Football game over the weekend, and the winning coach was introduced as “from the town of Ashtabula”. He liked the sound of it! Rewound – listened again – and looked it up!
Ashtabula is an old fishing village on the southern bank of Lake Erie in Ohio. A bit of research told us that “ashtabula” is an indigenous North American (Lenape) word with one suggested meaning of “there’s more than enough fish to be shared around”. We liked that! The first business that appeared on a google search was “Rennick Meat Market” – the same surname as Brett! It was a sign from the big man upstairs!!
“Ashtabula” was locked in, and that’s what we’ve been ever since!
Neither of us has actually been to Ashtabula as yet, but I’m sure we’ll get there at some stage! Hopefully there’ll be a cold beer waiting for us, and a decent steak from Rennick’s Meats! Just ignore the Urban Dictionary definition if you plan on visiting!!
NEW ZEALAND EXPANSION
We had always seen good sales from New Zealand since we started with the All Blacks program in 2013 (just the Footysuits). Licensing with Super Rugby clubs was in & out during the 2010's, and the Warriors always had plenty of support.
Actually, one of our favourite photos came from NZ, when the Hurricanes presented Prince Harry & Meghan with a Hurricanes Footysuit during their visit! The Warriors were also great supporters of our Adult Onesies, and I think they actually attempted to break a World Record with most Onesies worn to a sporting event!
In 2022, on the back of the rise & rise of NRL in NZ, improved licensing arrangements with NZRU, we decided to expand officially to New Zealand and opened our warehouse on the Auckland north shore. Coming out of a harsh COVID period, and NZ heading into recession, it probably wasn't out of the Kerry Packer textbook, but we kept chipping away, and the New Zealand warehouse is still going strong today. (we actually moved recently to a much bigger/better warehouse in Rosedale - pop in and say hello).
Our licensing with the All Blacks and the Super Rugby clubs is still very much a novelty license, but our range of products has been steadily growing. We've always been encouraged with the support of our Kiwi customers, and having a few different fun & colourful supporter options, seems a good fit. We are glad to support them back with local service, and local distribution!
The 2020's
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