Do you recall the moment when the UK was awarded the Olympics following a final face-off in Singapore with the other contenders back in 2005? Seems like a long time ago, especially now since London 2012 is proving to be the most successful Olympics for Team GB ever and hopefully just as rewarding in the forthcoming Paralympics.
A few days later in 2005, Geof Todd began to explore ideas that could benefit from both the UK’s and world’s attention on sport at this time. He knew that the brand heavy-weights would be paying big money to be involved, but in turn they were betting on even bigger rewards. One key example has been Adidas who paid a reported £100m to be the sole Games’ official clothing licensees of the London 2012 kit to Team GB, with the rights for all the replica clothing and it looks like it has paid off with reported sales of London 2012 and Team GB branded clothing sales reaching over £100m before the end of week 1, and all this despite the massive financial system re-set that the world experienced in 2008 – suddenly, London 2012 looked like it was going to be a re-run of the 1948 London ‘Austerity Games’.
It was against this background that the Todd family created an independent creative services company that was built on the strengths of the 4 family members and so TODD Creative Services Ltd was born. Billing itself as a ‘Video Production and Ideas Consultancy’ the team embarked on creating a portfolio to showcase its capabilities including an ambitious plan to create the ‘next big thing’ in licensable men’s sportswear; the BOXJOX Performance and brand were created. To read more detail about the history of where this idea came from, see our blog post Adventures in My Pants.
Why choose underwear for men? Similar to the motivation expressed by Mary Portas and her creation of ‘Kinky Knickers’ for women, product ubiquity and sales repeat-ability were key factors in creating a range of products whose addressable opportunity is essentially half of the world’s population, with the other half largely the purchasers of said underwear for their men. The key exception to this rule is in the area of technical sportswear, where sports-oriented men actively choose their own kit and it is here that the first product, BOXJOX Performance, is targeted. For more information, please read our related blog post BOXJOX Performance – The Ultimate Support Act.
The road to product realisation, including patent application and finding a production partner, has taken from 2005 until 2012, mirroring the Team GB London 2012 journey, when TODD CS took delivery of their first batch of BOXJOX Performance. Now BOXJOX Performance are on-sale through Amazon UK and have secured both 5 star reviews and a local Technology & Innovation award, with several potential brand and design licence partners also engaged in discussion. Feedback from all sportsmen has been excellent, with especially good results experienced by both runners and cyclists – 2 of the fastest growing sectors that have seen a significant lift from the Team GB Olympic success.
TODD CS is actively seeking BOXJOX technology partners who can develop a full range of garments for both sports and leisure wear to ensure that the TODD CS odyssey will turn into a significant legacy that compares to that of the London 2012 Olympics.
To find out more about BOXJOX Performance please go to the main site;
www.boxjox.co.uk
Purchase your pair on Amazon
© TODD Creative Services Ltd, August 2012.