It’s the end of an era.
We have completed the successful sale/acquisition of UNCLE JACK to a new group.
For the last 6+ years I have put my heart & soul into growing this incredible business along with some amazing people. It has truly been the experience of a lifetime and I am incredibly grateful to the people who made it possible. We achieved what we set out to do, and then some.
From what started as a crazy idea in my childhood bedroom became a fast-growing company which saw the product being worn by celebrities, opening new markets and jetsetting to the US, Europe & Asia, growing a team and building lifelong friendships.
Shoutout to my business partners and investors Brandon Ellis & Lachy Doran who backed me in 2014 and have backed me in every day since. They have played such an important role in the business and deserve just as much of the accolades.
The beginnings were humble, our first office was on the 2nd floor of an Italian social club in Keilor East, literally metres from the freeway. The brand became well-known particularly in the sports landscape with collaboration with icons like Patty Mills, Dyson Heppell, Kalyn Ponga & Josh Kennedy. We became official watch licensees of the AFL & the A-League which propelled the brand into the next level.
After the business was officially sold, I went through and wrote down a list of my favourite memories over the years. There have been so many. Most of them exciting and full of joy, some painful, but I wouldn’t change them for anything.
On the first launch day on September 17th 2014, we sold 30 watches (8 of them had to be refunded because we couldn’t work out how to send watches with a battery internationally). The brand propelled quickly from there. Within 6 months we had moved into a very cool start-up office & warehouse in Kensington, made our first hire and the product and brand was growing quickly.
By developing a new product collaboration model around 2017, we were able to give the brand further growth and consistency. We started collaborating with some of the athletes that were already wearing our product by co-designing and releasing products which allowed us to tap into niche sports-fashion audiences and continue to grow the customer base.
I particularly remember the Christmas campaign of 2018 being one of the most intense periods of my working life. We had set really audacious goals for the quarter and we had invested a lot to achieve it. From memory, we were probably launching 20-30 different products within 6 weeks. That’s some serious product development for a watch company. We had at least 5 watch collaborations in the space of 3 weeks. With a small team, this was impressive. However, it did take its toll on me. I was completely mentally, physically & emotionally exhausted by the end of it. We didn’t quite hit our lofty goals that year, but we got close. It was an unbelievable team effort.
Our first ever AFL officially licensed collection launched in November 2019 with outrageous success. We sold out every single team in a matter of minutes. It was manic. However, with a launch like that, many won’t fully understand what actually goes into it. It was almost a year of writing proposals, making action plans, getting approvals, designing & re-designing products, getting feedback from clubs, sampling and refining. Normally, with any given campaign it’s pretty straight forward. You run one set of ads, have one page to capture data, one product etc. When you’re launching a collection with 18 x different club-specific designs, you multiply your inputs by 18 x. From memory, we had something like 144 individual ads running at one time. It’s a gallant effort for a small team to pull it off.
There’s a lot of pressure when you invest so much into a launch like this. I remember the night before the launch I just could not sleep. It was all I could think about. I got maybe 30 mins if I was lucky. To be honest, I think it was a strong reflection of how much sweat equity and emotion I had invested. I rolled in at 6am on launch day. As I said, an 18-piece launch is not simple. Essentially we release one watch every 30-60 mins throughout the day. It was essentially a 16-hour day for us of which you need to be switched on for the whole time. We had a timeline of tasks that each person had to do that was literally to the minute. Although from the outside these campaigns can just look like a great product market fit and it therefore sells out, although it may be true to an extent, the work that goes into making that a reality is enormous. It makes me really proud to have led a team that although not large in size, has the capability, knowledge & unwavering resolve to pull it off.
We succeeded, we failed, we learnt and ultimately we achieved phenomenally more than we set out to as fresh-faced 20-year old’s in 2014.
I’m looking forward to seeing the brand flourish and continue to grow under the new investors. For me, I don’t know exactly what my next move will be and I’m very comfortable with that. For now I’m keen to continue working on my fast-growing sneaker brand ATHLETIKAN
I’ll take some time to reflect on the incredible journey, get creative and eventually go again.
For now, thank-you to all those that helped, worked with us, liked, commented, shared, supported or even bought a watch.
You’re the real MVP’s.
If you want to get in touch to say hey, or you’ve got some ideas to work together please drop me a line here.
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