From crushing disappointment to global sportswear brand - the Castore story | Tom Beahon

Nike and Adidas have dominated this market forever. Why has no one ever challenged them?

Your dreams of your life up until that point kind of disintegrate before your eyes. Taking the time to find out what it is that you genuinely love and are truly passionate about is the singular most important thing that any person, young or old, can do.

Again, that combination of love of what you do and a point to prove, it can be pretty potent when put together.

Yeah, that for me is probably the singular factor that separates the good or the very good from the great. And lo and behold, whatever it was, four, five, six years later, you're kind of sat on Centre Court and Andy Murray's wearing your logo, playing in front of how many people at Wimbledon, and you're like, wow, how the hell did that happen?

It's great to be here, Georgie. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate the kind words, and I completely understand why you would think my moments would relate to the business and Castore. But actually, the big moment for me relates to a period earlier than that. I'm born and raised in Merseyside, and pretty much every young kid born and raised in Merseyside wants to be one of two things: either a musician because of The Beatles in Liverpool, or a sports person. I was no different. My sport was football. Unfortunately, I wasn't blessed with the talent to play for Liverpool or Everton, so I played for the mighty Tranmere Rovers. What I always say to my friends, Georgie, is that I was paid to play football at the age of 17, so life could be a lot worse. But I grew up wanting to be a professional footballer. That was all I'd ever wanted to do, all I'd ever dreamt about, with a distinctly tunnel-vision focus on achieving that. At the age of 19 or 20, I got called into the manager's office and told, 'Unfortunately, we're not going to renew your contract.' At that point, without sounding dramatic but it is pretty accurate, literally your life and your dreams up until that point disintegrate before your eyes. When I left that meeting room, I did have more than a few tears in my eyes. My biggest fear was what the hell am I going to tell my dad, because my dad had been the guy who would drive me to training every Tuesday and Thursday from the age of seven onwards. That was genuinely the hardest moment in my life up until that point. But what that moment did, on reflection looking back at it fifteen-plus years later, was put this inner steel inside of me that said I'm not going to let this be the defining moment of my life. I'm going to go on and do something else. And that really was where the embryo for Castore was born.

It's a great question, Georgie. I was listening to something recently by an author called Michael Lewis, who talked about the concept of understanding how fortunate we are in life. To be born in the UK, we're more fortunate than many people in the world. To be born with two parents that love and care about you, you're far more fortunate than many people. I was incredibly lucky to have a super supportive family network. When you have that support and you try to have a bit of self-awareness, you realize the sun is still going to rise tomorrow. Whatever's happened might seem like the most important thing in the world at that moment, but it really isn't. Slowly over time, you realize you've learned quite a few skills — how to compete in a results-driven, highly competitive environment, how to be part of a team, communication skills. I positioned it in my own mind: I've got a competitive advantage. I'm not starting from zero, I'm starting from one. I'm ahead of most other people because I know what failure is. I've looked failure in the eye and dealt with it. As an entrepreneur, you're going to deal with failure. I already know that, so I'm ahead of most people. I'm not going to let this failure in football define me. I'm actually going to use it as a positive to help me do whatever's next.

Yeah, it absolutely does. To start a business, and I think this is true to be very successful in any facet of life: you have to love it. It can't be work. There will be so many setbacks and challenges where even if it's not quite as dramatic as quitting, you settle. Castore is a far different business now versus even three or four years ago. It becomes really easy to settle for what you have. At the start, you don't have anything to lose, so it's easier — you're just like, right, that's where we've got to go. Forward momentum or die, grow or die. That was the mindset at the beginning. But now we've got 500 staff, 250 million quid revenue, and that next risk — expanding into a new market, launching a new product — if it doesn't work, there are consequences beyond just us as two 20-odd-year-olds. The singular thing that keeps you going through all of that is you have to love it. I love sport. It's not a job to me. I get to go to football, rugby, cricket, Formula One, tennis, sailing, and I'm like, I get paid for this? I'm making sports kit that's worn by elite athletes — that is beyond a dream. Taking the time to find out what you genuinely love is the singular most important thing any person can do. The second thing is: I think you have something to prove. You've got a little bit of a chip on your shoulder. After I stopped playing football, my parents asked why I didn't go to university. I just remember thinking, no, I'm not going to do what everyone else does. I want to forge my own path. I said to myself, I'm going to leave Merseyside and I'm not coming back until I'm successful. That failure puts something deep inside your soul that says I'm not going through that again. That combination of love of what you do and a point to prove, it can be pretty potent when put together.

Yeah, it's another great question. I think the answer is yes, but I also think it links to the luck point. Bill Gates is cited in that book — he was incredibly fortunate to grow up in a part of the world where computers just happened to start. Is that fate? Is that destiny? Is that pure good luck? I don't know. The outlier concept is incredibly interesting — how opportunities and situations present themselves in life. There's also an element of you make your own luck. I'm a big believer in if you put positivity into the world, by and large, you do get positivity back. My very simple philosophy on life: if I'm healthy and my family are healthy, you really don't have anything else to complain about. My biggest fear was never failure. Ironically, it wasn't, can I make it as a footballer. My biggest fear was mediocrity — the idea that you could have some talent, some capability, but for whatever reason not be able to take that next step to becoming really, really good. The single factor that separates the very best from everyone else is a level of intensity that other people don't have. They just have that drive to get it done, to push that deal through, to make that thing happen when a lot of people are saying, are you sure about that, there's a risk here. That, for me, is probably the singular factor that separates the good or the very good from the great.

The short and honest answer is with difficulty, because it isn't easy. Although there's some parallel skill sets — competitiveness, teamwork, communication — equally there's a whole load of stuff that is completely different. A partnership deal in football is very different from one in rugby, very different from Formula One. For any athlete changing career coming into the business world, none of this is unlearnable. None of these problems are insolvable. There's a couple of core characteristics that will really help. The first is authenticity. If you're an athlete, be an athlete. Don't try and be this buttoned-up, traditional business person if that's not you. Be authentically yourself — that makes you stand out. The second is integrity. Your biggest asset isn't financial. It's not going to be a loan from the bank. Your biggest asset will be your relationships. If I think back to how we started Castore, we spent eighteen months relentlessly knocking on doors, saying we're these two young guys with a vision of starting a British sportswear brand. We didn't know anything — how to design a product, how to build a website. But if people can see that you're authentic and passionate, people are willing to help you. You need to put yourself out there, be honest about what you know and don't know. Relentless curiosity to learn, to develop, to build relationships is an incredibly powerful asset. I always remember being surprised how many so-called high-powered, high-profile people will take your call, will have a coffee with you — but you've got to put yourself out there. No one's going to do it for you.

Oh no, I wish it was that easy. My brother and I knew we wanted to start a business. I have no idea where that came from because there's no entrepreneurial background in the family — our mum's a teacher, our dad worked in construction. If I had to pinpoint it, it was the fact that we'd both been through a similar experience of wanting to be professional athletes and not quite making it. We both had that drive and passion, but also that chip on our shoulder. We had no money — what the hell are we going to do with our lives. We moved down to London, got jobs, were living in this tiny flat in a tower block in a not very nice postcode. We'd get up at 5 a.m. to spitball ideas before work, and stay up till 9 p.m. doing the same. The bright idea I had — and I was 100% convinced it was game-changing — was launching an après-ski brand. I'd never been skiing in my life. My brother was like, that's a great idea, other than the fact that what are you going to do for the ten months it's not ski season. But Castore — we both loved sport, and it evolved. Nike and Adidas have dominated this market forever, why has no one ever challenged them? A little bit of David versus Goliath, a little bit of ignorance is bliss. Let's do something we love, even if we fail we'll have some fun. Wouldn't it be amazing if one day athletes wear our products when they're competing? And that built from there.

Again, two parts to that, Georgie. The first one is yes — it's genuinely hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck, stand-up moments. The first time Andy played wearing Castore was at the Australian Open. We pretty much used all of the money we had — we had very little. We'd done this deal with Andy where he'd become an investor in the business. Fair play to him, not a lot of people would have done that. We spent that money on plane tickets to Melbourne. I was sat next to Judy Murray, trying to text my mum without Judy seeing. We watched him in the first round — he'd had problems with his hips, so it was all very emotive. It will stay with me forever. He looked very good in the kit — navy and white combination. That was the moment where you're like, wow, we've achieved something here. There's an additional part — we're a digital business, we generate the majority of our revenues online. You have an app so you can see revenue in live, real-time. That was the one moment where you saw that genuine spike, and I was like, wow, this stuff works. Athlete marketing is a real thing. The Andy moment was definitely special. We've been super lucky — England winning the Ashes, Rangers winning the Scottish Premiership, Red Bull winning Formula One. But honestly, Georgie, all it does is give you a hunger for more. Unlike sport, there's no finish line in business. You get to 100 million revenue on December 31st and you think, we could have got to 101. One of our athletes, Adam Peaty — the mindset he has to have versus a footballer who gets another chance in three or four days. If Adam doesn't win at the Olympics, he's got to wait four years. That delayed gratification is truly inspiring. In business, we have instant feedback — is what we're doing working or not? That motivation is fueled constantly. That's what keeps the alarm going off at 5 a.m. every day.

I do need to turn my brain off, I need downtime, I would die otherwise. But my brother doesn't — he's not normal. He'll have his iPad with the revenue on the table on Christmas Day and he'll say, oh, we're 4% behind last year. And I'm like, go away, I don't care, tell me tomorrow, tell me in January. His brain never switches off. We're different in that sense. I couldn't operate without some kind of come-down from the highs, whereas my brother just keeps going nonstop. Good on him, but it's not for me.

No, really appreciate it, Georgie. Thank you for having me.