‘Pride of the Midlands’ and unashamedly lads’ brand Luke 1977 reaches its 25th anniversary this year, and it’s been quite a ride. From punk-inspired T-shirts and cut-and-sew pieces in its humble beginnings – designed by Central Saint Martins graduate Luke Roper and originally launched at the London Excel menswear show in 2001 with business partners Simon and Deborah Poole – to a full-on lifestyle brand that now even does a very successful line of fragrances, as well as kitting out film stars, sportsmen and music artists.
TheIndustry.fashion went along to hear all about the journey, and plans for the future, from co-founder and Managing Director Simon Poole, his son and Head of Sales & Marketing Connor Poole, and Head of Retail Luke Enston, who also now happens to be married to Simon’s daughter, Megan. It’s a family affair.
How did Luke 1977 come about in the first place?
Simon Poole: Designer Luke Roper’s family and mine had been friends since the 1960s. My mother made costumes for the theatre, and Luke’s mum was a wedding dressmaker and clothed half of Walsall with unique creations, so our families have been intertwined with needle and cotton for nearly 60 years now.
Luke was a bit of a lad from Walsall Wood in the West Midlands, who originally wanted to be a footballer. He also loved his clobber and discovered by the age of 12 that not only did he have a talent for football, but he was also handy with a sewing machine – having picked it up from watching his mum make dresses. He started making his own shirts for going out in his teens. Then, at the age of 20, London called after he won a place on the menswear course at Central Saint Martins. It was while he was studying there, and I was helping to turn around the fortunes of French Connection before going on to be joint MD at Boxfresh, that we hatched a plan to start a business with myself and my wife, Deborah, as equal partners with Luke.
We started with a small capsule collection called Luke 1977, as the first collection was inspired by 1977 – the year of punk, with some nods to the iconic T-shirts of my youth. I had access to original memorabilia from my own back catalogue and punk friends, and that kicked us off.
The original idea was to then do Luke 1984 – possibly with a Duran Duran-inspired collection, then Luke 1992 and so on. It was meant to be that every chosen year was inspiration behind a collection. But everyone kept calling us Luke 1977, so that just stuck and we registered it as a trademark.
How did you manage to start a new business while being so heavily involved with Boxfresh?
Simon Poole: It was certainly a sharp learning curve, but with my contacts, Luke’s undoubted talent, and Deborah’s organisation, we had belief it would all come good. There was no outside investment, no pressure to sell out, just time for Luke to develop his skills and time to wait for independent retailers to get on the journey with us.
In terms of Boxfresh at the time, I was very open and explained to Roger Wade (the founder) that I had another fledgling business that I would need the occasional day to work on, so it was always an open and above-board arrangement.
I also always had side projects to help support Luke. We had UK distribution rights for Modern Amusement, Tootal scarves, Simon shirts, among others. In the early days, Luke would have probably been better off on the dole in terms of his salary, and I don’t think Deborah and I took a penny out of the business for the first five years while we built it.
Would you ever have envisaged 25 years of Luke 1977?
Simon Poole: It’s scary really when I think back to some of the early days and the journeys we’ve had along the way – it all seems like yesterday. We started out small scale out of a barn in Oxford, and we’re still in the same barn – it’s just that it’s been converted and is now much bigger with 20,000 sq ft of warehouse space!
I can’t believe I’ve got children over 30 now, including my son Connor, who joined the business properly 15 years ago and now heads up sales and marketing. He was groomed for stardom!
What is Luke best known for now?
Simon Poole: I’d say we’re a lifestyle brand now. When we first started out everybody knew us for shirts. Then they knew us for jackets, then knitwear. It used to be about much more directional product, but there are some very safe options now. We sell a lot of classic tracksuits that are good for the terraces. That seems to be the staple of what we do, but we still sell a very wide offer, and we’re well known for quality products that last the test of time.
How have you managed to remain an independent business?
Simon Poole: It’s been really hard, but that’s ultimately been achieved through the dedication and hard graft of the team, and frugal business – not exposing ourselves to risky things. We’ve always loved to have a store in London, for instance, but every time we make a visit and do the economics, we come to the conclusion that financially it just doesn’t work. We don’t have too many ego projects.
We did do a little pop-up trial just off Carnaby Street on Foubert’s Place about 10 years ago, which was great, particularly for brand visibility. But we look at each project and ask, ‘is this cost effective?’, ‘can we get a return out of this?’ and ‘is it not going to be a massive drain on the rest of the business?’ It’s just good business economics really.
How many Luke 1977 stores are there currently and are they all full price?
Luke Enston: There are 16 Luke 1977 stores now, including four franchise stores, which are split between full-price and outlet stores. Our six full-price stores are in Derby, Milton Keynes, Birmingham (Merry Hill) – where Luke Roper’s 16-year-old son works – Bristol, Cardiff and Leicester, while our nine outlet stores are in Birmingham (Cannock), Cheshire Oaks, York, Swindon, Doncaster, Livingston, Birmingham (NEC Resorts World), Spalding and Castleford. Going forward, we’re looking at a few pop-up opportunities. We have just opened one at London’s O2, but we’re hoping for more in the North and in Scotland this year and next.
Why have you put a stronger focus on outlet stores?
Simon Poole: We’re finding success with the outlet centres because they have easy access and free car parking; they are usually busy and they deliver an audience which also includes full-price customers.
I think a lot of city centres are killing themselves in terms of congestion charges and high parking costs these days. If you look at our home city of Birmingham now, in comparison to what it was 15-20 years ago when we had a store in the Bullring, it’s just not a great place to shop. Then you look at London, with regard to robberies, phone snatching and so on. What people see in the out-of-town centres is a much safer shopping environment with security dotted around on-site. Also, if you look at our stores at the outlet centres, they are pristine – not with product piled high and sold cheap like the old days of outlet shopping, just to churn numbers.
Luke Enston: Customers want the full-price experience, but without the price tag. That’s what we’ve generally moved towards. It’s a value-led offer, rather than a discount strategy. I think it’s really important to empower the customer to build outfits based on incentivised spending, rather than saying “all this is 50% off”. It gives a perception of value, but it doesn’t harm the brand.
Simon Poole: Luke understands the outlet side and how it works because he worked for Ted Baker at Bicester Village and then ran Vivienne Westwood’s off-price business. Over the past four or five years, he’s made visits to our outlet stores a lot more of a premium, boutique-style experience.
What have been your most recent store openings?
Luke Enston: We’ve recently opened an outlet store at Doncaster’s Lakeside Village, as well as a full-price store at the Derbion Shopping Centre in Derby. We’ve also recently refurbished our outlet stores at Cheshire Oaks and York Designer Outlet, and we’re looking to refurbish two more stores by the end of next year. The general store concept has moved from around 2,000 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft, to more like 1,400 sq ft to 1,600 sq ft, and we’re seeing a much better return on the smaller square-foot stores. The idea is we’re moving out of the bigger locations and making stores feel a bit more like boutiques. Also, with the reduction of our product options, we’re finding the end consumer is enjoying what we’re doing more. A lot of brands go down the route of more is better, but we’re really focusing more on what we do well, with storytelling playing an important role.
Simon Poole: We had become guilty of building collections to fit stores. So, when we had 2,000 sq ft stores we were trying to build a collection to fill it – almost forcing it for quite a while. But, like a lot of brands, over the last five years, we’ve really consolidated. We’re trying to become more specialist and produce less, but better. I think that follows what the consumer wants now too. The UK consumer is definitely getting switched on (to overproduction), so we’re really trying to focus on improving the quality, make and fit of all of our core lines.
Luke Enston: We’ve also found that ‘micro-dropping’ fresh collections and introducing something new every week – or every two weeks – is giving our customers a reason to go out.
Where do you see future growth coming from for Luke?
Simon Poole: As we are growing, like a lot of brands, we are seeing that the direct-to-consumer angle is where our long-term future lies. We’re still very happy and proud of our independent partners, and we aim to remain loyal to them, but our growth is going to come through more own-brand stores. We’ve also just had a massive website upgrade and relaunch.
How has your social media content developed?
Simon Poole: We’ve moved away from very fashion-focused content to more engaging, reactive and light-hearted content, and we’re growing followers on social media as a result. It’s a bit more tongue-in-cheek, which relates back to what the brand was known for in its early days. Connor has grown our Instagram followers by 20% in the last year. It’s come organically and we’ve now got 55,000 followers.
We’ve got a very broad church of customers that we’re trying to address. We’re trying to engage with new customers so that the business continues into the future with Connor, Luke and the team. They will take over more from me as I step aside into more of a Chairman’s role in the next couple of years. I’m still very passionate about what we do, and I still love the game I’m in, but it’s changed a lot and it’s more direct-to-consumer focused.
We will be looking at AI for certain things to keep costs down, such as some photo shoots, but realistically if we can get real faces like Connor’s talking about real things in front of a real camera, we’re getting much better engagement levels.
Connor Poole: In terms of growth, Instagram would be our biggest social media platform, but we’ve also got a great base on Facebook and we’re going to start the journey on TikTok this year with some live shopping.
Who are your biggest wholesale accounts these days?
Connor Poole: Mainline Menswear is still an important partner for us, as is Terraces in Stoke-on-Trent. We also operate with NEXT on an online concession basis via a drop-ship model, as well as with Very, John Lewis and Debenhams. We fulfil orders from our warehouse.
What has been the biggest highlight over the years?
Simon Poole: Our partnership with Aston Villa FC was an important period for the brand. It gave us access to around 2.3 million Brummies who have an affinity with the club. That really elevated us through that period, which lasted about five years. We had the shirt deal for one year – Villa’s last in the Championship (the 2018/2019 season) before getting promoted back to the Premiership, but before that we had advertising deals at Villa Park and various other connections.
Connor Poole: The play-off final against Derby County at Wembley in May 2019 to win promotion back to the Premier League was something else. That was probably the most amount of Luke 1977 lion logos I’ve ever seen in one place – it could have been at least 30,000 logos. That kit has actually gone on to be a real collector’s item. The shirts are going for about £150-£180.
What other football connections have you had?
Simon Poole: We’ve also done some work with Millwall and AFC Wimbledon. It all came about because of our kit deal with Villa. We started doing more clothing deals with clubs, for things like polo shirts and T-shirts for fans, but not the kit, and we’re still working with some of the smaller clubs. What we’re trying to do now is tie the club into where we’ve got retail. Our most recent one was York City FC, as we have a store at York Designer Outlet. We offer season ticket holders a discount when they come in.
Connor Poole: Doing those sorts of deals on collaboration ranges means you have a chance of being first in line with negotiations should the kit deal become up for grabs too.
We’ve since flipped our football connection on its head with our ‘Pre-match Rituals’ series on Instagram. We go to film at different clubs – in areas where we have stores such as York and Doncaster – and speak to the fans in person, often contacting supporter groups before we go to let them know so they are prepared. We’ll ask what they do before a game, like what pub do they go to, what’s their pre-match meal – things like that, as well as chats with fans inside the grounds. It’s proper interaction and it’s authentic. People resonate with that.
It’s more in the lower national leagues where we’re finding success. We had over 200 people outside our York store because I managed to get three of the York City players down to sign some kits. York have also just won promotion to League Two, so we will be in the conversation to possibly do their kit going forward. Who knows?
Dan Evans
What other sports are you actively targeting to raise the brand profile?
Connor Poole: We’ve had a huge push in darts, as we were top-line sponsor of the WDF World Darts Championship (that was held from 28 November to 7 December 2025 at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey). All the officials wore WDF and Luke branded polo shirts and everyone playing in the tournament had a Luke patch on too. The officials had never worn a polo shirt before; it’s always been a shirt and tie, so it was quite a landmark deal.
We also sponsor up-and-coming youth darts players and work with amateurs as well as professionals – providing darts shirts with the Luke badge on, which have become a bit of a thing on the circuit!
Simon Poole: In the early days, we could have easily signed Luke Littler, but our Luke (Roper) was never really keen on darts. Obviously, momentum around Littler has built up massively in recent years with his success. Unfortunately, boohooMAN got in as his official sponsor and clothing provider.
In other sports, we’re still very much involved with John Higgins in snooker, who we’ve been working with for about five years now. He’s a four-time winner of the World Snooker Championship and we sponsor him on the snooker tour, and create content around that. He wears the Luke logo on his shirt sleeve when he’s playing. It works better than being on his waistcoat as it gets more TV coverage on his sleeve!
We’re now looking to do some clothing deals with young up-and-coming snooker stars. Again, it’s supporting grassroots sport. It’s a sport I used to be pretty good at myself back in the day. I was a bit of a hustler, which paid for a few family holidays to Majorca!
We also sponsored tennis player Dan Evans for five years when he was British number one during that time. He’s another Midlander and a Villa fan. We designed and made his kit, including when he played at Wimbledon. I even made the TV myself a few times – wearing a red Luke jacket in the crowd!
Akon
What other high-profile names are connected to Luke?
Simon Poole: We’ve been sending free clothes to film production companies for years, including for some of Danny Dyer’s early films such as ‘Doghouse’ (2009) – in which he wore some Luke pieces – and also for the cast of British teen crime dramas ‘Kidulthood’ (2006) and ‘Adulthood’ (2008). It built up relationships with some of the up-and-coming actors, who then went on to become Luke fans. Actor Stephen Graham is another great fan of ours going back many years. He’s also played at our annual golf day and we’ve done photo shoots with him too.
The walls in our showroom are plastered with all sorts of sports stars, singers and actors wearing Luke, including former footballer Gareth Bale, boxer Joe Joyce, singer Craig David and many others. We’ve also just had former footballer and pundit Dion Dublin shopping in our Cheshire Oaks store, and we put photos up on our Instagram. Comedian Daniel O’Reilly is another fan of Luke who recently popped into our showroom and picked out some pieces to wear on his next UK tour.
Connor Poole: We’ve also been dressing R&B and hip hop singer Akon for a few years now. He has been a big supporter of our brand and originally found it via our retail partner in Senegal. He did a UK tour two years ago, so came to Manchester and we kitted him out. He and his team then reached out for his most recent tour, and of course we were excited to get him back into store, more importantly for his gig in our home town of Birmingham. We went to the gig, and the team gave us the full VIP treatment backstage, which we were very grateful for. He’s a true gentleman.
What product areas have been performing perhaps surprisingly well for you?
Simon Poole: Footwear has been doing well for us, and that’s because our shop staff have all been wearing it as part of their uniform. The most recent collection is the first footwear collection that I’ve been happy to hang my hat on for the last three to four years. It was actually our best-performing category in March.
Fragrance is also a huge area for us. We sell it in our stores and via a lot of our independent wholesale accounts in big numbers, especially at Christmas. It’s great for gifts as it’s a tenner here and there, an easy add-on purchase. We’ve got some really good fragrances, about 10 in total now, and there’s a great pocket spray which is perfect for a night out. We also have £25 gift sets and a deodorant and body spray two-pack for £9.99, which is fabulous value for money.
The thing about retailing is it’s not always about clothing these days, it’s about a lifestyle – and we’re a lifestyle brand. We also do jewellery and watches, and we’ve even got a professional beard care kit.
What are you doing to celebrate 25 years of Luke 1977?
Simon Poole: There’s a lot of things planned this year. The big month will be September, which is when we officially started the company. We will have a huge month of celebration in all the stores and we’ll have some celebratory gifts such as branded leather wallets (with purchases) for all our loyal customers. We’re also working on a big celebration golf day – something we’ve done with many celebrities over the years, culminating in a big party at night.
Connor Poole: We’re also doing a 25 Years of Luke documentary with interviews with Luke (Roper) and my mum and dad, as well as all the relevant people throughout the company – telling their Luke stories. The idea is to put it all together and hold a private screening in a cinema.
Are you looking at your archive for any new product releases for the 25th?
Simon Poole: Yes, we are nodding back to some of our best sellers this year and we’re doing little special runs. From September onwards, there will be a continued reference to some heritage styles and we’re bringing back an old logo which we originally used on customised vintage motorcycles as window pieces. The updated logo will have a laurel wreath around the Luke lion, with ‘celebrating 25 years’ on it.
The winter 2026 collection has about four styles that were best sellers back in the day, and we’re going to carry the celebration right the way on into 2027 as well. We’re taking heritage styles and trimming them back for today’s market, simplifying the designs, and we’ve got a real killer collection for spring 2027. It’s more about small drops now to keep things fresh and exciting, as opposed to just a spring/summer and an autumn/winter collection every year. Those days are gone, and we’re rolling with the times.
