IT ALL began during Craig Hendry’s impoverished student days when he saved money by giving his friends home-made gifts.
“I was doing five jobs just to get myself through university and had no money to spare but I wanted to give them something nice for Christmas so I went down to the market, bought some fabric and made them all a pair of boxer shorts,’’ says Craig, now 29, who studied law, criminology and security management.
He learned to sew, he says, when his mum made him repair torn school trousers as a child. “I used to climb a lot of trees,’’ he explained.
His was not a conventional solution to the problem of a student cash-shortage, but one that was to be the start of a business opportunity that today, nearly a decade later, is finally taking off.
Craig, who lives and works in Brighouse, where he runs a group of security companies, recently launched a sideline – a men’s underwear company, called Bum-Chums.
The name was chosen by Craig, who is a surfer and watersports enthusiast. “It’s an Australian surfing term for your best mate,’’ he explained, “although obviously it works on a number of levels.
“With the name we are associated with selling to the gay market but we also sell to straight guys, and girls who are buying for their blokes.”
The new venture is a joint enterprise with friend Gareth Dickinson, 35, a former singer and actor from Birdsedge who works in a family business supplying adhesives to industry.
For both men, Bum-Chums is a departure from their other workaday concerns. “It is,’’ says Gareth, “a bit of light-hearted fun.’’
Having said that, they are quite serious about breaking into the world of fashion and although the business is only a few months old they’re already talking about expanding their range to include women’s underwear and jeans.
They are particularly proud of the fact that all their merchandise is sourced and made in the UK.
Elastic for the waistbands comes from Leicester; the Lycra fabrics are from Nottingham and Manchester; fabric prints are done in Leeds and a Huddersfield company is providing the labels. At the moment the pants are made in Huddersfield and Halifax but production is moving to Bradford.
“We can actually say ‘Made in Yorkshire’,” said Craig.
“Unfortunately, this country is losing its manufacturing industries, which is a terrible shame. We’re keen to get everything done here.”
The partners design and make all the prototype pants themselves, with sewing machines they bought on eBay, and specialise in using unusual fabrics. “We have everything from metallic clubbing pants to plain black and white everyday pants,’’ said Gareth.
“We have also been lucky in finding someone to take charge of production who really knows what she’s doing,’’ he added.
In fact, their head of production, Lynn Boulton, is the woman who sold Craig the fabrics to make his underpants ‘gifts’ all those years ago.
So far Bum-Chums has produced and sold around 1,000 pairs of underpants – trading by mail order from the website and through outlets around the country.
The partners have an unusual sales pitch. “We show people what the pants look like by wearing them ourselves, because you need to see what a great fit they have,’’ said Gareth. “I’ve taken my trousers down in quite a lot of shops!”
