Sunspel

Sunspel was founded in 1860 by Thomas Arthur Hill, who established a textile factory in Newdigate, Nottingham (the centre of the British lace making industry).[1] Since 1937 the company’s UK manufacturing base has been at Long Eaton, in Derbyshire.[2] In 1947 Sunspel first introduced the boxer short from the United States into the United Kingdom.[3] In 2005 Hill’s great-grandson, Peter Hill, sold the company to a former barrister, Nicholas Brooke, and his then business partner Dominic Hazlehurst. The pair sought to modernise the brand, without losing the appeal of its historical heritage.[4]

After the change in control of the company in 2005, the new owners focused at first on building its brand on the internet.[10] However, since 2010 a number of Sunspel stores have opened worldwide – at first in London, where five stores had been opened by 2013,[1], and more recently in Berlin and Tokyo[11].

In August 2018, Sunspel announced the imminent opening of its first store in the United States, at 85 Mercer Street in New York’s SoHo district.[12]

In 1985 Nick Kamen starred in a celebrated Levi's advertisement, in which he removed his jeans in a launderette, to reveal a pair of white Sunspel boxer shorts.[13]

In 2006 Daniel Craig wore a Sunspel Riviera polo shirt in his first James Bond film, Casino Royale.[14][15]

In 2016, the television football pundit Gary Lineker undertook to present the season-opening edition of Match of the Day in his underpants if Leicester City became Premier League Champions. He performed his promise in a pair of Sunspel boxer shorts.[4]

Sunspel official web-site