Two brothers have freshened up the way skiers and snow boarders dress for the slopes with their cool brand of snowgear.
Back in 2014 Scott and Josh Clifford came up with a plan to design and manufacturer new range of one-piece snow-wear, harking back to the carefree days of the 1980s.
Oneskee was born, and since then has grown to a range of around 50 different items and accessories including waterproof hoodies, puffer jackets and après-ski clothing.
The clothes are now sold in more than 50 countries and the business is official kit supplier to the GB Mogul team and sponsors three-time Olympian Hannah Teter.
The suits have also been worn by a host of famous faces such as Eyal Booker and Josh Denzel from Love Island, The Vamps and 海角视频 grime MC and record producer Novelist.
Last summer the brothers – Josh was born in Melton, in Leicestershire, and studied at Oakham School, while Scott grew up in the Melton area – secured £250,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund managed by West Midlands venture capital firm Midven.
That has allowed them to publicise the brand more and generally move the business up a gear, increasing stock levels, adding new sales channels and building on increased demand from retail stores across Europe and America.
They can also now afford for someone else to take care if warehousing, customer services and returns.
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Oneskee is also using the investment to expand its team, so that it will be ready for the potential boost that could come from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The pair are actually half brothers – managing director Scott is 41 and now lives in Leamington Spa, and brand director Josh is 28, and based in Milton Keynes.
The younger brother said he came up with the concept of an all-in-one snowsuit as well as the name while he was skiing in the French Alps.
He said: “Oneskee is simply a play on the word onesie.
“Everyone used to wear one-piece suits on the slopes, then trousers and jackets came in. To me there seemed a lot of practicalities to a one-piece suit, and no real need to make them look retro.
“I mentioned my idea to Scott, who was working as a brand consultant in Oakham, and he started up a business on the back of it.
“I only came into it two years ago full-time when the business was strong enough to have us both on board, but also at a time when it needed my drive and vision as well.”
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Even today, it is just the pair running the business, helped by a third member of the team working four days a week.
They brainstorm the designs themselves and manufacturing is out-sourced.
The snow-suits retail for around £250 and sales have grown from around £35,000 in the first year to between £500,000 and £1 million today.
With a seasonal business like theirs, orders are made each spring, with stock be ready to sell by the autumn.
Josh said: “Seasonality is a huge challenge because our selling window is short and is also weather dependent.
“The money we secured will be able to cover the sort of things we would not necessarily have been able to justify spending on before.
“We’ve grown revenues year-on-year and it hasn’t been easy starting a brand like this on a shoestring, so it’s allowed us to do things like putting pen to paper on a three year deal with three-time US Olympic snowboarder Hannah Teter.
“She has a chance to get to Beijing and has a great following on social media and is a huge name in snowboarding.
“She was wearing our products before we even had a deal in place, but now she will help open doors for us and give us even more credibility.”
As well as supplying the kit for the GB Mogul team, Oneskee are also an official partner to the Snowboxx Festival in the Alps at the end of March, and will be hosting their own igloo party there.
There is also a partnership with French ski bar chain la folie douce, where some staff where the Oneskee brand.
Josh said all along they had wanted to shake up the market with the brand, making it both technical and street-led.
He said: “If you ever go skiing or snowboarding, there’s a culture of après, and people do go straight out from the slopes.
“Our suits have braces so you can fold them down, or people just keep them on because those places can be cold.
“One-piece suits are our signature, but as the brand has got stronger we’ve introduced things like jackets which gives you more of a chance to sell all year round.
“Hoodies are a bit of a staple for most people and ours are waterproof too. You have to have different products because people come to the website and fall in love with the brand.”
Sales are still very much through their own site, but last year they started retailing through online snow and surf shop Blue Tomato and through Ellis Brigham in the 海角视频.
Josh said: “It’s been a really significant 12 months for us as a business, with plenty of challenges.
“Seasonality is a challenge and retail is challenging. That’s why building it as an online business has stood us in good stead.
“We’re also trying to bridge the seasonality gap by bringing in spring and summer products.
“As long as we do well enough each winter, though, we will survive.”