History
1990s - In the beginning.
One man's student loan to an internationally recognised clothing label... and here's how it happened...
Spring 1993
Call it fate, call it luck (some people call it an accident), but in 1993, surf, skate and sleep crazed Mark Hagley turned his back on formal education and abandoned his university degree. Not very wise you might think... but with a student loan still firmly intact he chose instead to embrace the world of business and take his first steps on the long and winding path to success!
Plain Lazy was born.
Plain Lazy was born and Mark rejoiced. He had become the proud owner of a cool and funky clothing company at the age of just 19. Glamorous?! Dangerous, more like... currently without any staff (to offer much need support and guidance) the fate of Plain Lazy remained solely in the hands of one happy go lucky teenager! Resourceful and determined as ever though, mark did exactly what he had to do (to get where he is now) and devoted his entire life to building and developing the Plain Lazy brand. After only a few months Mark proved that his idea had the potential to be a success by winning "live wire", a competition designed for up and coming entrepreneurs to display their talents. This was followed by long days on the road and repeated attendance at many trade and retail shows in an effort to get Plain Lazy noticed around the country. It worked... "Ocean to Earth" in Weymouth and "Down by the Sea" in Polzeath were (in an ever increasing line) to succumb to Mark's persuasive powers and stock Plain Lazy.
The company was growing. Slowly... but surely. Plain Lazy had become a way of life (well, for mark and his friends at least!) not impressed by conventional advertising and marketing methods, Plain Lazy would instead obtain maximum exposure through 1) sponsorship and 2) festivals and shows... (come and say "Hi" if see us at a show!)
1998
In 1998 the first Plain Lazy store was opened in Lewes, East Sussex (just a stone's throw from Brighton for those of you who don't know your geography!). A milestone in the history of the company.
2000
Into the new millennium the shop was flourishing and business was booming, however, it was all about to be destroyed. 12 October 2000 the worst ever flash floods recorded hit Sussex and demolished the entire shop along with many other businesses and homes overnight and left the whole of Lewes in tatters for the next 6 months. The scenes of devastation were broadcast around the country. National interest in the plight of Plain Lazy was the only silver lining...
The shop had been an undisputed success but now a new direction was needed. In the midst of a technological revolution establishing an online store seemed the only way forward. Within no time Plain Lazy had re-located to a warehouse unit in the sleepy village of Laughton where the company gathered pace, personnel and great expertise. With an influx of orders and now more than 300 independent accounts, including Freespirit and John Lewis, Plain Lazy was finally established as a main player in the street/skate/surf/ clothing market.
2002
Another year of change! Inspired by the birth of Mark's son Kieran and the lack of any cool clothes for babies to wear, Plain Lazy embarked on its first new line... Lazy Baby! Fair trade, organic and ridiculously cute it proved an overwhelming hit from day one!
2003
The constant demand from all you females out there (and your boyfriends) had at last succeeded... Lazy Lady was finally created... and not a second too soon!
With these two collections generating huge amounts of interest and the Plain Lazy brand continuing to develop at a phenomenal rate, operating from the relaxed country dwelling soon became a logistical nightmare... time to re-locate again.
2004
The company returned to the town of Lewes, which had served it so well in the early days, and firmly established its HQ in larger (and less lazy) premises.
2005
Plain Lazy starts to expand from clothing and into bags and stationery. The ranges grow and Plain Lazy employees are sent all over the world to seek out people to help them spread the message.
2006
Plain Lazy decides to make it much easier for you to get hold of all the new clothing and accessories and open three shops in one year. Plain Lazy store in Newquay is the first to be rolled out and... shortly followed by Bath and then Brighton. You might call Plain Lazy busy little bees... except... well... we try not to be too busy!
2007
Lazy Baby got recognition for its efforts by being allowed to use the certified FAIRTRADE logo, that was no mean feat, I can tell ya! Hopefully the other brands will follow.
Plain Lazy has got with the digital revolution (at last) and now has mobile phone downloads, a youTUBE channel, a mySPACE page and has even joined the blogosphere!
2008
With everything going well at Plain Lazy HQ and lots of new designs coming in we realised we would very soon need a bigger warehouse and more importantly more shops! Our first thought was naturally to go back to where it all began, and open a new shop in our hometown of Lewes.
We also expanded into a much bigger shop in Newquay, which is now one of our favourite destinations.
2009
After searching for the perfect location for our new bigger and better Lewes shop, in-between tea breaks that is, we finally settled on a lovely high street location, carefully situated outside of the flood plains!
This year also saw us branching out into new unchartered territory (for us that is) opening our fourth UK shop in Cardiff in November.
On top of all that, we decided enough was enough, and that although we had enjoyed building forts with the excessive amount of boxes in the warehouse, we really needed more space. This came in the form of moving quite literally up the road to keep things lazy, into a new warehouse 8x the size of the old one. A very good move.
2010
We started this year with a challenge – a Rickshaw Run across India to raise money for the Street Child World Cup. We raised a fantastic £15,000 in total, which we were very happy with! With the world now connected via social media, we decided that yes we too would like a Twitter page, so combined with our now 7,000 strong fan base on Facebook, those are the places to head to for competitions, updates and sometimes... discounts! We opened yet another store! This time the beautiful city of Bath was our destination, spreading the laziness coast to coast. It’s still early days, but we hope it will be as much of a success as our other shops. Inspired by the success of our Rickshaw run back in January, we wanted to continue helping worthy causes, and so in the autumn started working with Frank Water. For every transaction on our website, we donate 50p to help them fund clean water projects in India. By Christmas we had surpassed the £2,000 mark!
2011 and beyond!
Rising cost prices was an unwelcome reminder of the recession. Our plan? Go local. We are in the process of building our very own screen printing room on site so that we can print our clothing right here in Lewes! Keeping up with all these technological advances this year we also re-launched our website. We’ve aimed to make it very user friendly and requires little effort to shop for your favourite slogans, with a fresher more up to date look. We hope you like it! We’ll continue to make sure we accommodate all your lazy needs with our wide range of accessorises and clothing. Some of our favourites to date are: Plain Lazy hardware, giant beanbags, loungewear and duvet covers. Be on the lookout for Plain Lazy sunglasses this summer and car seat covers! Here’s to another lazy year (we hope!)
