Active Wear & Tear wasn’t dreamt up in a boardroom. It was earned the hard way!
Our founder (with a penchant for design and Dad jokes), has spent most of his life loving sport, fitness, motor cross, winter sports and anything that involves moving, even if his joints have other ideas.
Diagnosed with hyper-mobility as a teenager, he went on to coach tennis at county level, spent four summers teaching tennis in the US and never lost the urge to train, play, compete and generally ignore his body’s unsubtle warning signs.
Since 1998, the repair list has included a lumbar microdiscectomy, left and right rotator cuff repairs, cervical spine surgery, a lumbar disc nucleus replacement, golfer’s elbow surgery, wrist surgery, both shoulder AC joints being excised and countless steroid injections.
Ten surgeries. Ten recoveries. Still training.
Every scar has been earned - but each and every one tells a story, an injury, a setback, a comeback and usually a slightly questionable decision to keep going anyway.
Things ache. Joints click. Tendons complain. Recovery takes longer. Occasionally getting out of bed feels like the first mobility drill of the day. But giving up? Not happening.
Fit for 50
As 50 appeared on the horizon (and the waistline started expanding), he decided he wanted to reach it in the best shape he could. Not just for himself, but to show his kids that getting older doesn’t have to mean giving up.
So began his slightly obsessive “Fit for 50” mission.
For 18 months, that meant hitting the gym at 6am, five days a week. Since turning 50, he’s reduced that to a more sensible three mornings, partly for recovery and partly because his wife was beginning to question whether the gym had become his second home.
Then came the gadgets: a fitness tracker, bio-impedance scales and even a continuous glucose monitor, despite not being diabetic, because apparently knowing exactly what breakfast was doing to his blood sugar had become essential information.
He had the DEXA scans, joined the ZOE programme, read the books, devoured podcasts and documentaries and disappeared down countless nutrition, longevity and recovery rabbit holes.
He tried KETO, dramatically reduced carbs, cleaned up his diet and experimented with fasting from 24 hours to the occasional seven days, all while exploring research around metabolism, ageing and recovery. His ageing joints were very much hoping science had found a loophole.
Eventually he settled into something sustainable: OMAD - one meal a day, Monday to Friday. And it works for him.
He lost around 13kg (almost 30lb) and has kept it off. Today he’s fitter, leaner and in better shape than he was in his 30s.
Apparently it took middle age to finally start behaving like an adult. Not entirely, though.
There’s still a weak spot for crisps (chips), beer and chocolate, just confined to weekends and holidays.
All of this, and he’s still not out of the woods. There’s golfer’s elbow steroid injections on the horizon, ongoing investigations into upper-neck problems and the usual collection of aches, creaks and suspicious noises that come with a body carrying a bit of mileage.
Getting older isn’t always fun. But it still isn’t stopping him.
Finding the Tribe
Ultimately, none of this was about being perfect or pain-free.
It was about staying active, doing the things he loves and being the kind of dad who joins in rather than watches from the sidelines.
He wanted his kids to see that setbacks don’t have to become excuses, and that sometimes being a role model simply means getting back up and having another go.
Somewhere along the way, that became...
Active Wear & Tear.
For those of us with weaker connective tissue - but a stronger resolve to keep going anyway. To the walkers with clicking ankles, runners with sketchy knees. Lifters with suspicious shoulders. Golfers with angry elbows. Tennis players held together with tape. Anyone with an ice pack in the freezer, a massage gun within reach and at least one exercise they’ve been told they’re “probably better off avoiding.”
People with a bit of mileage. A few scars. Maybe some replacement parts.
But absolutely no intention of stopping.
Because the goal was never to arrive pristine. It was to arrive well used, slightly battered, full of stories, and still asking what’s next.
Our graphic tees celebrate the aches, strains, surgeries, scars, comebacks and stubborn refusal to stop doing the things we love.
Growing older might be compulsory. Acting like it isn’t.
Because sometimes, the best way to deal with wear and tear is to keep moving - and laugh about it along the way!
Active Wear & Tear
Soft, comfortable T-shirts for bodies that have been through it.
Still active. Still aching. Still at it.