Weekend Offender

Weekend Offender was started in 2004 by Sam Jones and Rhydian Powell in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Founder Sam owned a fashion store called A2 Clothing in Merthyr City Centre. Rhydian came from Pant on the Shropshire border and studied Graphic Design. Together they started off with basic publishing of weekend offender t-shirts based on ’80s and 90’s youth culture.

Through the shop, Sam would visit fashion sales agent Adam Keyte of Four Six Four Agencies and they bonded over their mutual love for Ibiza, mod fashion and retro brands Fila, Ellesse and Sergio Tacchini. Adam shared an idea for printing old newspaper covers depicting the acid house rave scene as horror youth culture, Sam mentioned his brand Weekend Offender, and a few months later that range of 8 t-shirts rolled out to a handful of select stores with limited success. The guys agreed they didn’t have the experience to run a brand and put it on the back burner.    It was a rebirth in 2009 that changed their fortunes.

Full of ideas and more experienced, they just needed financial backing. Enter Aaron Thalmann who had just sold his brand Golddigga to Mike Ashley of Sports Direct. The ex-punk loved the vibe of the brand and their ideas, and together with the weekend offender founders created Eighty8 Ltd which still owns Weekend Offender to this day.