Fives years on..

Dave the pirate, looking handsome.

This month Urban Pirate turns five. It's a little surreal as it feels like only yesterday that we were preparing our very first Highland Games. We were wet behind the ears, often literally due to biblical rain. Trying to sell t-shirts in minus 5 in minor hurricane conditions is hard, but we gave it our best shot. Some days we were the pigeon and some the statue. Regardless, we had no idea of how much work this was going to entail, talk about naïve.

Our first ever event!

Don't get us wrong, we've achieved a great deal up until this point. A few awards, a couple of awesome bespoke designs and countless new friends, but we're no longer the fresh faced newbies we once were.

Lovely Whisky!

Urban Pirate was born in 2010, through frustration of being unable to find Scottish giftwear, that didn't depict some form of Scottish 'joke' or a generic design that is used the world over. Is Scotland 'probably' the best country in the world? Yes we think so, but doesn't everywhere else claim the same? We decided if we couldn't buy a decent tee then why not make one. Lucky for us, it turned out we weren't the only ones searching for something that didn't scream of tartan tat.

Commissions galore. This one with Wonky Woolies.
We're not looking to have our designs slapped onto every gift product known to man. Like Del Boy, there are some companies out there who would stick their designs on a toilet seat if they thought it would sell. Toilet seats are probably very lucrative, but we think people are looking for something better.

Its all business...

Five years in and we hope we are going in the right direction. They say that you've made it in life when you have two cars, two holidays a year and a joint ISA. Well we've managed decking and a dog which we think is pretty darn good.

Image courtesy of ELIA - The European League of Institutes of the Arts

Urban Pirate will continue to produce what we hope are unique great looking designs that people want to wear.

Here's to many more years of pirating!