About us
What we're about
We want to create something very special for Bam:
- Everyone gets treated properly, from the garment factory workers to the customer. Not forgetting ourselves!
- Every single customer has a voice that's listened to - we depend on and evolve through suggestions received every day from our customers
- At every stage we try to minimise our impact on the environment and make it positive wherever possible
- For every single item we sell (not socks/underwear..) we'll buy 10m square of land and plant a tree in the name of the purchaser and we end up being a massively ‘net positive' influence on the environment
Everything we do and the way we do it is designed to reflect our values of doing things the right way, not because they're necessarily the most profitable.
We'd genuinely rather make a smaller profit and have loads of really pleased and satisfied customers and suppliers and have fun ourselves than the traditional corporate route of ‘get away with what you can, maximise profit and pretend to be whiter than white'. We all about transparency, honesty, integrity and fun. If we ever fall short please tell us!
Our business is growing almost exclusively from word of mouth, as people who try it are so impressed they tell their friends, etc. Bam sales have doubled every 4 months or so since launch, up to May 2008. If you believe in what we're doing and you like the product, please help continue this.
Where's Bam from - What's the story?
It's a UK brand. Bam's founder, David Gordon, began selling T-shirts whilst a P.E student at Loughborough University in 1988 to finance his ‘world tour'. It only half worked but he went anyway.
In 1993, after a lot of backpacking, he set up TSF Clothing, as a means to pay for his pole vaulting career (he was too rubbish to earn money from it). TSF would become a leading corporate clothing company, enjoying a reputation as an innovator with the highest levels of customer service.
After finally getting better at pole vaulting David was now too old to be any good. So he changed tack and joined a team of Gurkhas (as a DIY film maker) in a successful manhaul expedition across Greenland, one of the great untouched wildernesses left on earth. This experience, as well as a long held interest in the future of the planet, brought about a year long search for viable and environmentally sustainable business ideas. Something that might actually make a difference.
The old business was sold in 2003 and the search continued for the holy grail of business: where everyone wins - socially and environmentally. It wasn't enough to be just being ‘less negative'. It's much better fun to do something good.
Throwing himself out of the comfort zone of a nice cushy business to find something more inspiring was....uncomfortable. But well worth it with everything that Bam is becoming. "It's the most exciting project I've ever been involved with. And the big plus now is that I'm no longer in daily fear of going bankrupt! Not unless I really mess it up...It's now about making that difference for the better"
employment / consultancy
If you share our values and would like to work with Bam, whether on a part time or full time basis, we are always looking for appropriate people. In order to expand this dream into reality we need high quality people with skills in IT, online database management and sales and ideas. If you live within striking range of our offices in Richmond, London, and have something to offer, please e-mail us with your c.v. and proposals for your ideal scenario. We're looking for win-win scenarios!
To see what we're doing with our partner, Rainforest Concern, just click on this link here
