Crafting our Apparel collection

A note from Chief Smuggler, Linny

It doesn't feel like that long ago when I knew every single person who made an order and all of our stock fit into a walk in robe in an apartment in Manly. Our entire stock was under 300 units and could fit into a car boot.

We were small but we cared about the product we made. The first swimwear went through over a dozen tweaks and even crafting our own fabric with World 70.3 Iron Man Champion Tim Reed in 2015.

If he was gonna run & cycle hundreds of kilometres per week in smugglers, we needed something that was durable but also super smooth. This is part of the reason you see so many elite athletes wearing Budgy Smuggler each week.

Tim Reed - Australian IronMan Champion and Ironman 70.3 World Champion

What we learned in developing our swimwear, we’re now applying more broadly.

For me, Budgy Smuggler is about the feeling you have when you come in contact with the brand. We want it to literally feel amazing and for our Smugglers to also feel great about what Budgy Smuggler stands for as a brand.

We’ve applied this in our move into sleepwear / pyjamas. I was strolling the shops looking for a gift and found that the major PJ brands, who I thought were pretty good, were now peddling fabric that was kinda yuck and filled with nylon or polyester. It felt like they were investing more in a pretty box than the product itself.

Road testing our Pyjamas in Palm Springs earlier this year with some friends of the brand.

People Buy Because of Brand (but only once)

I’m a big believer that people will buy because of brand once, but because of quality on repeat. We aim for repeat smugglers - not a gimmick you’re wearing once.

For this reason we’ve got with a 100% premium cotton sateen in our pyjama range and while it costs a small fortune, it’s the kinda fabric that makes you wanna cancel your plans and roll in your PJ’s all day.

For a laugh we shot our Better Beer PJs on a Private Jet... no economy here 😉

There are other thoughtful details such as elasticated waistbands (for when you want to go back for thirds at Christmas lunch) and a matching cotton drawstring bag - perfect for gifting or just pretending you’re fancier than you really are.

We went through dozens (and dozens) of sizing tweaks to nail the fit and our in-house design wizards designed the most iconic patterns to make these in. We wanted to focus on prints that the whole family would love, but each pair also comes in separate Men's Shorts if you're just shopping for one.