50FIFTY started after the owner, Lee Blake was racially abused by "fellow" England fans at the Croatia game in Lisbon, Portugal during Euro 2004.
"My Dad is Jamaican, my Mum is English, I've always seen my identity as half and half or 50-50 so I mixed the distinctive pattern of the Union Flag with the colours of the Jamaica flag and called it the UNITED KINGDOM of JAMAICA FLAG, because I felt it reflected my true identity.
Born and bred in multicultural Birmingham Lee quickly exploited a gap in the market and mixed lots of national flags with the Union Flag, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, he has even done Ireland!!
Since humble beginning in his spare bedroom at home 50FIFTY is now thriving and since leaving his job as a youth worker and teacher with Birmingham City Council two years ago the company has doubled in turnover despite the recession. This is largely down to the new websites: www.tshirtprintingbirmingham.co.uk and www.ukoffootball.co.uk
both of which do really well on google.
For the recent world cup 50FIFTY launched a new range called LOVE PATRIOTISM HATE RACISM, which replaces the mixed flags with England Flags and Union Flags, Lee says "my mum gave me the idea, she wants to wear an England flag with pride, but at times she is afraid that she'll be labelled as racist... I think that is crazy, being patriotic doesn't mean you are racist and wearing a 50FIFTY England Flag is a way to demonstrate that, lets face it, BNP supported and the like would not wear a 50FIFTY Tshirt as we stand for modern day Britain; a vibrant mix of colours, cultures and people, but I know the majority of British people love what we stand for".
50FIFTY have a social side to the business too. They teach socially excluded young people how to make money - legally, by teaching teenagers about Design & Enterprise. They design and T-shirts and Hoodies to their peers, Lee recently started a Community Interest Company called Made By Young People. www.madebyyoungpeople.co.uk, the plan is to role this out all over the country and turn Hoodies 2 Entrepreneurs.
For more information call 50FIFTY on 0871 595 5050 or 07878 156 010 or visit them at www.50fiftyclothing.com or call into their showroom at 1st Floor, 80-82 Moseley St, Digbeth, Birmingham B12 0RT.
Lee is also a Director of the local Brazilian Soccer Schools Franchise (Birmingham and Solihull) which is about to be relaunched. They are part of the largest football coaching organisation in the world which coaches over 1 million kids in 61 different countries. They use a smaller weighted ball (even smaller than Futsal) and their philosophy is based on developing control, skill, technique and confidence above competition and aggression.
They have divided Birmingham into 5 smaller cluster areas, North, South, East, West & Central and Solihull and are looking for 5 Cluster Managers to effectively run their own mini franchise.
See www.bssbirmingham.co.uk for more details.