The Week I Got Married and Lockwood Had Its Best Ever Launch Day
There are weeks you'll remember for the rest of your life. This was one of them.
I'll be honest with you I'm going to try to write this one properly, because it deserves it. Not just as a business update, but as a record of a week that meant something far bigger than any product launch or sales figure. Because this week, I married Ruth.
The Drive Home From Scotland — Three Quarter-Zips and a Van Full of Stories
It started where last week left off — on the road home from the Scottish Game Fair, van loaded, heads full of a brilliant few days at Scone Palace. We don't usually sell much on the drive. This time, somehow, we sold three Knightsbridge Quarter-Zips on the way back. I'm not entirely sure how that happens, but I'll take it. If you still haven't got yours, you can find them here apparently they sell themselves even when we're on the motorway.
Friday — The Last of the Mons and Victoria Gilets Leave the Factory
Friday afternoon brought something I'd been waiting on — video footage of the final Gentleman's Mons and Ladies' Victoria gilets being finished up at the factory. Watching the last pieces of a new range come off the production line never gets old. There's a quiet pride in it. These are British-made, sewn properly, by people who care and this week we'll be sending them out to the people who've been waiting for them.
The full Barracks range Gentleman's Mons, Gentleman's Knightsbridge, Ladies' Knightsbridge, and Ladies' Victoria is now complete, and available here. If you've been sitting on the fence, this is the moment.
The Wedding
I'm not going to say too much, because some things belong to you and the people you love before they belong anywhere else.
What I will say is this: I turned my phone off for the whole day. For anyone who knows me, and anyone who's followed this journey, you'll know how significant that is. The Wednesday Waffles, the Instagram stories, the emails, the WhatsApp messages all of it, off. For one day, I was just Jacob. Not Jacob Lockwood the founder, not the bloke building a British clothing brand from the ground up just a man getting married to the woman he loves.
It was the best day of my life.
Ruth thank you. For everything you are, and everything you put up with.
The Launch That Happened While I Wasn't Watching
Here's where it gets a little surreal.
Word had come through before the wedding that our British Harlequin polo tops the ones we'd been previewing from Scotland, where each panel can be red, white, or blue giving over 4.7 million unique combinations, every one individually numbered had been delivered a week early to my neighbour.
I'd spoken to my marketing team at Forty and Co before the day to set everything in motion. The plan was to launch simultaneously with Ruth walking down the aisle.
I had no idea how it went until I turned my phone back on the next day.
Our best ever launch day for an individual item on release day. Over half the stock gone in the first hour. By the time my phone was back on, XL had already sold out.
I don't have the words for that, if I'm honest. To have the people who follow Lockwood back something we've put so much thought into a truly unique piece of British-made clothing at that level, on that day, means more than any number could say.
If you missed the launch and want to know when the next batch becomes available, follow us on Instagram at @lockwood_smocks and watch the stories, or message the page directly for early access. You can also reach us on WhatsApp through the website. Don't sit on it XL is already gone.
What's Coming This Week — A Falklands Veteran and a Very Special Commission
Tomorrow I'm heading out to meet a Falklands War veteran to size him up for a Falklands Wax Smock. I'm not going to say a great deal about that ahead of the appointment, because it deserves its own space when the time comes. But I will say that moments like this are exactly why Lockwood exists. Not for the trade shows, not for the launch days for this. For the people who actually lived the history that runs through everything we make.
More on that soon.
Building This From the Ground Up
A wedding. A record launch day. The last of the Barracks gilets out of the factory. Three quarter-zips sold on the motorway. And a Falklands veteran to see tomorrow.
That's Lockwood. Built properly. One week at a time.
Thank you genuinely to everyone who bought a Harlequin polo top this week, everyone who's been waiting patiently for their Mons or Victoria, and everyone who keeps following along. You're part of something real.
