The Outdoor Gibbon
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The Outdoor Gibbon
76 From Farm To Fashion: Dead Badger’s Wild Rise
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A whiteout January in Aberdeenshire set the stakes: eight days of deep snow, hungry birds and deer, and a stark reminder that when weather hits hard, the countryside relies on people who live with the land. From there we shift gears into a wild origin story: how a beef farmer and his podcast partner turned a cheeky sweatshirt run into Dead Badger Clothing, a rural brand that refuses to take itself too seriously—and that’s exactly why it works.
We dig into the scrappy path from a garage bar to stacked shipping containers, fueled by a community that spans field sports, farming, and the outdoor scene. Friends and influencers wore the gear not for a fee but because they got the joke and knew the audience. The marketing is unfiltered, fast, and undeniably rural: think proper pub-table banter rather than glossy corporate slogans. That approach raises real questions about expression online, platform rules that quietly suppress responsible firearms content, and how algorithms can both protect and punish niche communities.
Beyond the laughs, we go deep on the realities shaping the countryside. Rewilding headlines celebrate new trees while local keepers, shops, and schools disappear. Estates get fenced, deer culled at edges, and grants questioned when plantings fail. We talk calibers and context—308 and 270 for hill reds, rimfire for pest control under a hundred yards, section one shotguns for flocking birds—because the ethic behind the trigger matters more than the trend. On the product side, we unpack how to hit fair prices without fluff: manufacture abroad to meet the market, keep printing and embroidery in the UK, and build simple, durable pieces that survive the Land Rover floor and still look sharp at shows.
If you care about the land, love straight talk, and want to see how humor and hard graft can build a real rural business, this one’s for you. Listen, share with a friend who lives for the countryside, and drop a review to help more people find the show.
Snowbound Scotland And Wildlife Strain
SPEAKER_01Hello and welcome to another episode of the Outdoor Given Podcast. Sorry again for a slight delay. Obviously, a few things over the Christmas and New Year period that have affected this, family related. And then there was the snow. We won't talk about the snow that started on the 1st of January, and then it snowed for four days solidly, causing absolute chaos to Aberdeenshire. In some places, depths of up to 70 centimetres. It's still here. It's defrosting rapidly, but we are still snowbound. I needed to get this podcast out as well, because at the end of it they talk about going to a show which starts today. So hopefully you will all listen to this. Go and find the Dead Badger Clothing Company at the show and uh and say that you heard them on the podcast. Anyway, where are we in the year? Well we're in January 2026 and it started. I can't really say much more than that. Obviously, as I said, the snow has caused chaos and did massive disruptions, and then we've had this cold snap throughout the country that seems to have caused a few other issues. It has put a lot of pressure on species and wildlife up here, from small birds to my pheasants having to dig feeders out to deer in places where they shouldn't be desperately trying to find food. So some of the deer that we harvested at the start of the year really had no fat in them at all, no fat reserves. It may well be because up until then there has been an abundance of food, with December being incredibly mild still. I think our last snow was back in November. So these animals seem to have just have no reserves, and my biggest concern was if this snow had lasted even longer than the eight days that it was here, it would have really showed a mortality rate that was uh that was increasing. I could see that because we had deer knocking over pheasant feeders and and as I say, going to places where we've never seen them before just to try and find something with a foot of snow on the ground, even the rape on the uh on the fields was all covered, so they weren't even able to get to that. It certainly won't be the last of the snow. I suspect we'll have more in uh the towards the end of January, February, possibly even March. However, it does give me time to start planning for this coming season. We've already had some good chats and organisation of more podcasts, connection videos, especially the videos. The YouTube channel is now being developed, and hopefully we will get some more films out. We did put out a poll recently asking you what you would like to see. It came back strongly in the favour of hunting videos, as well as some gear reviews, some other great cool chats with people, and something else. Have no idea what something else is, but we will uh we'll work something else out for something else. We were gonna run a c podcast competition on the run-up to Christmas. Unfortunately we didn't, uh just due to um unforeseen circumstances, but we will get that that competition running again. What I'm gonna do now is we are gonna have a quick word from our sponsors and then we'll dive into our chat with the Dead Badger Clothing Company. The Outdoor Given Podcast is proudly sponsored by the Shooting and Hunting Academy, an online training platform and UK registered learning provider that provides a host of accredited and nationally available courses and masterclasses delivered by leading industry experts.
Sponsors And Housekeeping
Rachel @#StileHi guys, it's Rachel here from Style, the new social app for field sports and farming. Join our countryside community on the App Store or Google Play. Just search Style Country. Enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_02Um there is there is another half to this as well. He's not here at the moment. Uh there is uh I have a business partner as well, but he's uh he's very busy with his own mechanicking and things, and he just kind of leaves me to do this whole thing entirely. He's been very good in that in that it's a case of do what you want, I'll take control if you bulls it up.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough. That well, that kind of let let's let's get a bit of background. Who are you? And obviously, and then we can talk about the clothing brand and where it came from. How how's it sort of all started out?
From Beef Farm To Podcast Mics
SPEAKER_02Uh well, a bit of background on me. I'm I'm a beef farmer from Somerset. Um, I've been doing that practically my whole adult life. Family farm. Um, my mum and dad built the place from scratch um with nothing. So I've been taught a lot of hardcraft. So a lot of you don't get a hand in anything in this life, you've got to go get it yourself. Yep. Um, which is you know, it's still good good uh good morals, good virtues in me, I think, good ethics. And uh yeah, so I've just done that my whole life. Been a beef farmer, I love it. It's it's you know, as most farming kids, it's all I've ever known and it's yeah, all I've ever loved, really. Um, and then sort of about five years ago, my uh best friend and my and myself were sat in this bar, which is my garage, um, and we were we were sinking pints over lockdown, and we not long built it. And I was like, this is this is madness. This is madness, how I've built all this bar, we've installed a draft system, and that we can't have anyone around. And we're just this is madness. We sat there, like, you know, obviously, in lockdown, we all did things we shouldn't have done. And uh we we were going through the laws of um go through the lockdown laws on what was class as essential work. We found out that podcasting was classed as essential work, so we thought, why don't we start a podcast? Let's have a go at this podcasting thing. We'll spend you know a few hundred quid on kit, and then the plan will be if the police kick down the door, we can be pissed as we want, but as long as we've got microphones in front of our face, it's all legal and all above board. Um so we did that for a few years. Um, we've been doing that for a few years now, and we had we had an amount of money in the account, uh, finally got to a point where we'd you know done alright, we've got some money, and I'd had this sort of hare-brained idea um of starting a clothing company as a bit of a joke, really. It wasn't even it really it wasn't starting a clothing company, it was more so it was more so to uh just a joke, and it's just gonna be a little side project alongside the podcast, and this money that we have, we're gonna be taxed on it obviously horrendously, because it's just sat there doing nothing. And I said, Well, avoid the tax. Can we have a go at my funny little joke? And we'll we'll spend this on it. So we ordered 150 sweatshirts with the Dead Major Clothing Company on it. Um, and it that was eight months ago, and uh my funny little joke has now turned into um something neither of us were really expecting, but we've just sort of ridden the wave here, to be honest, and that's just sort of I was gonna say you seem to be out there like literally watching your social feeds.
SPEAKER_01All right, it is parents' advisory and close to the bone on some of the bits, but you have got you've got some fairly high-end names popping up where in your kit.
The Joke That Turned Into A Brand
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that's we've been in a really fortunate position. Um, in that we've obviously been we've been doing this podcast a long time, and through that, we've met a lot of you know big influencers, we've met a lot of like famous people. Um, you guys will probably know, your listeners will probably know uh the likes of Johnny Carter from TGS Outdoors. Yeah, um I've got to I've got to meet him and got to know him, and you know, lots of people like that. So when we decided we were going to have a go at this clothing company, they were all kind enough to just promote it for us and just sort of really, really happy for us and just backed us. So we've really had a leg up in that sense of you know, just a really good community around us of you know, good friends and influencers that were like, Yeah, yeah, we'll wear it, we'll wear it for a laugh. And of course, they're charging God knows what to wear other people's stuff, and they're just doing us for free. Because they're like, these idiots, these idiots are starting this clothing company, and it's hilarious. So, of course we're gonna back them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but that that's sometimes that's the best part about it. You watch the stuff you do and like your adverts and all the rest of it, and yeah, I I was watching away and I was like, actually, this is they're good, they're funny, they're they're good lads, and they're having a laugh, and that's what life's about. Life's too short to be out there just sort of being all serious about things, and it was like, okay, yeah, that's that's pretty cool, and you and and you kind of take a bit of a jab, don't you, at sort of a lot of the other brands that are out there in some ways.
Influencers, Community, And Virality
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we uh we've been very good at not naming anyone in particular because I I I don't do no exactly do other people down, but it's been kind of funny because I've all where I all really started was I was seeing this never-ending stream of sort of country word and country word clothing company. You there are so many out there, and I take nothing away from them. They've all done really, really well for themselves. Um, and I respect the grind, you know. I'm in business as well, so I understand that it's you know, I'm all for it. However, having done this podcast for a while, I knew that the our audience and the community that we've built around that are not really this standard middle class, you know, dad's got a dad dad dad, if mum and dad have got a holiday home on the on the on the south coast and we you know go off skiing in Varda's end, you know, once a year. I know that we're all just like trash humans, we are degenerates, and you know, we'll we'll be being sick on our shoes on a Saturday night, not you know, not round the not around the chaps club, you know, with cigarettes and pot. Um, and so I really thought that why don't we do the Dead Badger clothing company? Being from the South, you know, Phoebe's a big problem down here, and it's always that in joke of seeing a dead badger on the road with tire tracks through it. I thought, well, you know, it's close to the bone. We've been close to the bone on this podcast for a lot of years. And I thought, why don't why don't we take our marketing angle to this, just like really go off the deep end, really go close to the bone, fly, you know, sail as close to the uh as fly as close to the sun as we can and see if it hits. And I, you know, I think it has. I think it's really hit that niche of I think it's uh it's it's kind of refreshing for people to see yeah a clothing brand that A doesn't take its tells too seriously, B is run by an apparent idiot who has no idea what he's doing, uh which I can't say is false either. I really am winging it. That's no joke. Um and I just I just thought in the kind the role the rural the rural fashion, the rural clothing industry really needed needed not needed me, but needed something a little different. Um and whether and whether that's I mean, you you could make the point that a lot of our a lot of our sort of clothing is very similar, but that's they're all kind of you have to stay within the bounds if you want to sell it.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say it's it's pretty much it's like young farmer, young farmers fashion, isn't it?
Humor, Boundaries, And “Woke” Blowback
SPEAKER_02Really? It is, and you you have if you want to sell stuff, you have to kind of stick within that fashion. You can sort of stray off of it a little bit, but really if you want to sell stuff, you have to kind of stick within the the the um the current sort of bounds. Um and I just thought I can do that, but I can just market it like an absolute lunatic. Um and it just seems to have it just seems to have done really well, and I'm really surprised and I am sort of humbled by it because I am just an idiot podcaster, come a beef farmer come podcaster with really not a lot of idea. But you know, through along the way, I'm just working it out. Me and my me and my business partner, he's been so good about just saying, yeah, you know what, you you you just go, just do what you have to do.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's it's some of the cases, it's obviously in the in the in the videos. You've obviously got uh either your business partner or your wife or somebody like that. You can't say that, you just can't put that out there and things like that. And it's just like it's gonna, you can see it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I think she's and she she is. My wife has reminded me a couple times. She's like, I know you have this sense of humor on the podcast, I know you have this sense of humor in person, but we do have to be careful because I I think what it is is I've spent a lot of time watching American companies, um, how they do a lot of marketing. Um, I spent a guide to the States once a year or try to, so got a good connection with a lot of people over there. And I've I've had this watch a lot of their marketing that they do over there, and it is a lot of it is really wild, a lot of it is really out there, and what I have to remember is that they have freedom of speech in the UK, so they can say what they want. I have to keep being reminded by my wife that there will be a line that you will cross at some point and get in trouble, but until then, just to try and keep it on a level.
SPEAKER_01So I was gonna say it's when you get the knock at the door now, it seems to be the new thing, isn't it, from social media. And you could get the knock at the door, and excuse me, you said something that offended somebody on social media. But hey, carry on doing what you're doing at the moment until that knock at the door comes.
SPEAKER_02I think that's the thing. Uh, we I've always been of the opinion that um, you know, everything is funny or nothing's funny. You you you can't you can't pick you can fit find something not funny, but you can't say you can't stop people saying things just because you're offended, you know. It's and I I think I've I've long said in the last sort of year, six months that the tide is really turning on this woke culture that we're seeing. Um, you know, I think uh I think you a lot of people I know will say, Oh, you you know, oh you you should be able to say what you want and you should be able to do what you want to do. And no, I completely agree with them, but nobody really says it. There's still a lot of self-censorship out there, and you know, I like to think be the change that you want to see in the world. So if I want to put on a rice pat a rice patty hat and do an Asian accent, I'm going to do it. And and if it gets me in trouble, then it gets me in trouble. But at least people can look and look at what we've done and go, well, they did it, it was funny. I mean, they're in trouble now, but they did it.
SPEAKER_01But you think it's not that long ago, only like what, 30 years back, you had some absolutely fantastic comedians that did it, and it was never, it was never a problem, it just happened, and people laughed at it.
SPEAKER_02What 15, 15, 20 years ago, maybe? What was it, Little Britain? Yeah, you know, look at look at Little Britain and the things they used to do. And I mean, it's it's a little bit dated in places now, but the comedy that they did was really, you know, what would be considered absolutely problematic these days. But if you think about it the other way, David Williams and Matt Lucas haven't been cancelled for it, have they? Nope. No, they're still hugely popular. I think it's because both of them have uh gone towards that more apart, they've you know apologized for what they've done in the past, and I think oh well, that's right, you'll just have to dead badge your clothing, we make no apologies, next next slogan or something like that. You can see well, I have to do one of those horrendous YouTuber apology videos at some point where I sit behind my bar with a little script in a white shirt. I will understand what I've said, it's been very offensive to a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, but it won't be offensive probably to the people that you were taking the piss out of. It'll be it will be offensive to some middle class sitting in a in an office type of thing that doesn't understand it at all, hasn't seen comedy before.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think you're right. And also, I've I've had a lot of faith in the algorithms that are of social media in that the algorithms will only serve you stuff that you want to see. It's not gonna serve me with a load of uh liberal nonsense that or you know, and lots of I'm not gonna get into it, but it's not gonna serve that kind of stuff up to me because I'm not interested in it to me. It's just gonna serve me car crashes and you know lots of lots of hunting and lots of shit, all that kind of stuff. So I think that it's not gonna put my sort of marketing and our sort of advertising in the realm of people that don't want to see it because it's just not gonna fly. Um, and I think that's where I've sort of realized that there was a bit of a I have an angle here, and if as long as I do it right and I don't pay for too many paid ads to get it in front of the wrong eyeballs, I should be good.
City vs Countryside: Culture Gap
SPEAKER_01I th I think absolutely, because I I was like, that's one of your ads, isn't it? You sit in there and you're going through and it's like scrolling through, I've completed this app. Obviously, something like Instagram car crash, this, that, this, that. Oh, yeah, that's it. Have a beard job done. It's like, well, it's pretty much is Insta and all the rest of them now. And and the thing is, you're probably in a good place because you're actually you're probably not like the rest of us in the hunting community that we put one thing up that like has a firearm and boom, you've shadow banned. Yours is just advertising and and a laugh.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I've we we have had we've did a really we went to um friend of mine's uh Abby Coombs. I went to hers probably earlier, was it earlier this year, and we did a clay shoot, and uh she was very kind to say, Oh, why don't we all wear this dead badge and stuff and we'll do a little promo video? And we're having a great shoot, and so many of the pictures from that got taken down just because we had firearms, and uh we even went to a local shooting ground, uh clay ground, and we were doing a lot of shooting there. Took a look at the pictures and they all got pulled just for firearms. It's it is it's a real shame because they look at you know a lot like yourself and uh everyone else in your sort of wheelhouse of hunting and whatnot, and trying to grow a social media following by doing that, but you can't post any of the stuff that you're doing, really.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_02And it's and you know, I think you know that I field sports is having a rough enough time of it at the moment and has done for the last few years, it really needs all the help it can get. But when you've got the likes of Meta and TikTok that are really screwing you know, it's screwing you really on on what you're trying to promote, and it's all you ever hear is the bad stuff in the news about shooting, about how there's this and that and the other. But you know, you guys and people like yourself that are out there doing it in the right way, doing it responsibly. Uh, it just doesn't get promoted.
SPEAKER_01And I think there's no and and I think that's just well, it goes to everything though, because you mentioned Abby there, and obviously she she's got her uh Insta and all the rest of it feed and stuff like that. But then my friend's a photographer, professional photographer, and he struggles. He goes, tits and bums, that's it, but blacklisted straight away kind of stuff. Uh, he has just as much hassle with that, and it's just like so. What do people actually want to see on social media? It probably does boil down to your comedy ticks all the boxes because it's the moment of madness, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think so. I think I've uh don't get me wrong, I've I've I keep I've been writing all these like video ideas on my phone, and I keep coming up with them. What if I I was gonna put a balaclava on and have my my my AR-15 and make some sort of IRA joke, and I thought, no, because not only is that gonna get me in trouble with firearms licensing, it's also gonna get me in trouble with the IRA.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but may maybe keep the balaclavas out of the way and stuff like that, but uh just just keep doing what you're doing. So you keep mentioning a podcast. Let's have a plug of that. What what's your podcast about and what what's what sort of what have you done with it?
Rewilding, Estates, And Lost Communities
SPEAKER_02I feel like I'm in a safe space here that I can promote it because I'm sure a lot of your listeners are, you know, the kind of people that would like our podcast and aren't going to be offended by what we say on that. It's called In the Dog House. Um okay. It's it's very much as you can see the setting here. We're obviously on a video call, but uh, you can see the setting here. It is a bar, it is always just four blokes in a bar, usually saying very problematic stuff. Um We're not big enough that we've ever been flagged by any by any sort of uh you know government agency or whatever. But we say some we we we say a lot of stuff on there, we make some jokes we shouldn't, or um, and it's just four guys in a pub having having some beers. It's essentially the ethos that we took was, you know, it's those conversations you have with your friends in a pub, having a few pints, and all we did was put microphones in front of our faces and just cross our fingers that we never got cancelled. But I think council culture only exists if you let it exist, really. That's been my sort of thoughts on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%. I I I think I think the podcast sort of wave has has kicked off, and there's more and more people listening to it. And it yeah, it seems to be one of those things that if you've got something that exactly as you said, it's that being able to sort of listen in for the pub conversation. I think that's where people seem to like it. It's a bit like that voyeurism kind of idea that they can overhear what's going on, but they they feel like they're part of the part of the situation. 100%, 100%.
SPEAKER_02I think that's what especially with with it with it starting during lockdown. I know there are a lot of people, you know, out there can see their friends, can go to the pub, and it was like you say, that sort of voyeuristic angle to it where people felt like they were in the bar with the boys and we're just making stupid jokes, and we are absolutely brutalizing each other on the mics, you know, the kind of saying the most horrible things to each other, and you know, it would just have us in stitches, and we had that kind of hope that it would have everyone else in stitches as well. So, and that's just kind of the thing we've built off. And we've had some really interesting people on the show, and um, yeah, it's just and it so most of the time it's just we get in here on a Tuesday night, we hear it record, and we just work it out as we go along. I think that's some of the best shows are like that, really.
SPEAKER_01And I think I think you're right. I think the thing that I always found when I first started out doing this, if you actually gave a guest a list of questions, they answered your questions to the T and the conversation didn't flow. Whereas actually now it's kind of you fire one question out of them, and then after that the conversation goes. You can you can end up down a rabbit hole, but sometimes that conversation is is something you were never expecting to get, and it's brilliant.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. When we first it's similar in that sense, we when we started doing it, we'd have a big like list of things you wanted to get through and ask them, and you find yourself doing more of an interview, a question-answer segment, opposed to a conversation. So I just I'd have a couple talking points and then I just let it go from there. And you know, you think you're gonna start off talking about OnlyFans and trucking, and in the end you talk about what sort of gravel you're putting on your driveway that week, and it's you know, and often that's where all the funnies are.
Calibers, Rifles, And Practical Shooting
SPEAKER_01Oh, a hundred percent. And you know what? That that's uh that's how it should be. It's like there, it's like this podcast is is primarily outdoors and hunting, but it's so nice to bring different guests in from all different walks of life. Obviously, you do a bit of shooting and stuff like that, so we've got we're we've got a link there, but you're also in the farming community, which yeah, beef prices are up at the moment, but it probably hasn't always been, and it's been a struggle. But actually, everybody in this community all ties together because we we're all interlinked in a in a strange way.
SPEAKER_02I think we're we're all brought together, really, by the land, aren't we? That's essentially it. Um everyone in the regardless whether you're whether you're shooting, whether you're stalking, or whether you're farming or contracting or hedge laying, you know, we're all here because of the land. I think we are uh we are a different breed in that sense, and you know, it it we we we like we don't like the city, like I like the land, and I like ciders. That's generally that's generally me down to a team.
SPEAKER_01But but that that that's it, isn't it? We we all have a connection to the outdoors, the environment around us, and it it's like yeah, nature, wildlife, you probably look after your cows in an amazing way, and you have if there's an ill cow or something like that, you you will do everything for it. It's the same, you could be out on the hill deer stalking. If you see a wounded animal, you are going to take that one out, or you need to feed them because it's now chucking it down with snow out on the hill, will roll a bale of hay out for them. There's and anybody that I know obviously this is a bit of an echo chamber, but if we ever get this out to to people that are in the non-hunting community that listen, it's like actually, hunters, farmers, people that look after the land, they're pretty much the best conservationists you've got out there.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, I completely agree with you. And I th uh I've I've said it before and I've said it again, but you know, we're we're anyone in the hunting community, whether it be field sports or whatever, or farmers as well. We're just demonized as these as these animals who just want to kill, kill, kill, and we have this bloodlust for things, but uh nobody understands the concept of conservation behind it. Nobody understands, you know, um you know wildlife management. And it it I think the main thing is you're always going to struggle to get through to the you know aunties about that because they just don't want to hear it. They just they have this set mindset that you are, we are, you're terrible people, whether it be you know the vegans, the aunties, or whatever. Um, and it's hard because you can never I find you can never have a level conversation with people like that. And it's it's it's it sucks because that's what you want to do. I've I'd love nothing more than to sit across from a vegan on this or on my show, on your show, whatever, and have a long format debate with them without you know the whole you're a murderer, you're a murderer, you're a baby killer, you know, that whole thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. That that seems to be that that's that's their way because it's drilled into them. I don't understand why. You some sometimes, don't get me wrong, up here we can you can have that conversation, and it's not they they sometimes get it, and there are I know there are some beings that have done it for a reason and and health they they think health benefits and all the rest of it, but I think further south you probably suffer more with the very militant, especially obviously down your way when you're talking there about TB. Well, God, that just unleashed a hell of a uh realm of people following guys home that were doing the badger cull and everything like that. I don't know whether you had any issues with you around the farm.
SPEAKER_02I've not I've not had any problems around the farm or anything like in that sense, but I have heard some god-awful stories about you know the guys that are out there doing the cull. Um you know, and you've they're out there trying to do a job, and then you've got people walking across you know, they're on the night vision, you've got thermals, and you've got people walking across the fields, and you just think I'm trying to do this in the safest way possible. And I understand they're trying they're trying to stop you doing it. I get what their angle is, but my god, the caliber of those rifles, you think that is not not okay.
SPEAKER_01But they have no, there's no there's almost nothing between the ears in some cases, and it and it's a real shame. But I don't understand how yeah, you you take all of this on board, but how has the country become so disconnected from the countryside? The Britain used to be so connected to the countryside, really was. You go back to the war, everybody understood that the food came from the countryside, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's a victory, wasn't it? Yeah, that was right.
SPEAKER_01It's a victory, but people turned their gardens into allotments, they understood they wanted rabbits, they knew that the hunter would get them, or somebody'd be out poaching, farms were doing their best, you'd work, you'd work with the land girls, etc. etc. And yet somehow we've forgotten all of that.
SPEAKER_02I know, and I I uh it it really makes me upset because we yeah, I I think it's a lot of ideologies that are being promoted, and I you know, I have my own personal beliefs, you have your own personal beliefs. I'm sure we don't agree on a lot of things, as I don't agree with a lot of people on a lot of things, but I'm a great believer in everyone should be able to have their own views on things, but it's a fact that we are sort of forced to have we're forced to I don't really know how to word it, I'm I'm ballsing this up, something fierce, but it's almost like everyone else is right and we're wrong, and these these people that have these opinions on you know uh field sports, farming, whatever, they're right, and that's their that there's no middle ground. There's no middle ground, there's no, you know, there's no pet pleasant conversation to be had about any of this other than screechy signs and balacabas. And I just you know, I've I don't know, I don't I don't know how it's how it's got so so polarized in that sense. You don't it's not it's not often you come across someone who had doesn't who doesn't have an opinion on hunting or doesn't have an opinion on farming. Um usually so they're either absolutely for it or absolutely against it, and you could say the same has happened in politics, hasn't it? You know, in the last 20 years, there's there aren't a lot, it's not a lot of uh moderate left or moderate right anymore, is there really?
SPEAKER_01Not really, no, not at all. But it it's it is it's a it's a strange, strange situation that that that we've got ourselves into. But at the end of the day, uh yeah, it it's almost as if they don't want you guys doing the farming. There'll always be a job, unfortunately, for deerstalkers because they don't want deer, but they don't want anybody else to enjoy anything else out in the countryside. And it's like, well, what do you want then? Do you want to just tarmac the whole place and call it a car park?
Shotguns, Gear, And Field Realities
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh as a I don't know if it's up there, but it's a saying down here is the countryside only looks like the countryside because we manage it and we make it look like that. You know, if we let it all farmers and uh you know, farmers and everyone that works it uh works the land just said, All right, fine, you you don't you don't want us anymore? Fine. It would just turn into an absolute wilderness and look terrible.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but the rewilders would jump on that and go, Oh, we've done our job. Look, there's there's trees everywhere, but it's like no, there's just weeds and shit and no food. And no food. Oh, what happened to all the bird life? Well, the vermin ate that, and then the vermin died out as well. It's just like you you you really can't win. And we see it up here. Obviously, we've we've now got this massive trend of big Scottish estates being bought, and then we're gonna fence them and plant trees and and and leave the vermin alone because the vermin will do everything inside, but there's no wildlife. The Outdoor Gibbon Podcast is proudly sponsored by the Shooting and Hunting Academy. Through the Academy, shooters, hunters, and those involved in the use of firearms can gain an in-depth and unique level of training that enables them to shoot better, behave more effectively in the field, up their strike rates, as well as learning new skills. Crucially, those new to deer stalking, the Academy also offers the Proficient Deer Stalker Certificate Level 1, the PDS One, a deer management certificate that is nationally recognised and accredited both by Lantra and UK rural skills. Visit the Shooting and Hunting Academy to find out more. Let's get back to the show. They've recently sold up because all their trees died.
SPEAKER_02I didn't. The last I'd heard was that they were going around buying up all this land and rewilding, planted all these trees and taking a lot of shooting, uh, a lot of shooting ground away from the yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so they bought they bought this big estate, they deer fenced the whole place, fenced everything out, slaughtered everything that was in there, killed all of it, rabbit fenced the whole place, or dug up peatland and and beautiful historic hillside, planted a load of trees on it, which the trees then died. Uh and now uh they've sold the place, and now there's a big debate as to whether they should pay back the grant for the trees that they got as well. So, yeah, it's a it's a real double-edged sword there for them.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think they're in a bit of financial dire straits. Well, not dire straits, but I think that it's all had a bit of a financial downturn for them, hasn't it, of late, of from what I've understood. A lot of places that opened are now closing, and it's uh a case of too big too soon. I've I've never, I mean, a couple of their beers are quite nice, but I try not to drink them out of out of uh you know to make a more ethical stand on it.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think that's the thing, isn't it? There was a there was a big downturn when you buy an estate, sack all the keepers. People are like, well, drink their beer out of principle kind of thing. Yeah, because you're not you're not just you're not just killing an estate, you're killing a community at the end of the day, which and that's what a lot of these rewilders and and forestry owners and things like that are coming in and they're buying these places up. And literally, we're just talking about it today on the hill. You come in, you wipe out, okay, say the place has got five gamekeepers. Well, five game, four of those might be married with kids. Uh suddenly they're gone, so that's four, five, six, maybe ten kids aren't going to the village school anymore. That's the shop probably going to close, the school's gone down by half its size.
SPEAKER_02Um, and all of a sudden, that's a whole community just gone from the these communities exist because nobody comes in and makes these drastic changes or you know shuts down the local factory or takes away this massive point of employment. Yeah, and I uh it makes me laugh that they think they're doing this for like the good of society, but in fact they're they're crushing a local society by doing it. But you know, that doesn't really what makes headlines is we're planting all these trees, not the shop, the pub, and the school are closing down in this small rural village. Well done.
SPEAKER_01No, exactly. And and we're planting all these trees, but what we're actually doing is we're shooting 300 deer down on the fence line. We won't tell anybody about that, or yeah, it it it you could you can go with it, whichever circle you want. You've obviously got yeah, the forestry one in as soon as they see a deer, it's gotta go. Hares, rabbits, you name it, they've got to go. Then they're gonna spend millions to potentially deer fence an entire estate. It's like uh that's like 20,000 acres, and you're gonna put a fence around the whole place. Who's paying for that? Oh, well, that'll be that'll be the taxpayer paying for that, then.
Growth Pains And What’s Next For DBCo
SPEAKER_02Oh, I just uh lunacy, it's lunacy, and I think this is this is why I try not to spend too much time on like of the news, because it just makes me so angry.
SPEAKER_01But this doesn't come out in the news, this only comes out because a guy's been to uh one of the deer meetings and the estate and we've been finding stuff out, and then we can filter it out because they don't tell anybody about this, so the but then if we spread it around, there's the hunting community or the stalking community or whatever you want. Oh, we're all just making it up and it's all wrong, and they're they're not doing that, they're they're loving everything on the hillside. So you can't win, and it doesn't matter where you are in the country. This is this is the problem all over. Nobody knows what's going on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Can I can I ask you? Because I've been I've been intrigued, and I know I'm turning the podcast around a little bit on you, but I wanted to ask you uh about guns. Yeah, um sorry, I've got cramping my leg. So so I didn't wonder what you were doing, leering over the laptop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I obviously walking 20 uh 17k today on the hill and my legs just got into a spasm.
SPEAKER_02I feel uh I feel bad now. I've just sat in a JCB most of the morning, that's about it. Right, five fire away with the question you were gonna ask. Yeah, I wanted to um uh I wanted to know what what calibers are you using for uh uh deer up on the hill.
SPEAKER_01So um basically my my go-to is a 308, always has been. Uh it just does it's great for the red, it's got good stopping power. I'm sure there'll be people listening to this going, oh no, no, no, you don't want to say that. But I've just literally got myself 270 as well, which seems to be the traditional Scottish calibre for hill stalkers. Um, and then if you come down onto the smaller stuff like the road here and all the rest of it, the nice thing about Scotland is we're allowed to shoot roe deer with a with a 223 or a 2-2 caliber, which you're not allowed to.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, just speaking to somebody this week about that, actually. Weirdly, he's got a two 220 Swift. Uh and he applied to applied for it for deer, and they said no. Uh he said, Well, it's you know, it's a hell of a fast round, and it's gonna do what he needed to do. And he went back and forwards with them. They said, Yeah, all right, fine, you can have it for deer. And he got his license back, and he said, It's 220 Swift uh license for deer in Scotland. Yep, and he's England signed in Somerset.
Sourcing, Quality, And Making Abroad
SPEAKER_01It's a joke, really, because it is it's a perfectly capable caliber, but the problem I think I think the police forces get a bit twitchy and they change all sorts of things. I remember we're like when the 17 HMR came out, and it would take a fox, but then boys were pushing it, they were trying to push the distance, and I think that's where it was like, Well, okay, it's not so good. So the 2-2 calibre, according to the UK, is like, and most of the stuff down in England is shot close range anyway, so it's perfectly capable. But I think it was like Yeah, it's perfectly capable.
SPEAKER_02We're not we're not dealing with distance down here, like most of the stuff we do is you know, it's not like Scotland where you're you know yards and yards and yards out. We're at the end of a you know 20-acre field at most, sometimes less, most of the time less than that in Somerset, tiny little fields we've got here in comparison to the guys out on the east coast and up in the up up north a bit. But um, friend of mine's just got a uh I think it's a is it Tika TX3, maybe? Is that what it is? Uh T3, I don't know, Tika, and he's had it rebarreled for uh Tutu Creed. Two Creed boy? Yeah, it's not a not a caliber that's even available in this country yet. So you wildcat caliber from the States, isn't it? He's a the barrel put he's had this barrel made put on uh and then he's he's showing me he's like we can't you can't buy these. He's like, I'm making these now. He says, and the and he says, the police don't even know what I'm allowed to use it for, but I've got it.
SPEAKER_01I think I think that's the thing. Over the last few years, calibers and and rifles and all the rest of it. Obviously, you you hear lots of people now talking about like the 6.5 creed more, it's become the new rifle to have.
SPEAKER_02But polarizing rat uh caliber, from what I understand. Either everybody people love it or people absolutely hate it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, we won't we won't talk about sort of the descriptions that you hear on it and the videos that you see about the creed more, but we'll leave that there.
SPEAKER_02I haven't got a dog in this race, I am purely rim fired down here, so I've not got any center fire stuff, but I just find it funny to sit in the sit in the grandstands and watch.
SPEAKER_01But it does it does the job, it works, but then every calibre has its weakness, and it's all down to the monkey behind the trigger at the end of the day. If you place it, even you were talking now, you're you're on a rim fire. If you place your rim fire bullet in the right place, things fall over. Um 100%. So basically, it it's the it's the guy behind the trigger that knows how to shoot. If you can whatever you've got, you can shoot it. Like a lot of stuff in Scotland used to be shot with 22250, and I mean, even up to red stags with 22250. The gamekeeper would go out with everything. The 270 was purely for the guests. If he was out doing vermin control, 22250 did the lot, didn't matter.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but it shifts.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it does shift, yeah, exactly. Um, but you just have to look at it that way. These guys can shoot long distances, they know what they're doing. Happy days, but it's it's down to practice and training, it's like everything. It's like I wouldn't come down there and have a clue what you would show me about a cow, and you'd be like, Oh, it does this, this, and this, and you've got to put it in there, Adam. Huh? What that's something I don't know. But I'll take you out on the hill and I'll show you how it deal works.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's it. I mean, a realistic really, I've only got into shooting properly, you know, you know, my father shot and my grandfather shot, and um, but I've only really gotten into shooting in the last sort of five years, and that's mainly been uh clays. Um obviously I've got my rifles, but that's purely for pest control, you know, short distances. I'm I'm talking sub hundred yards, mainly rabbits and rats, you know, and uh I've got uh section one shotgun for flocking birds on the crops, and uh really I've I'm I don't know a huge amount. I know enough to get me by in conversation, but I don't I you know I've got so much more to learn. Um and like you know, like I say, uh Got a Caesar four five four five five. Yeah, it chambered in seventeen. And I love that gun. Absolutely love it. I was very near to buying a I think it was a Ruger Precision uh 17, and then I felt the weight of it. I was like, this is not a gun for dragging around the fields in the slightest. This is uh that was very much like buying a Ferrari to do an off-road rally stage.
SPEAKER_01I the C Zem though, it's one of those things you can chuck it in the back of the Land Rover, drive out to the field, get it out, take a shot, chuck it back in the back of the Land Rover and carry on again.
SPEAKER_02It's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Holds I've got a brilliant, I've just got a Hawk 17 scope up there, 17 HMR scope on there, holds zero beautifully. Wherever I put wherever I put the crosshair, it's you know it's going down. It's I love it, it's a brilliant rifle. I've got obviously I've got a two too long rifle as well, uh MP1522 for my sins. I'm sure all your listeners have gone. Oh but that is what happens when you don't know anything about rifles, and you walk into a rifle shop with your that looks nice. That's uh AR, that's cool. And the man in the shop thinks, ah, new one born every minute.
SPEAKER_01The man in the shop gun, we've had that on the shelf for too long. Thank you very much. That's going out the door today.
Banter, Backlash, And Taking The Joke
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but I don't get it wrong, it's a lot of fun, but it is. I I have found it to be a completely useless gun. Uh, but it's a good it's a good laugh, you know, it's good fun if you just got if you've just got a few rabbits to do at close range, then it's absolutely fine.
SPEAKER_01But I was gonna say you've got to be strong as well having a section one shotgun. You must do you load it with heavy shot, heavy shot, because otherwise you're like walking along with a drain fight pointed at the floor, and the more you shoot, the lighter it gets, and you can shoot higher up in the sky.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I had a uh uh so I had first gun on my Section One shotgun was a Mossberg 590 Mariner, uh 24-inch barrel, lovely gun. Absolutely. I've always I like a Mariner coat, requires a lot of, doesn't require a huge amount of maintenance. Um, and I've always I've always been a fan of a pump opposed to a semi. Um, and I had it and it was brilliant until it wasn't, and then it had a firing issue that I just could not get. I think it was something to do with the uh the spring in the bolt for the firing pin. And I think from what I read, there was a problem with them being too light, and they would drop fire like years ago, so they put these really stiff springs in there. Um, and obviously the the hammer coming up to hit the back of the bolt was just not enough. It was light striking so many cartridges. And you know, when when you're trying to shoot flocking birds, the last thing you need is the gun letting you down because the flock's rotten past, and you're just you're just wracking shells out the side that are firing.
SPEAKER_01Which you're now gonna pick out from the mud kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02You know, middle of trying to keep them, you're trying to protect the crops, and you just think I've great, all they've all just gone over me, and I've got two shots out off out of nine. Well, I may as well have kept the bloody section two. Uh yeah, so that's that's been that's gone. That's why I say it's gone. It's gone into um storage at my local RFD for them to try and figure out what's wrong with it and get it gone. Um, and now I've for my sins, not that anyone's asking, I'm just reeling off my cool guns. Um uh I've got as fast 12 now, as we spoke about uh earlier in the week. Oh, you know, I I don't know why I've got it. It's but it's cool, isn't it? And again, the guy in the gun shop was like, We've got another one. That's Holtz, that's bloody Holt sealed bids every time it comes up on my phone saying, Oh, the sealed bids are uh catalogued out now, and I think, oh, this is gonna be another four-figure day, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so if it does the job, it does the job. That's the main thing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02I I don't think it will. It's the most it's the most complicated combat shotgun ever made. When the Italians decided in the 80s, uh uh we're gonna make a combat shotgun, we're gonna put about 18 buttons and a lot of levers, and you have this the loading gate, it I it has the force of a thousand sons, so you cannot even get the categories in there. It is the most complicated thing I have ever. How are you meant to use that in a high pressure combat scenario? I don't know, because I bought bloody taking the thing apart of a kitchen table.
SPEAKER_01But the Italians built tanks with more reverse gears than forward gears. Remember that one? Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. So I've been I mean I've been in the process of um finding a few bits for it. Obviously, it's a gun that went out of production 25 years ago, and Franci as they are now is not Franci who built the spas, they've obviously been bought out by I want to say Baretta. Am I right there? Probably, yeah. Yeah, or one of the other Italian gun makers bought them out and they just have no spares. They they're like the spars 12. What do you need part there are though they say still exists? No, we don't have any parts for the idiot. Um, so I've been finding o-rings and a few little bits, and hopefully it's all ready to go now. But yeah, what I'm gonna use it for, obviously, flocking birds, will it work? I don't know, we'll find out, you know. This is this is all fun, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01I can't wait to find out whether that actually works. He's there, he's got 12 shots. Oh, he didn't get anything off. Oh well, there you go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I've I've need to press the levers and all the buttons in a certain way.
SPEAKER_01Flocking birds have sailed across again. That's willing to shut that on the floor and pick up the triple crown and just let her have it. Just think though, how much we're saving in cartridges with every time it doesn't be like, How did you clear all the birds? Well, I just stood here and clicked the trigger.
SPEAKER_02Just stood here and went click, click, click. It was Mike shouting and cussing that made them get swarmed away.
Events, Restocks, And Closing Notes
SPEAKER_01Oh, fantastic. So let's kind of pull this back around to where we were at the beginning. So, what's uh what's the future hold, do you think, for the Dead Black Dead Badger Clothing Company? It doesn't roll off the tongue that well, does it all the time?
SPEAKER_02No, it doesn't. I mean, if for for an idea that I thought of while driving with JCB doing some mucking out, I really didn't put a lot of thought into like in a short snappy name, did I? Um that's why we've did DBC C that's what we've uh we've sort of shortened it to for a nice small little logo. Um what is the future? I don't know. I mean, Lord, we've only been going eight months, and for what started in my spare room and then grew into a bit more of the spare room and took over the spare room, and then it went into a garage that we had spare, and then it was in there for about two months, and then we we moved into a shipping container, and then we've outgrown that, and now I've I've put basically I've put a shipping container on the farm, and um I filled it with all this stuff, and I said to the old man, I was like, Hey, look, you know, this clothing company's going a bit good, so I need a bit more space. I'm gonna move out of the garage, and it was kind of just like a little bit where I can put this shipping container. He's like, Yeah, yeah, no worries, yeah. What on, son? What on, which is a rare thing, you know, getting a what getting out of boy from the old man, as all all less men know. Um and uh I was like, Oh, cool. And then of course it's sort of outgrown this first shipping container. So I thought, well, the agreement was you know, really what I've done is I've you know rented the land from him, which is a very small plot. He didn't specify height restrictions, so all I've done is just dumped another one directly on top. Um, so that's as far as we've grown so far. I think realistically, from a logistical point of view, I can't have any more containers. I'm gonna have to get a unit if it gets any bigger, which it probably is. Um but going forward, uh Lord, I've got us, yeah, I've got us, we've got spring summer to think about with the winter collection is pretty much done. Uh we are looking at uh we're looking at doing a collaboration with a well-known outdoor brand. Not gonna say too much on here because it's all a bit under wraps. Yeah, yeah, that's fun. Yeah, um, and you know, it's it's interesting to see this funny little joke, and now I've got local agricultural dealers getting in touch, so we want to stock our stuff, and um, you know, with with the little we've started selling wholesale now into edge of physical retail. Um we are we're attending Llama, you know, Llama the shore. Yeah, we're attending we're attending that, which is uh as I'm sure you probably know, costs an absolute arm and a leg. Um I've just my whole thought process with it has been um uh what I took from a chap that runs Lockwood Smogs. He said entrepreneurship is jumping out of a plane and stitching a parachute on the way down, and that is the entire ethos that I've gone with of just place that massive order and put 10% down as a deposit. Figure out where the 90% is gonna come from in the lead time it takes to make it, and that has been what we've done. It's worked up until now. Um, but yeah, I think where are we where are we gonna go with it long term? I don't really have a good answer to the question.
SPEAKER_01So just keep people just need to keep watching, and if they don't follow you, come and follow you, basically. Now, if anybody's curious about this, where can they find these products if they don't know it?
SPEAKER_02Uh so we are uh our our website is dbco.uk. Um there's just debbadgerco.uk. Uh if you just search us on Instagram, it's dev badger clothing company. Uh we are on TikTok. Weirdly enough, quite a lot of videos get removed from TikTok. I can't think why. Um so we don't do so well on there, but we are on Instagram, we are on Facebook. Just bang us into Google, Dev Badger Clothing Company. Uh we're the first result that comes up, weirdly. You know, who would have thought would it? Because you'd get an emails from people being like, you need surprise to prioritize your SEO, and we can optimize that for you. I'm thinking, no one else is Googling Dev Badger Clothing Company. I'm always at the top dick.
SPEAKER_01Fantastic. So um just that that sort of leads me on quite nicely there. To uh how how oh, I've come kind of foot like you've you've you've lost my train of thought at that point.
SPEAKER_02Sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_01No, you're all right. It was obviously you've yeah, you're growing on that side of things. Um that was it. Is the Dead Badger Clothing Company are you doing it UK based or are you having all the stuff made somewhere else like the far east?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, our our bare no bones, we are um we're getting it made, uh we're getting it made abroad, uh purely because of our price point. Um I I you know as much as I say I don't know what I'm doing, and I really don't, but when I looked at starting this, I obviously did my research and saw what what sort of what sort of price point I wanted to be at, which was you know basically mid mid-lower end of the price points around around the 50 to 60 pound mark for you know a quarter zip or a hoodie or whatever. And I I started pricing what was good what I could get in the UK and I and very quickly realized that there is no business model there for the price point that I was looking at. Um so I we are having it obviously made abroad. Uh I'm not and I what I'm not ashamed of that, and a lot of people sort of dodge around that question a lot and and won't answer it straight or you know give you this sort of like politicians' answer. I've got a really good working relationship with my with my factory over in the east. Um, so much so that they have invited me out there next year to go and see the factory, which is you know, God, I hope they haven't watched the videos. They've invited me out to the factory uh because I think I can learn a lot from from the production process and how things are done. So when I'm designing stuff, I have a I always can always have that in mind. It's often a case of I think some things are really difficult, so I don't I don't include them, even down to having these little custom zip pulls made with DBC C on them. I thought that was a sort of I thought that was gonna be a minimum quantity order of 20,000 and it was just not gonna work. And in fact, it was like, oh no, you just pay for the die, it's fifty dollars. Pay for the die, and then you know, the actual you know, the hold. Um and that's fine. And so the the plan is to go out there, see the factory. I've I've seen pictures of the factory, I get sent videos every day of the you know, status updates on orders and stuff, and it's a lot, it's it's a long way away from the sweatshops that we all think there is out there. Um, I mean, I'm sure there are some out there, don't get me wrong. I mean, we all hear about them all the time, but from what I see, it just looks like a bunch of people just working hard. And and you know, at the end of the day, they're paid less, they've got a lower cost of living, therefore, we're able to get products over here cheaper. And uh, that is what I'd say 95% of other companies are doing, and I don't feel ashamed in doing that. No, no, 100%. Yeah, so there, but there are there, I'm not gonna say too much because I don't want to get myself in a whole lot of legal trouble, but I know there are I've been approached, put it that way, I've been approached by a lot of other companies, and I've seen pictures of their factories, and I think there's no way in hell I would ever support this financially. Um, so yeah, but yeah, I think I think what we're doing is good.
SPEAKER_01Um if it if it works, it works, and the quality is okay, and you're happy. It's not like you're trying to produce stuff that's waterproof or has a has an IP and it it's just a fish and clothing brand at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_02So that's exactly it. As long as it's a product that I'm happy with and the quality's there. My whole ethos of is being you know, just try and try and match or if not exceed the quality of the higher brands and just go for a way lower price point and shift twice as much stock, you know. And that's the that's an and with and just market it the right way, which has been an interesting roller coaster, I won't lie.
SPEAKER_01A hundred percent. But as I say, it's obviously worked. I do a bit of merch and stuff like that, and trying to build it in the UK. I have to end up buying something that's probably made in the Far East, like the hoodies and bits like that. But I've supported like a local business that does the embroidery work, and actually, for my sins, I actually create bought myself a uh a vinyl cutter and all the rest of it, and I do all the pressing and stuff like that. So literally everybody gets their own, and it's made in Scotland, kind of thing, apart from the hoodie, which was probably made in the Far East.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but that's that that's it. With with our podcast, we very much pride ourselves on yeah, all right, the hoodie is made abroad, but we put all the all the printing, all the embroidery, all of that is done in the UK. End of story. We don't, yeah, we don't like 99% of stuff, we don't just have it done abroad and shipped over. Because yeah, okay, we could make a lot more money by doing that. But the podcast arm of things is just us sitting around having a laugh. If it makes a few quid, it makes a few quid. Great. But you know, the death badger thing, I sort of realized from the start that when I when we saw the demand that we had in the first month with the first drop, I was like, right, this could be a real business. I have to take at least one of my little side projects seriously.
SPEAKER_01Well, all fairness to you, because at the end of the day, it and it's so nice, it's it's refreshing to talk to somebody that, yeah, have still having a laugh running a business, but you've got a business that's actually bringing joy to people. They they wear the kit, they're they're being seen out. You're getting social posts going up of people at top-end events in dead badger clothing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I will say there are a couple of there are a couple of firms out there. Um, I'll be giving a big shout out. POSH uh Country Clothing, I believe they're called. I might have butchered that. Um, I took the piss out of them, not I didn't name them, but I took the piss out of them in one of my reels, and I uh I said, Oh, you know, oh tell yes, we've got up with inspiration from the yachting community and all this, and they commented on one of our posts and said, Oh my god, getting shade thrown at us by the badger, and then dropped them a message and I said, Look, I really appreciate you taking that in good jest because it, you know, I only made it as a joke, and they're like, No, honestly, we thought it was hilarious. So, you know, although I'm out there poking fun at everyone and being, you know, being being the kid at lunch that no one wants to sit with, some of the guys out there are really taking it in their stride and find it hilarious. So big props to them because we've come out of nowhere, seemingly upset everyone and annoying everyone, and most a lot of them have been like, these the kids.
SPEAKER_01And just take it in their stride. But on the flip side of that, are you getting obviously with it, do you get much hate as well? Do you get much abuse on the messages? Not on social media.
SPEAKER_02We get um I get I get a lot of hate from the funny reels that I do because people have it's become a become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I read out DMs uh you know once a week of people giving me shit. Uh excuse my language, um, and and then and then people think, oh, if I give him abuse, my DM's gonna make it into the next video. So people tell me my mustache looks terrible, or that uh, you know, I'm I'm an idiot or I don't know what I'm doing, or you know, various abuse. And uh yeah, but real genuine hate. We went to a local show, a local uh country show, and uh a chap walked into our stall, and we all just he was what he was taking pictures all the way around our stall. And a lot of people have done that throughout the day because a lot of people were taking pictures, sending it to their mates, and going, Oh my god, have you seen this company? What a bunch of lunatics. Um, and this one chap took a picture. Touch a really bad story, I shouldn't really tell it, but I'm going. Uh so he took these pictures and he posted it on a local uh local Facebook group. Um and he'd said, I can't believe this was allowed to be here at the local at our local show, you know, how uh you know dead badgers aren't a joking matter, or whatever, some other sort of liberal waffle. And um and then, of course, a lot of my friends, this is our local town, a lot of my friends were following this post and were just commenting things like somebody the it was the final comment that somebody wrote saying, I hope you know that they have given over a million pounds to the protection of badges.
SPEAKER_03He sort of dying the post, the anapology post after saying he was sorry.
SPEAKER_02It was it was basically it just gave me a it was just a real insight into people will just believe anything they read on the internet. He has he had created this whole problem in his own mind that we were these terrible people who you know murder badgers. That was not the case, he didn't even speak to any of us or ask us any questions, and then somebody had given him more false information and he had believed that and then apologized for it all. So, yeah, but in the in the other than that, real genuine hate, no, everyone finds it funny. A few people have gone, oh, a bit distasteful, but it's like, well, it's a joke, and it it's it's just funny. It's just it's just uh it's just a logo and some words, you know. Lord alive, if we can.
SPEAKER_01At the end of the day, I think if you're driving down the road, it's one of those common sights these days because there's so many of them. Up here, it's funny how all the badges always fall out on the passenger side.
SPEAKER_02There is that common trick of oh yes, there's a lot of fashions right next to that beef farm. How strange. Uh yeah, but yeah, it's uh to be other joy. So we've been a lot of people said that we weren't this wasn't gonna go anywhere. A lot of people said you are gonna get in so much trouble, you know, you're gonna have the police after you, you're gonna have the the liberal lefties after you, and whatever else. And I think because it's all been so uh just innocent fun, just some idiots just making a clothing company that everyone's just seen it for what it is. It's just a laugh. It's just a laugh.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It's not it's not like you're out there sponsored by some badger shooting fraternity or something like that. And if you were, you'd probably you'd probably have Petter on your door wanting to talk to you. But but at the end of the day, uh exactly, it's farming clothing, the people that are wearing it. Uh yeah, countryside. So happy days.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, it was um uh what was the other thing I was gonna mention? Oh, that was it at the uh the look uh to sort of show you, give you a sense of how how unseriously we take ourselves. At the local country, we went to they had a obvious program for all the horse jumping and the show times and whatever else. And it asked us if we wanted a an advertisement page, and it and I sort of said, Yeah, of course, absolutely, support the local community, all about that. Um, and I I said, Well, how they gave us a price test, and I said, Well, I went for the back. Cover and oh that's quite expensive. I was like, Oh, but I think I want the back cover. So all right, here was the price. He said, Yeah, agree to price, that was fine. But what do you want? And then I just said, right, hello. So what I want is they just want our logo, it just says Netflix clothing company, and this is where it came from. And at the bottom, it just said, We sell clothes, you should buy them, and that was it. It was like you're gonna spend that amount of money on that. I was like, Yep, yep, that's exactly what I want. So you see, all these horsey women stood at the stood at the ringside with their programs, and it just stopped my logo on the back with we sell clothes, you should buy them.
SPEAKER_01Oh, fantastic. What a way to do it though. And that that's some you know what? Some of the best businesses, that's how they they appear. So well done, absolutely spot on.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_01I appreciate it. I think I think we'll uh we'll we'll draw it to a close now, unless there's anything else that you're you're desperate to tell us about the Dead Badger Clothing Company.
SPEAKER_02Uh no, not particularly. Uh big restock coming, lots of new items, lots of new products. Other than that, if you're going to uh if you go into Lama at the NEC, come down and see us. We're gonna be there all well. Hopefully, we'll be there the whole time. Hopefully, we don't get kicked out. We can be quite problematic and drunk at these shows, but we'll see how it goes. Um the NEC is a bit more of a corporate environment than the local rural shows that we've been doing, so yeah. Um, but yeah, no, thank you. Thank you so much for having me on.
SPEAKER_01I really appreciate it. No, no, that thanks for coming on and uh thanks for sharing just basically your story and and the Dead Badger Clothing Company.
SPEAKER_02No, thank you so much, it's been fantastic. I've really appreciated it. Cheers, cheers, bye-bye.
SPEAKER_01Support them, buy some clothing. It does look pretty good actually. Next thing, hopefully you enjoyed that podcast, and uh we've kicked off 2026 with a bit of a funny one. Probably going to move away from the clothing companies now. I've got one more to talk to, but then we'll get back onto some hunting topics and some other things like that and some conservation and uh we'll see how 2026 pans out. As I said, there's a lot of stuff in the pipeline, so keep checking back. We managed to release two episodes a month last year. We hit 88 countries and uh over a thousand and a thousand six hundred cities, I think. So uh yeah, let's increase that, and hopefully twenty twenty six will be a far stronger year for the podcast. See you soon.