From a creative hobby started in our conservatory to a family-run business supporting almost 1,000 organisations across the UK, TogsByEmma has grown through creativity, hard work, family and a passion for helping people wear their identity with pride.
TogsByEmma began in 2016, when Emma was working full-time while raising a family with Colin. Emma has always been creative, and what started as a hobby making personalised gifts for family soon became something much bigger.
She began creating glittered glasses, personalised light blocks and other unique gifts. Friends and family quickly took notice and started asking Emma to make items for them too, including the occasional piece of personalised clothing.
At the time, glassware was the main focus, so the business was originally named Touch Of Glass By Emma.
Colin was there from the beginning, helping Emma whenever an extra pair of hands was needed.
The turning point came through something very close to our family — American Football.
Our eldest son, Tyrese, was playing for the London Blitz American Football Club. With limited supporter merchandise available, Emma began creating her own personalised clothing so that our family could show our support on gamedays.
It didn’t take long for other players, families and supporters to notice.
Requests started coming in, and what began as clothing for our own family quickly developed into a small range of merchandise for the club and its supporters.
By 2017, Touch Of Glass was producing team-branded apparel and merchandise for the London Blitz, including T-shirts, hoodies, shorts, caps, mugs and bottles.
As clothing and merchandise became an increasingly important part of the business, it was clear that the name Touch Of Glass By Emma no longer represented what we were becoming.
The search for a new name produced an unexpected connection.
Growing up, Colin had always referred to clothing as “togs”. At the same time, he noticed that Touch Of Glass contained the initials T.O.G.
It seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“Togs” on its own felt too generic, but a quick Google search showed that TogsByEmma wasn’t already being used.
And so, TogsByEmma was born.
In those early days, TogsByEmma attended London Blitz gamedays with a simple setup — essentially a single table displaying our merchandise. But the demand grew quickly.
Before long, that single table had become a full gazebo setup, offering an expanding range of team merchandise to players, families and supporters.
It was becoming increasingly clear that TogsByEmma could be much more than a side business.
Emma still had a full-time job and desperately wanted the opportunity to work on TogsByEmma full-time.
Then came one particular late-summer Sunday.
We were attending a London Blitz gameday when Colin told Emma:
“If we sell £1,000 worth of merch today, you should hand in your notice tomorrow.”
By the end of the day, we had taken more than £1,500 worth of orders.
The challenge had been answered.
The following day, Emma handed in her notice.
From that point onwards, there was no looking back.
As word spread, TogsByEmma began working with more and more organisations.
What started with American Football merchandise expanded into teamwear, workwear, printed clothing, embroidery and personalised merchandise for sports clubs, businesses, universities and other organisations.
Our client base continued to grow, and so did our ambition.
Over the following years, Emma and Colin invested heavily back into the business, adding multiple embroidery machines and continually upgrading our printing capabilities so that we could offer more products, better quality and greater capacity.
By 2020, business was booming.
The challenge was no longer finding customers — it was keeping up with them.
As orders continued to increase, balancing the demands of a rapidly growing business with family life became increasingly difficult.
In 2021, after 24 years in his own full-time career, Colin made the decision to leave his job and join Emma in the business full-time.
For the first time, TogsByEmma became a true full-time husband-and-wife business.
Together, Emma and Colin doubled down on TogsByEmma and continued to develop the business, its services and its relationships with customers across the UK.
TogsByEmma is still very much a family business.
Emma and Colin have two sons, Tyrese and Albert, and even our four-legged family member, Jaxson the spaniel, has become part of the story — although we’re not entirely sure he contributes much to production!
Jaxson is, by all accounts, an absolute lunatic.
Running a business while raising a family hasn’t always been easy, but it has shaped the way we think about TogsByEmma. We understand that behind every organisation, team and order are real people trying to make things work.
That’s something we never want to lose as the business grows.
American Football remains a big part of who we are.
Colin played American Football himself during the 1980s and 1990s and later became involved in coaching, particularly at youth and university level.
Emma and Colin have a genuine affinity with the sport and remain proud to be part of the wider British American Football community.
Many of our friendships, relationships and business connections have grown from that community, and we’re proud that TogsByEmma‘s story began on an American Football gameday.
It’s a community that gave us our start — and one we’re delighted to continue supporting.
Today, TogsByEmma works with organisations of all sizes, from established companies and universities to sports clubs, charities, community groups, small businesses and brand-new startups.
But we haven’t forgotten where we came from.
We know what it’s like to be a small business without the buying power of a large organisation. Larger orders naturally allow us to offer volume discounts, but we don’t believe smaller organisations should be penalised simply because they don’t need hundreds of garments.
That’s why we have no minimum order.
Whether you need one personalised item or hundreds of garments, we aim to offer competitive pricing and the same level of care.
We were once a small business trying to find our feet too. Supporting other local businesses and startups wherever we can is simply something that feels right to us.
What began with a few personalised gifts and a single table at a London Blitz gameday has evolved considerably.
Today, TogsByEmma provides printed and embroidered apparel, workwear, teamwear, merchandise and personalised products to almost 1,000 organisations, alongside individual customers across the UK.
But while the scale of the business has changed, the principle hasn’t.
We’re still Emma and Colin.
We’re still a family business.
And we’re still passionate about helping our customers create something they’re proud to wear.
TogsByEmma has come a long way since 2016, but we’re not finished yet.
We’re continually investing in new equipment, products, technology and services to make it easier for businesses, teams, organisations and individuals to get the products they need.
Our aim isn’t simply to become bigger.
It’s to continue building a business that we’re proud of, providing great products, personal service and genuine value to the people and organisations we work with.
From our family to yours, thank you for being part of the TogsByEmma story.
Emma & Colin
Founders & Owners, TogsByEmma
