The Sunday Times Magazine • 51W
e’d often be going until
three in the morning,” says
Reiss Edgerton, co-founder
of the women’s clothing
brand AYBL, recalling his
teenage years in Bromsgrove,
Worcestershire. He and his
friends Ben Francis and
Lewis Morgan would Skype
each other late into the night
to share entrepreneurial ideas. “We were 16,
17, but we’d be talking business strategies,
bouncing ideas off each other.”
This isn’t textbook teenage behaviour.
“I guess not, no,” Edgerton admits. “Look,
we were doing the standard stuff like
chasing women and drinking too, but we
also wanted to better ourselves. We knew
we couldn’t wait for someone to help us.
We knew we had to do it for ourselves.”
Francis and Morgan went on to make
their fortunes building the athleisure
brand Gymshark, but until now Edgerton,
the youngest of the three friends, had
seemed missing in action. Not any more.
Today brings a reunion of sorts — for the
first time they all make this year’s Young
Rich List. Their various businesses —
sometimes run together, sometimes
independently — have helped them amass
a combined wealth of more than £1 billion.
All three are still in their twenties.
AYBL Group, the brand Edgerton has
built with his younger brother Kristian,
made profits of more than £4 million on
£22 million sales last year. Founded in 2018,
the Redditch-based label sells shorts, crop
tops, sports bras and other gymwear in
neutral colours and simple designs.
“The most important thing for us is
producing functional clothing that fits
well at a good price,” Edgerton says. “Our
customers need to feel comfortable and
confident wearing it. The last thing anyone
wants to feel is that some bloke down the
gym is trying to make out the shape of your
underwear through your leggings. Somewomen won’t go to a gym because they
understandably feel self-conscious about
what they’re wearing. I hate that. Exercise
should be for anyone — whether you’re
big, small, muscly, skinny, thin or fat.”
Edgerton is evangelical about the mental
health benefits of exercise. He sounds less
pumped, however, when asked about his
earlier ventures, which were lucrative but
lacked a long-term branding vision. He,
Francis and Morgan were each earning up
to £10,000 a month from an internet
advertising venture while still at college.
After A-levels, Edgerton headed off to
Nottingham Trent University to study
business. While he was away, Morgan and
Lewis set up Gymshark. When Edgerton
quit his degree after two years, he returned
to Bromsgrove wondering what was next.
“I’d fallen out with my parents and moved
in with my nan,” he says. “I was one day away
from joining the army. I’d signed my oath
of allegiance and everything. They weren’t
happy when I quit.” His brother wasn’t in
great shape either. “Kris was working in a
fish and chip shop, earning £150 a week.”24= REISS AND KRISTIAN EDGERTON
£40m New entry ★
Sportswear: AYBLFor a while the pair went into business
with friends, selling watches imported from
China. Named Tayroc, this online retailer
soon had 500,000 Instagram followers and
annual sales of more than £7 million.
“It did well, but watches are one-off
purchases. I wanted something that was
more of a brand, where we had more of a
relationship with our customers.”
AYBL’s community blog features articles
on gym terminology, how to get more sleep
and ways to boost body confidence. Some
readers may think this sounds like sharp
business rather than something more
wholesome: so many online brands thrive
on assiduously building communities they
can then relentlessly carpet-bomb with
digital marketing. But there will be others
who are more supportive of the Edgertons
and fellow Insta-tycoons.
For years the Young Rich List has been
dominated by musicians, footballers and
other sportspeople. But this year’s under-30
rankings — expanded for the first time to
100 entries — feature a clutch of
entrepreneurs who have started
multimillion-pound businesses with little
more than a smartphone and a laptop. They
include Dan and Melanie Marsden, the
husband-and-wife team behind the lingerie
retailer Lounge Underwear, and Ed Beccle,
the developer of the Christian app Glorify.
“There can be a bit of scepticism towards
people doing well in business,” Edgerton
says. “That’s a shame. A lot of people are
getting their livelihoods through AYBL.
We’re paying a lot of VAT, a lot of tax too.”
AYBL has of course made him and his
brother very wealthy. Last year an investor
purchased a 20 per cent stake in the
business — a deal that valued the company
at £50 million, putting a £40 million price
tag on the brothers’ shares. And who was
this investor? None other than Lewis
Morgan, one of the original trio from
those nocturnal Skype sessions. Morgan
sold out of Gymshark in 2020 and moved
on to property development.
So is it back to the late-night calls?
“Of course,” Edgerton says. “That’s a way of
life.” Morgan might not agree: he recently
became a dad nAfter their friends made a killing with Gymshark, the Edgerton siblings have
set pulses racing with the AYBL women’s sports clothing brand. By Robert Watts
THE BROTHERS TRIM
GARETH IWAN JONES FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE
The Sunday Times Magazine • 51Young Rich List Interview