Forward thinking Calnan hits jackpot after making splash in fashion world

Dave Calnan had no grand plan of where he wanted his education or even his employment to take him, but he had a fair idea where he didn’t want it to go.

The 43-year-old from Innishannon, Co. Cork always had a thirst for adventure and a life abroad, so when he married a French girl he met while studying for a Masters in Dublin, a door opened and he found himself in Paris.

But it wasn’t what he hoped it might be. He struggled to find a job, the language took some getting used to, and before he knew it, he was back home on the family farm, supplementing his income by working for a local builder, his other half still in the French capital.

But luck played its part and when a job came up in Paris, looking for English speakers to operate an oil and gas company, he didn’t think twice.

That was 1998 and he’s now happily married with two kids but he recently left that job in pursuit of something totally alien to him; selling casual rugby apparel designed for forwards.

‘No Scrum No Win’ is the name of Calnan’s business, a phrase often used by French commentators that the Corkman just liked when he heard it and felt it had potential.

“It started in 2011 at the World Cup in France,” he explains. “I was sitting down watching a game at home and the French commentator used this term ‘no scrum no win’ a few times. There was something going on with the scrum and he repeated it to emphasise the importance of the scrum. I just found it interesting and catchy.”

He bought the rights to the name and started to work on an idea.

A friend from home was working with international clothing giants Kukri and when Calnan sought his advice, a meeting with the head of Kukri was arranged and so began a roller-coaster.

“The main guy from Kukri really liked the concept, which, I decided was going to be rugby wear inspired by the forwards and that mentality of the scrum. Some people thought it was a clothing range for XXL men but it was more something that was playing off the scrum, so it went from there.”

From the production, marketing, branding and selling side of things it was all a learning process for Calnan. He didn’t have a blank cheque book and it has been a one-man show from the outset, but that’s about to change. He launched it in France four months ago and Cummins and Lifestyle Sports have launched it into the Irish market.

“I’ve had discussions with top level players on the Irish team to be brand ambassadors. Fellas like Denis Fogarty [former Munster player, now playing in France] is wearing it and half his team are too. There’s a fella from Ireland on the staff of Stade Francais and I met him recently; their players are asking me would I mind if they took it. It’s just striking a cord with people.

“I went up to Racing Metro and even met Ronan O’Gara. I managed to give some of the gear to a few of their players and a couple of weeks later they contacted me and thanked me for the gear, told me they loved it, they’d wear it and asked to meet up. The highlight for me though was when I was at home watching a game one Saturday evening recently watching Stade Francais and I could see a young fella in the crowd with his buddies with a ‘No scrum no win’ sweatshirt. It was a brilliant moment for me.”

Such has been the growth that Calnan is now close to a deal with Kukri which he says could transform the whole operation.

“It’s at a stage now where I’ve got pallets of stock stored down the road from me here and it’s getting too big. Hopefully I can get the deal through with Kukri and they’d take care of all the manufacturing, the storage, they’ll sell it. Take all that off my shoulders. Not bad going for a fella who only knew hurling and football with Valley Rovers.”