Cotton Traders is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

company, specialising in

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

apparel and

leisure Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisure ...

wear, based in

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was founded in 1987 by former

England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasion ...

captains

Fran Cotton Francis Edward Cotton (born 3 January 1947) is a former rugby union prop forward who played for England and the British Lions. His clubs included Coventry R.F.C. and Sale. After retiring, he remained in rugby administration and founded a clo ...

and

Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to: Academics * Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager * Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...

History

Cotton Traders is a multichannel English clothing retailer founded in 1987 by former England rugby captains, Fran Cotton and Steve Smith, and based in Altrincham, England. The company sells casual clothing and footwear collections for men and women, plus a new homeware collection, Cotton Home, in over 25 countries worldwide. The company started out in a small room next to Altrincham railway station, supplying rugby shirts via mail order using advertisements in the Sunday newspapers. After two years in business, Cotton Traders reached an annual turnover of £2million with new men’s and women’s casual clothing collections being added to their offering, followed by footwear and accessories. Today, it is a multichannel retailer, employing a staff of more than 800 with an annual gross turnover of more than £86 million. In 1997, clothing retailer Next purchased a share of the business with the other two-thirds owned by the founders. In 2014, Cotton and Smith bought back the 33% share of Cotton Traders held by Next, regaining full ownership of the company. In May 2018, fellow Altrincham-based company, CorpAcq, acquired a majority stake in Cotton Traders. CorpAcq was formed in 2006 by founder and Chairman, Simon Orange. Its portfolio of at least 20 businesses has a combined turnover of over £200m. CorpAcq also owns the rugby union club, Sale Sharks, where Cotton Traders co-founders Fran Cotton and Steve Smith sit on the board. The company operates from three main buildings in Altrincham, and a distribution centre in Nottingham. Head office departments are split between Cotton Traders House, Cotton Mill (formerly Neptune House) and the Cotton Hub. Cotton Traders operates 80 retail stores nationwide in high street, retail outlets, garden centres and travel locations. They also provide an overseas delivery service to over 25 countries, with dedicated websites for customers internationally, in Ireland and Australia.

Logo legal action

Cotton Traders were the official suppliers of rugby kit to the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

(RFU) between 1991 and 1997, including supplying the rugby shirts worn by the

. As an official supplier, Cotton Traders also produced replica shirts for sale to the public. Following the loss of the contract to

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine given ...

in 1997, Cotton Traders continued producing a rugby shirt for sale in the style of the English national team, namely a white shirt with a red rose emblem on the chest. This culminated in a legal case being brought against Cotton Traders by the RFU and Nike in 2002, seeking to ban the sale of what they deemed 'unauthorised merchandise'. A High Court judge ruled in favour of Cotton Traders in the case, citing that the classic style rose used on the Cotton Traders shirt was associated with England as a country or team and not the RFU specifically, and as such it could not be registered as a trade mark.

References

{{notelist Clothing brands of the United Kingdom Companies based in Trafford