Ben Sherman plots online return

Ben Sherman, the brand beloved by ageing skinheads and young mods alike, is overhauling its global ecommerce strategy after pulling the plug on its websites earlier this year.
The company has appointed agency The Other Media to design and build new sites, which are expected to be unveiled in the UK and Europe by the end of the year; the US site will launch in the new year.
The company was founded in 1963 by Arthur Benjamin Sugarman, who was born in Brighton. After emigrating to the US in 1946, he married the daughter of a Californian clothes producer and returned to Brighton, where he bought a shirt factory.
Having recognised that early Sixties London-based modern jazz fans were importing American button-down shirt brands sported by visiting US jazz artists like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson, Sugarman decided to produce a version of these shirts.
The Ben Sherman Originals label was created, and was quickly adopted by the mod movement. By the late Sixites, the shirt was adopted by the skinhead subculture, and has now become a staple of old and young alike. The brand featured heavily in the recent This is England TV series (pictured), written by Shane Meadows.
Ben Sherman chief executive Pan Philippou said: “Ben Sherman is a strong brand and we felt it was time it had a suitably strong presence online. We look forward to a fruitful and enduring working relationship with the agency.”
The Other Media managing director George Crabb said: “The company told us it was not happy with its old site and this was actually turned off earlier this year. We were approached after they had been looking for a new digital partner for some time and, having been recommended by several parties, we won the work in a competitive pitch based on our proven approach and design credentials.”
The agency now works with fashion clients including Paul Smith, Jasper Conran and The Rug Company, which sells rugs from designers including Vivienne Westwood and Diane von Furstenberg.