England rugby ace Jason Robinson, OBE, finally hung up his boots at the end of the 2010-11 season, the last act of his career on the pitch being helping Lancashire side Fylde to promotion to National League One.
Since then, however, the former Sale Sharks, England and British Lions full-back has been keeping busy, launching his own leisurewear brand, while working as a rugby ambassador with HSBC.
Robinson has recently returned from a trip to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi promoting the game at grassroots level.
‘It was brilliant,’ he says. ‘I hadn’t been to the Middle East before and it was great to meet people out there both from the expat and the local community.
And Robinson is also not ruling out a return to UK club rugby. ‘At this moment, it would make sense for me to be working with a rugby club, but we’ll have to wait and see. If something came up, I’d certainly look at it and see if it was something I wanted to do.’
‘I don’t miss playing – because my career went so well. If I’d have finished my playing days in rugby league I’d have felt so privileged. But for then to have continued in rugby union, with Sale Sharks, England, the British Lions – you couldn’t have written a better script. I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had.
‘I played the game as I believe it should be played and I hope it left people with great memories. At the time, as a player, you don’t always realise how much what you do on the pitch means to the supporters, but I still get people coming up to me wanting to talk about winning the World Cup in 2003.’
The fashion side of things happened almost by accident, he adds. ‘At the beginning of the year I was asked to trial some compression wear made by a company called Proskins – just to get my opinion on the products.
‘I was really impressed by the gear and by the fact the firm was offering a bespoke service. Everyone’s shaped differently and, while a standard size will probably fit 90 per cent of people, after years of training for professional rugby I’m not really the same shape as most people. It’s a bit like a racehorse. I’ve got really skinny ankles and bigger thighs.’
So impressed was Robinson by the Proskins offerings, in fact, that he joined the Mansfield-based company. ‘We started talking about a Jason Robinson clothing range,’ he adds. ‘I’ve been given all sorts of stuff to wear over the years, but it was great to be able to work with the designers and to have input into the look and feel of the garments.’
The JR range has sparked immediate interest from retailers, with Tesco among those that are selling it.
‘It’s a sports leisure range that’s for anyone, really,’ says Robinson. ‘There’s a bit of a rugby theme, for example there’s a shirt with the number 15 on the back, but there are other shirts you can wear for golf – it’s not just a rugby brand as such.’
Creating that brand is taking up a considerable proportion of his time, he adds. ‘Building a brand isn’t an easy thing. It’s like rugby in a way, it’s not just a case of pulling on your boots and everything will be fine; you’ve got to work really hard at it.
‘After playing rugby at the highest level, you need a challenge and it’s got to be something that you can really get your teeth into. For me, this is the thing.’
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