Dave believes the brand's rise to success was due to capturing something people his age had been craving for.
Now worn all over Merseyside, the clothing brand 80s Casuals started more than 20 years ago after Dave Hewitson went on a shopping trip and struck up a conversation with two strangers about their shared love of 1980s terrace culture. As the name suggests, the brand can trace its roots all the way back to the 1980s, when a distinct fashion started to emerge on the terraces of football stands all around the country. It saw thousands of football fans adopt a similar sense of style that saw them wearing footwear predominantly from adidas and clothing from brands including Ellesse, Fila and Sergio Tacchini, among others.
Looking back at the brand's origin, Dave said it began from a desire to find stockists for his newly released book, which examined the impact that Liverpool fans had on 1980s terrace culture. He told the ECHO: "I’d done a book called The Liverpool Boys Are in Town, which covered the culture of the 80s and Liverpool fans going abroad and bringing back trainers that you couldn’t get here."
Combining a shopping trip to Chester with trying to find stockists for his new book, things began to fall into place when he got chatting to two shop workers who also shared a mutual appreciation for terrace culture. He said: "I went into Tessuti in Chester and asked the two guys [Mike Ashcroft and Jay Montessori, who worked there], 'I've got this book; would you be interested [in stocking it]?" "Mike was a Liverpool fan, and he said, "That's brilliant. Yeah, we'll stock it.'"
However, after successfully agreeing to have his book stocked in the shop, something caught the corner of his eye as he headed toward the exit. He said: "I’m walking out, and I see this t-shirt with a trainer on. I’d never seen anything like that before, a piece of footwear on a t-shirt. So I said to him, 'Who's done the trainer on the t-shirt?' and he said: 'We have; we sell a few on eBay and we sell them in here [as well].' So I looked at it, and I thought, you can add a few colours onto it; you can do a bit of embroidery. Straight away I got involved.”
After being blown away by what he saw during his visit to Chester, Dave, who has two children, Daniel and Abby, as well as a wife Jeanette, met with Mike and Jay again. In August 2004, the three decided to take the brand forward, marking the start of its life.
After taking the leap and deciding to partner with Jay and Mike, the brand soon started to gain popularity. He said: "We got into a few shops, like Ran in Manchester, then they ended up being in Script in Liverpool and it developed from there.”
Dave believes the brand's quick rise to success was largely due to capturing something people his age had been craving for some time. He said: "The main thing I loved about it was that it was a bit like a new pop art. It took things everyone wears but put them on a t-shirt, evoking memories of the 80s when young lads went to the match. Now we were all getting to that age—about late 30s, 40s—when we were reminiscing about that period."
"The fashion at the time was a bit crap, to be honest. I’m talking from the point of view of someone who was 40-odd at the time. I wasn't looking for a pair of ripped jeans or some mad skin-tight t-shirt or something like that. All the guys that first started buying our stuff were probably my age: late 30s or 40."
He added: "When I design a T-shirt, I’m thinking of the 80s and what people were wearing. I might have a character on the t-shirt, so I’ll put him in a pair of adidas and a Fila tracksuit top or, you know, even Stone Island and CP Company."
Now over 20 years since the brand came about, Dave runs 80s Casuals on his own from his house and has since diversified its offering, selling 3D-printed football figurines, posters and even vinyl records with a mix of songs from the 80s and 90s from bands including Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays.
As he looks back over his time running the brand, he thinks they have been ahead of the curve when it comes to telling the "story" behind his products—something he thinks some of the bigger retailers have more latterly started to adopt. He said, "20 years ago, for people into fashion, they'd buy a men's magazine and flick through it and go, 'Oh, I like the look of that t-shirt,' or they'd go into a shop and they'd like the look of a t-shirt,' but it had no story to it."
He added: "I think if you look at anything that gets released now, whether it's Burberry, Hermes, or Prada, they give you a backstory to it. That's what everyone's looking for now: that backstory to what they're [brands] going to release."
However, he said giving people that "backstory" to their fashion was something he was doing 20 years ago. He said, "It sounds a bit incredible, but we thought, 'Let's give everyone a bit of a story.' We've got this trainer on a t-shirt because this trainer came out in 1981 and evokes memories."
Going back to his childhood, his earliest memories of watching Liverpool date back to 1969 when he watched them play Burnley at Turf Moor. After he began going to more and more games with his dad and friends, he has continued to travel home and away with Liverpool and has even been to every European cup final.
"It was at about 12 or 13 that you started asking for certain things. By about 1977 I do remember there was this adidas cagoule that was out; It had a red inner, a royal navy blue outside, and the three stripes. Then there was the T-shirt, a plain-coloured T-shirt with the adidas Trefoil logo."
He added: "Little things like that started to seep in around '77, and obviously, since we had mates who went to the match, we'd all talk amongst each other, 'Oh, did you see such and such at the match?'" ''Yeah, he had a pair of adidas Samba on.'"
Most of that clothing and footwear from the early 80s came from the iconic sportswear shop, Wade Smith, which was based on Slater Street and, later, Mathew Street before closing in 2005. Dave said that Robert Wade-Smith was inspired to open the shop after seeing Liverpool fans bring adidas trainers back from their travels watching the team abroad. Dave said: "Wade Smith was the first one who sort of got onto all the Liverpool fans bringing stuff back and selling it to their mates. He thought, 'If I had a shop, I could do that.' That’s how he got started. He’d go abroad and bring back all these trainers."
While he says that terrace culture still exists, Dave believes that 80s Casuals doesn't entirely fit within it; instead, his brand acts as a chance for people to reminisce about their younger days. He said: "It's for certain people who want to reminisce about having a certain trainer or something like that."
As he looks back over how far his line has come, Dave said he is most proud to have received recognition from two of the biggest sportswear brands in the world.
He said: "If you go back to the 70s and 80s, we were wearing Fila, Sergio Tacchini and Ellesse, and I’ve collaborated with two of them." There was Fila, I think, probably 15 years ago, and Ellesse about 10 years ago."
"Thinking about the pinnacles of having a brand, I get more enjoyment out of the fact that I've done a cool collaboration. It doesn't matter if you don't make any money from it; just the fact that I can say we collaborated with Fila 15 years ago and we collaborated with Ellesse."
Looking to the future, Dave reminds himself why he started in the first place. He said: "I don't know how long I’ll keep it up; I’m 63 now, but it's something I enjoy. "I've got a passion for it, and I think if you've got a passion for something, it doesn't really matter if you're making a lot of money. I don't make a lot of money."
DANNY GUTTMAN 25.02.2026