Est. 2007: The Accidental Business

Soul Tees was never meant to happen. It started in Brighton in 2007 as a garage clear-out. After 15 years of me working in the music industry, my family storage unit was overflowing with tour merch and promo gear. We listed 200+ shirts on eBay, expecting them to disappear into the ether.

Instead, they all went to one place: a music café and record store in Japan.

The owner cleared us out, then asked the question that changed everything: "Can you get more?" He sent a "hit list" of defunct, obscure Northern Soul and Reggae labels. The kind of stuff you couldn't find on Google, let alone on a t-shirt.

The DIY Pivot

We couldn't source them, so we made them. Dusting off old screen-printing skills learned during a university summer job, we set up a rudimentary rig in a Brighton garage. We printed small batches specifically for Tokyo, and to cover the exorbitant setup costs, we sold the "overs" on eBay UK.

It wasn't a business plan; it was a solution to a crate-digger's problem. But the community responded immediately. What started as a favour for one collector became a cult secret for thousands.

19 Years Deep

From that dusty garage, Soul Tees has evolved into a global archive of culture. We moved beyond just Northern Soul into the sounds that defined us: Golden Era Hip Hop, Chicago House, Spiritual Jazz, and the roots of Disco.

Today, we serve a global community of music heads—from Reykjavik to Cape Town, Vancouver to Tokyo. We aren't just putting logos on cotton; we are archiving the visual history of the music we love.

No Hype. Just Culture.

We run this brand the same way we dig for records: looking for quality, ignoring the trends, and respecting the history.

Welcome to the archive.