A simple T-shirt design helped to turn Tim Williams’ passion into a thriving business whose success has mirrored that of Wales’ national football team.

The former assistant manager of a builders’ merchants is the man behind Spirit of ’58, which could be described as the unofficial casual attire of supporters who follow Wales all across the globe.

When Wales took the Euro 2016 tournament by storm, reaching the semi-finals, red, yellow and green ‘bucket hats’ became synonymous with the ‘Red Wall’ who flocked to France in their thousands.

“I don’t want to be known just for bucket hats as I do a lot of other stuff as well,” says Tim of possibly his most iconic product. “So many Wales supporters wear my T-shirts as well but they may not be as visible on TV.”

The first T-shirt was launched in 2010 to coincide with the qualifying campaign for the European Championships due to be played in 2012.

“We lost to Montenegro, one-nil away, and it was another qualifying campaign that ended before it even started and I had 100 T-shirts to sell,” recalls Tim, who was selling via the internet.

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That first design featured the Wales lineup which defeated England at Wrexham in 1980: “I thought I’d never sell these shirts but people still like that we beat England 4-1. They sold quite quickly and it went from there.”

Although Wales still faced some more years of struggle on the field, things were about to turn a corner. In October 2015, the team secured qualification for the first major finals since the 1958 World Cup and Tim, who is married with a young daughter, had a major decision to make.

“I had a full-time job and I was doing this in the evenings and it became like a full-time job,” says Tim who at the time was assistant manager of the Ruthin branch of the Huws Gray building supplies store.

“I was working 10-hour days and coming home and starting again in the evenings so myself and my area manager decided Christmas would be a good time for me to leave. After qualification Spirit of ’58 just got bigger and bigger.”

For the dedicated Wales fan, who has been attending away matches since he and a group of 13 friends from Bala travelled to Belgium in 1991, his livelihood would now be directly linked to the national team’s success.

“The feel-good factor lasted until we didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup, in Russia. I think the expectations with Wales fans can be huge and we get carried away a bit.

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The 49-year-old admits results can cause him some additional worry as “this is my job now and I’ve still got to pay the bill” but says: “Some have asked what will I do if Wales don’t qualify but I started this before Wales were doing well and six years before Euro 2016.”

In 2018 Tim took another step forward when a friend spotted an empty shop in his hometown Bala that was available for rent.

Soon afterwards he established a permanent base for his brand which had previously existed online, or with stalls at events such as the National Eisteddfod and pop-ups ahead of Wales home games. Tim has also organised live music events under the Spirit of ’58 banner.

“Music, fashion and football all go together. If I go to watch live bands I’ll see the same people who follow Wales. It’s the casual culture.”

Though most sales are still online the shop has become a magnet for football fans from all over Wales and Tim has expanded his range of products to include more outdoor clothing and even rucksacks and stainless steel mugs for camping to reflect its location.

“People will make a day of coming to Bala, there are three or four independent shops, they will have something to eat, and visit the lake.

“I have a board from the (Wrexham) Kop end, and people come to get a picture with that as the Racecourse is an important part of Welsh football, and I have posters up, so the shop is a bit of a shrine to Welsh football.

“This past year when people haven’t been able to go to games but when the shop has been open people have been able to come in and talk about football and I’ve made a lot of friends through football over the years.”

As part of a hard-core band of travelling supporters Tim has benefited from the dedication of Welsh fans and personal connections made. He has also used the power of social media to build his brand such as the hashtag #WeGetEverywhere used by fans to post pictures of themselves all across the world in Tim’s gear.

“I know lots who follow Wales and have been going away since the late ’70s but it probably wasn’t as well publicised as it is now. Due to social media people are more aware of fans going away.”

As the business has grown, the range of products has expanded to include prints, mugs and every item of clothing imaginable and even a special edition lager produced with Brecon Brewing and a Wales Away IPA brewed by Cwrw Ogwen, the result of partnerships with other Welsh businesses.

He also has a relationship with the Football Association of Wales with a discount offered to members of the supporters’ association, while Tim has also used the brand to raise more than £44,000 for Welsh charities in a decade.

Unusually though Tim has this week found himself at home in Bala while Wales are 3,000 miles away in Azerbaijan preparing for the first two fixtures of the Euro 2020 tournament that was postponed for a year due to the pandemic.

He had to cancel his own travel plans as fans returning from Azerbaijan must quarantine but has been busy in his shop: “I’m never normally at home when Wales play away but it’s gone a bit nuts this last week with people starting to get excited about the Euros.”

For a fan who turned his passion into his livelihood, his business is more than a brand: “We haven’t had much to shout about over the years, there’s been lots of near misses, but Spirit of ’58 is to remind people we actually did go to a World Cup and did quite well, getting to the quarter finals losing to Brazil and that John Charles wasn’t able to play, probably cost us the match, so I’m told.

“The name is a bit or a rallying cry to say keep the faith since ’58. Fans did keep the faith from 1958 to 2016.”

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