Gladiators inspire Maximus apparel business
It was natural for Aaron (AJ) Flynn to start an apparel business called Maximus. He’s a huge fan of Roman gladiators, spartans and the like.
His partner in life and business, Emma Ward, said it was better to name the business Maximus than have AJ give the name to any future children.
The couple have just marked a full year of sourcing and selling sportswear and work gear. They do it between day jobs, working out of Emma’s family home at West Melton.
Sport is a way of life for AJ. His family is in deep with Sydenham rugby club. AJ coaches a Sydenham junior team in the Christchurch Metro under 14s.
He is also a versatile back for his Ohoka division three team in North Canterbury.
He picked up many of his business leads from sport, he said.
‘‘If we don’t have any footy, Emma gets quite annoyed because I’ll go and find any sport going.’’
Being immersed in that way of life started started Flynn and Ward thinking about apparel supply as a potential business.
One of Flynn’s uncles owns CCC in North America. The uncle wanted AJ and Emma to come to the United States for four or five years to work in the business, but the couple decided against it.
AJ said he would have loved time Stateside but Emma’s family were tight-knit and they decided against it.
Maximus Apparel started after some chance conversations.
AJ said he became ‘‘disenchanted’’ with the lack of durability of sports kit. A friend from Canterbury Baseball mentioned a similar issue and AJ’s idea was under way.
The couple are the first to accept that everyone has an opinion on sportswear, and people usually wanted their clothing ‘‘right now’’ at direct import price.
They know their competition is likely to get fiercer as the business grows.
They had a taste of that rivalry early on, when they heard claims that Maximus gear had not lived up to its promise. AJ checked out the claim and realised it was nonsense: Maximus wasn’t even operating at the time of the supposed supply deal.
Most sports clubs had to fundraise for their team kit, as well as chase sponsorship and apply for grants from charitable trusts.
Canterbury Baseball was one of those outfits finding it hard to suit up, AJ said.
‘‘What they wanted, no one here [in Canterbury] was willing to do, or put any time or effort in.’’ Maximus, branded MA, was all about quick response and flexible designs. It had local suppliers for off-the-shelf product and links to a factory in China for customised gear, AJ said.
Maximus worked with CCC New Zealand, which gave them access to Biz Collection and Awarua. It was also linked to NZ Safety for work gear.
AJ and Emma had a storeroom and paid a graphic designer on a contract rate but were trying to keep their overheads low.
Product demand was not yet too big for it to interfere with their day-time jobs: Aaron is with a firm that makes tools for concrete cutting and Emma has an office job with a container transport firm.
As Maximus they were in close contact with their factory in China, which was able to produce off-the-shelf apparel but also a certain amount of custom design.
The different time-zone seemed to work well for ordering product and it helped that one of their factory contacts seemed to work around the clock.
‘‘We’ve emailed him all sorts of times and within a few minutes there will always be an email back.’’ He either never slept or had a great team of assistants, AJ guessed.