Dealer Spotlight: Jump The Gun, Brighton

For those with a sartorial leaning, any trip to Brighton on the south coast of England must include a visit to exclusive menswear outlet Jump The Gun on the itinerary.

Any trip to Brighton must include a visit to exclusive menswear outlet Jump The Gun.

Regular visitors to the annual August bank holiday weekend Mod rally, centred around NUT Modernist society events in Brighton will, of course, be familiar with not only the Jump The Gun emporium, but also Komedia and The Dorset bar and restaurant too. Both are key venues to the annual Mod rally, and also they’re located a few doors either side of Jump The Gun on Gardener Street in the North Lanes area of Brighton. Owned and run by brothers Adam and Jonathan LeRoy, Jump The Gun opened back in 1992 and has been trading ever since.

We caught up with Adam over the August bank holiday weekend at Jump The Gun for a chat.

SC: Presumably, you’ve got a connection with the Mod and scooter scene that goes back a while. Tell us about those connections.

AL: I got into the Mod scene in ’81, I bought my first scooter in ’82. I’ve been riding scooters and listening to soul, northern soul, jazz and R ‘n’ B ever since. I’ve never stopped, even when scooters were a bit unfashionable in the early ’90s. I remember riding from London, where I lived at the time, up to the Top of the World northern soul all-nighters in Stafford on one of my scooters a few times in the ’80s. Ever since I got my first scooter, I’ve always owned and ridden scooters. A few of them live in the shop, at the moment there’s a smallframe Vespa and a GP Lambretta that are parked up outside the shop during opening hours and often spend the night in the shop. After the first refit since the shop opened, my SS90 is part of one of the displays inside the shop. After Mike Karslake died and his collection of Lambrettas went on sale, I bought and rode the three-wheeled Lambretta rickshaw. I had that for some years; eventually, I sold it on to someone who’d get more use out of it. I’ve owned and ridden lots of scooters since ’82.

SC: What made you start up Jump The Gun, where did the name come from, and how were the first few years of trading?

AL: It would’ve been the early ’90s, I found myself at a bit of a loose end, and felt getting away from London would be a good idea. At that time Brighton seemed to be a good place to be. I did a minimal amount of research which revealed shops were very cheap to rent, both my brother and I decided we’d give it a go. We didn’t really have much in the way of any cash between us, we had nothing to lose. As for the name of the shop, that came about almost by chance. We were giving the shop a few coats of paint in the run in to opening, we needed a name, and quick. We had a cassette tape of old ska tracks playing while we were putting finishing touches to the shop, a song titled Jumping The Gun came on, so we settled on Jump The Gun as the name for our shop. It seems to have worked out well so far, I think. When we first opened in 1992, it was hard going for a couple of years. We had T-shirts we printed upstairs, black and orange label original Ben Sherman shirts and Lonsdale tees. We had people coming into the shop asking who is Ben Sherman? And, what’s Lonsdale? At the time people really didn’t get it. Back then you could only buy original Ben Sherman and Lonsdale from one other shop, that was in London. We had a huge stroke of luck when a locally based band, These Animal Men, came in and bought Lonsdale tees; a few weeks later they appeared on Top of the Pops in their Lonsdale tees. These Animal Men were precursors to Britpop when Britpop broke. We were saved; just in time too, we had been really struggling up till then.

After the first refit since the shop opened, my SS90 is part of one of the displays inside the shop. After Mike Karslake died and his collection of Lambrettas went on sale, I bought and rode the threewheeled Lambretta rickshaw. I had that for some years; eventually, I sold it on to someone who’d get more use out of it. I’ve owned and ridden lots of scooters since ’82.

SC: These days Jump The Gun has an exclusive style, and most of your stock is your own brand and designs. Tell us about that.

AL: With the obvious exception of Loake shoes and a few pieces of French knitwear, occasionally American items, it’s all our own brand. I’d say 95% of our stock is our own brand. We have developed a tailored, fitted style and cut based on the cool look of late ’50s /early ’60s jazz/Mod scene, the fit of our clothes is different from other outlets that cater for the Mod scene. Our suits and shirts are not for everyone, our cut is exclusive to us, we won’t compromise, there’s plenty of other menswear retailers who cater to everyone. It’s been said by quite a few customers that Jump The Gun is the first stop if you’re not going for a bespoke suit. All our own brand items are British made, we’ve kept focused and have created a genuine niche for ourselves in the market, not only in England, worldwide too, via our website. We treated the shop to its first refit since we opened in 1992 during the Covid lockdown. We couldn’t open the shop to the public for a couple of months, so it made sense to give the shop a makeover of sorts. Outside of restrictions we only close the shop on three days of the year; we open from 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, and on Sundays it’s from 11am to 5pm. We are something of a Brighton institution – people travel down to visit the shop. We’ve helped the Mod scene by being here in Brighton, by supporting the scene locally, nationally and even internationally; we sponsor a few choice Mod events, for example, NUT Brighton Mod Rally, August bank holiday weekend.

SC: Have you considered expanding Jump The Gun as a business or even perhaps franchising your brand?

AL: No, we do put emphasis on focusing on both service and customer satisfaction, so the one shop, and website, are plenty enough for us to handle. We pride ourselves on our exclusivity. We are regarded as a bit of a Brighton institution; people do travel to visit us, it adds to the exclusivity knowing there is nobody else selling Jump The Gun clothing apart from us.

SC: Finally, what are your aims for the future?

AL: Our aim is to constantly look to improve on what we do, a couple of (recently introduced) new lines that come to mind being the Jump The Gun polo shirt. We’ve put our own subtle touch on the classic polo shirt. We’re renowned for the style and look of our suits, our suit jackets being three button, with a ticket pocket. We introduced a range of suits based on more of a late ’50s be-bop jazz-Mod look, two-button suit, without a ticket pocket. It took a short while before customers got it, that range has begun to become popular with some of our customers. As for the future, that is quite hard to talk about, especially in these uncertain times, the future? Who can predict what it will bring?"

■ Jump The Gun, 32 Gardener Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN.

01273 626777 – www.jumpthegun.co.uk