The original idea for what is now Squareball came back in 2003 when Omagh-based designer Niall Laird produced a t-shirt for a local bar prior to the All-Ireland final. The T-shirt was a great success. Niall had also been working as a designer for the Tyrone County Board since 1995 and gained a strong reputation within GAA circles with a fresh and innovative approach to marketing the games. Since then he has played an important role in ‘Club Tyrone’, widely recognised as one of the most successful sports related fund raising groups in the country.
Also a portrait painter his work has been auctioned to raise funds on behalf of the GAA. His four GAA-themed paintings to date have raised 135,000euro. As a designer/artist doodling plays a big part in his life and following the success of t-shirt No1, Niall doodled t-shirt designs over everything.
The next big opportunity to showcase one of these designs came with Tyrone’s reappearance in the All-Ireland final in 2005. He produced a campaign for the same bar centred around Kerry’s hit marksman Colm ‘The Gooch’ Cooper. The campaign gained national media coverage, including TV, radio and press. The Sunday Times carried a full page article on the day of the Final, images were doing the rounds on the internet and it was still receiving press coverage in Dublin in February 2006. This just further enhanced his idea that there was a market for quality/humorous design targeted at the GAA and work that had been fun up until now suddenly turned serious.
Armed with just a sketch book, Niall pulled together a team of friends and professionals that would help him develop a GAA-inspired Fashion Brand. He wanted it to be like nothing else on the market. A printed t-shirt would not be enough - how many times GAA fans had to put up with ’second class’ gear. This new brand was going to push the bar up, and give real fans their money’s worth!
In-depth research followed including visiting Brand specialists in London and hiring fashion consultants. Now it was really getting serious. GAA sites were scoured to see what fans were currently been offered. The business model began to take shape and SquareballTM was born including the innovative website. (Well we like it and hopefully our fans and customers will help make it even better!) From the outset, SquareballTM was going to be more than a fashion brand, the vision is be the ‘official, unofficial site of the GAA.’
So here we are today. We didn’t know that this would take us this far and we don’t know where it will end up - but sure it will be great craic along the way.
I would like to dedicate Squareball to Eva and Michael, September 2003. You will always be in my thoughts.
These charities are at the core of the community. Long term Squareball would like to contribute something back to the community but the word profit may not appear in our vocabulary for quite some time. What we can do is raise awareness of the charities close to our hearts.
