A Sheffield-born clothing brand rooted in the city’s grassroots music scene returns as friends come together to honour its founder and reshape its future.
There’s a particular kind of legacy that can only really be built in cities like Sheff – one forged in pubs, back rooms and venues, before being unleashed on an unsuspecting world.
Skull and Bones Boys Club was one of those projects. A brand born in familiar spaces, only to end up worn in far shinier green rooms. It may sound like a cliché, but it was more than just clothing – it was a thread running through a scene and a genuine reflection of the creativity behind it.
Much of that came down to co-founder Anthony Allen, a drummer, creative and a deeply embedded figure in Sheffield’s music scene. He played in bands like The Book Club alongside Milburn’s Joe Carnall, and Dead Harts, and helped build Skull and Bones Boys Club from the ground up with Dean Milwain.
“They used to meet at the Old Number Seven on a Monday night,” recalls Tom Clay, a close friend who witnessed it from the start. “That was kind of the birth for the brand, just a bunch of pals really. Ant taught himself screen printing, started buying T-shirts from Primark and printing them himself. Then it just grew.”
Grow it did. What started as DIY prints quickly became a fixture in Sheffield nightlife. If you were in places like DQ back in the day, chances are you saw it everywhere.
“That was basically a sales shop for Skull and Bones,” Tom says. “Most people in the room were wearing it.”
From there, it spread beyond the city. Musicians picked it up, magazines featured it, and the brand quietly became part of a wider cultural fabric.
“It started becoming more of an endorsing brand. Loads of fairly big musicians were wearing it,” he says, referencing artists from Disclosure to Don Broco and beyond.
But Skull and Bones was always more than just clothes. It was Ant’s energy, his instinct for bringing people together, and his ability to turn ideas into something people wanted to be part of.
Ant passed away in 2021 following struggles with anxiety, depression and addiction. In the years that followed, the brand largely fell quiet.
Until now.
“It’s been a really nice thing,” says Tom, one of a group of friends breathing life back into the brand. “We started it back up in December last year, but it’s something we’ve been working on in the background for quite a while.”
The revival hasn’t come from a boardroom or a business plan. It’s come from a group of mates asking a simple question – what would Ant have wanted?
“In our eyes, he’s still with us in terms of everything we’re trying to do,” Tom says. “It’s like – what would he do with it? What would he be proud of? What would he be happy to do with it?”
That mindset has shaped everything. Rather than simply reissuing old designs, the team are carefully balancing heritage with new energy.
“We’ve got all the archive, but we don’t want to just recycle it,” he explains. “We want younger people to discover Skull and Bones now, and then look back.
“It’s about taking what was there and making it work now.”
Still, the past matters.
One of the key pieces in the revival is a reworked version of an original design – the Skull and F***ing Bones tee, a shirt Ant himself had wanted to bring back.
“It was one of his favourites that he wanted to re-release back in 2019,” Tom says. “So we’ve done it, but in a new colourway. We’ve also got his name on the back as a tribute.”
That shirt now sits at the heart of something bigger.
Alongside the release, friends and supporters recently took part in the Sheffield Round Walk in memory of Ant, raising money for Sheffield charity Ben’s Centre through a dedicated fundraising campaign.
Funds raised through the walk are going to Ben’s Centre, a Sheffield charity supporting people affected by substance misuse, rough sleeping and addiction – causes closely connected to Ant’s life and the struggles he experienced.
“All the money’s going to charity,” Tom says. “It’s something that was really close to him.”
For those involved, the walk was both a way to remember Ant and to support a cause that reflects the realities many people quietly face.
“It’s just about getting together, really,” he adds. “A bunch of pals who want to show the legacy.”
“We all have our own jobs but we’re making time for it, to do it justice,” Tom says. “It’s here for life now, as far as we’re concerned.”
And for those closest to Ant, that’s what matters most – not just bringing the brand back, but carrying something of him forward with it.
“He was a buzzing, crazy, beautiful light,” Tom says. “Covid was really hard for him, that separation from people, but everything we’re doing now is about what he’d have wanted. What he’d be proud of. We’re just trying to do it justice.”
The charity T-shirt is available now through Skull and Bones Boys Club, while donations to the Sheffield Round Walk fundraiser for Ben’s Centre can still be made online.
