After scooping the prestigious Best Company Culture award at our very own unLTD Business Awards last year, we headed over to Kitlocker to meet with its HR Lead, Tori Thomas, to find out just what it is that makes it such a great place to work…
In the world of e-commerce sportswear customisation, it would be easy to assume that success is purely about numbers – turnover, profit margins and units sold, etc. But for Kitlocker, a Sheffield-based business that’s grown from a small operation to a trailblazing powerhouse in teamwear, the secret to success isn’t just in the figures. It’s in the people.
The company recently scooped the Best Company Culture award at the unLTD Business Awards, a recognition that speaks volumes about what makes Kitlocker stand out. According to HR Lead Tori Thomas, the company’s culture has always been deeply rooted in its leadership. “The main reason our culture is so good is because of the founders. They are – obviously, I’ve never said this to their faces – very good people,” she says with a smile. “They’re empathetic and humble, so people just want to work really hard for them.”
It’s this foundation that has created an environment where people don’t just work together – they genuinely care about one another. Kitlocker isn’t just about selling sports kits; it’s about fostering a workplace where employees feel valued and have the opportunity to grow.
Kitlocker’s approach to recruitment is refreshingly simple: find the right people firrt, then teach them the skills. “We are very much of the viewpoint that we can train people to do anything, but we can’t train them to be the right fit,” Tori explains. “If people are our sort of people, they have the same morals, the same drive, then we’ll do what we can to keep them in the business.”
This philosophy has resulted in some inspiring success stories. Tori recalls one standout example from her own HR team. “One of my colleagues started with us doing a customer support apprenticeship. She didn’t want to go down that route, she didn’t know what to do, but she was quite clearly a very approachable, kind, hardworking individual. I asked her to join me in HR as my admin. A couple of years later, she’s doing a CIPD [Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development] Level 3 and is extremely knowledgeable in HR. I tend to leave her alone probably more than I should, but I can.”
The same story repeats across different teams. “We’ve got loads of people like that, through finance, through operations. They’ll be in a role, and actually, they’ve got a skill set that we didn’t know they had when they applied,” she says. The company’s design team, for example, includes employees who originally joined in production roles but had graphic design backgrounds that were later put to use.
A great workplace culture doesn’t just happen within office hours. Kitlocker actively fosters team spirit through social events, regular team lunches and company-wide activities. “We obviously do socials – we have our Christmas do, but we also try and do one once a quarter, whether that’s bowling or drinks or anything like that,” says Tori. “We do a monthly staff lunch where we’ll get pizzas or whatever, put them out here, and everyone piles in. We try and do that close to payday.”
Beyond the social events, there’s a strong emphasis on collective challenges that bring the team together in a different way. “We’ll do Tough Mudder, we’ll do the Sheffield Half Marathon. There’s a group of 24 this year doing the half marathon together. We just do as much as we can.”
It’s this balance of structured team-building efforts and natural camaraderie that makes Kitlocker’s culture so unique. The real key, however, is simple. “The main thing is that people actually like each other,” says Tori.
Despite its strong sense of identity, Kitlocker’s culture wasn’t something that was carefully strategised or designed in a boardroom – it grew organically. “I’ve often said to people that we actually got away with things for a while because we had such a great company culture from the founders. But we had no HR in place, we had no benefits, because we grew so fast,” Tori admits.
When she and her team came in to establish a proper HR function, the challenge was to align formal policies and benefits with a culture that had already been thriving. “We obviously tried to match that culture with rewards to push it on. But the culture itself is a known thing that we’re all here for.”
Even before structured benefits were introduced, employees were fully invested in the company’s success. “The fact that we went for so long without any of those pluses, I think, is evidence in itself for that.” However, Kitlocker knew that in order to attract and retain top talent, it needed to formalise its approach to culture, offering the right rewards and benefits without losing its core identity.
At the heart of Kitlocker’s culture is the ethos of rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in – an attitude embodied by its founders, Mike and Tom. “They’d be printing all night back in the day to get stuff done,” Tori says. That hands-on mentality has trickled down throughout the business, creating a team that’s willing to go the extra mile.
Winning the Best Company Culture award was a huge moment for Kitlocker – not because they set out to win it, but because it validated what they’d been doing all along. “It was massive for me because it was the first year that I felt able to put us up for an award that wasn’t about retail, turnover or growth,” Tori explains. “It was the first year I really felt comfortable to be able to be like, we’re actually doing some really good things now.”
For Tori, even just being shortlisted was a victory. “I didn’t expect that at all. I was just happy that I felt comfortable writing an application. And then when we got it, it was just insane.”
What makes this award so special is that it recognises everyone in the company. “It’s every single person, every single decision you make, every single opportunity. That’s what’s got us the award,” she says. “It’s not about one specific initiative – it’s everything put together.”
For many people, work is just a means to an end – a way to pay the bills. But at Kitlocker, there’s a genuine sense of enjoyment in what they do. “I’ve never dreaded a Monday since I’ve been here,” Tori says. “That is mental. I speak to people, and they’ve got the fear on Sunday night. That doesn’t happen to me.”
And that’s exactly why Kitlocker stands out. The company has created an environment where employees not only do great work, but they do it with people they genuinely like. “You can tell how you carry yourself – you’re dead happy to be working,” she says.
Kitlocker’s culture is proof that success isn’t just about products or profits – it’s about people. And in an industry where competition is fierce, that could well be the company’s greatest competitive advantage.
