Leeds United collaborates with Yorkshire businessman Sohail Rashid who set up clothing brand Aime Dieu within six months of redundancy

Sohail Rashid, 45, from Huddersfield, began his career at HSBC as a mortgage manager 17 years ago and had never thought of starting his own business until the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

His entire career was finance-focussed and although he had always had a creative streak growing up, he never had the opportunity to use these skills in his banking job.

However, during the height of the pandemic in 2020, he was made redundant by the company, which came as a complete shock to him.

“If I wasn’t made redundant, I would have carried on working there until I retired; I was quite happy there,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

“It came as a shock; with Covid and everything else, not being able to see anyone, I was in a really bad place. I worried if I couldn’t get a job, what would happen.

“When [an organisation like HSBC] makes you redundant they give you six months to look around for a new job. It took me [that amount of time and] research to decide what I was going to do.”

Sohail, now based in Birstall, admitted he spent hours of his time watching business-based TV shows including Dragon’s Den and the American version Shark Tank.

It was during his time watching episodes of these shows that he came up with the concept of his business.

Within six months of working from home at HSBC and spending hours outside of work doing market research to set up his business, he decided to design and sell a unique brand of clothing.

Not everyone in his life believed his idea would work.

“I couldn’t go out because of Covid so I did my research by watching a lot of Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank, the American version of Dragon’s Den,” he said.

“I got so many ideas, got a book and pen and made various notes about what I wanted to do, it all led to this clothing brand.

“[American series] Shark Tank is a bit more lavish, much more over-the-top [than Dragon’s Den], people come up with various ideas.

“I sat watching for hours and hours with a pen and paper, just making notes; I was looking at what kind of ideas I can use, what kind of names and how to make it happen.

“When I told my family and friends that I was looking to do clothing wear, I was told not to do it because it is an oversaturated market, it’s not going to work, a lot of people have tried and failed and you can’t compete against the big boys.

“But I always felt there was a market where if you make a clothing brand with various colours and styles then you can do something - and my idea worked.”

Sohail admitted that he has never been particularly fashion-forward and doesn’t spend much money on clothes for himself, but this never stopped him from pursuing his business venture.

It took him six months to decide on the name and after browsing through numerous footballers’ Instagram profiles he landed on the name Aime Dieu which is French for ‘Love God’, a common phrase used on their bios.

Once Sohail landed on the colours and style of his clothes, he started promoting them on his social media and reached out to and met up with the then Leeds United player Raphinha, who now plays for Barcelona.

He agreed to work with him and wore his clothes.

Since then, Aime Dieu clothes have been worn by 100 celebrities, reality TV stars and major footballers.

US and Indian actors wearing his brand include Sean Kanan who played the role of Mike Barnes in Karate Kid Part III and Netflix series Cobra Kai, Sean Faris, known for portraying roles in Pretty Little Liars, Never Back Down, Smallville and One Tree Hill and Bollywood star Sunny Leone known for Bigg Boss 5, Jism 2, Ragini MMS 2, Ek Paheli Leela and Raees.

Former Love Island stars also wear the brand including Shaq, Rebecca Gormley and Coco Lodge as well as Too Hot To Handle’s Chloe Vetich. Brazilian football player Roberto Carlos has also collaborated with the brand along with Iker Casilas, Thomas Partey of Arsenal, Eric Bailly of Manchester United and Newcastle United player Anthony Gordon.

Now that his business is flourishing, his next goal is to give back to the homeless community in West Yorkshire.

“I’m not a fashionable guy, I don’t spend very much on clothes if I’m honest, but I thought there was a market there and I had six months while working at HSBC from home where I did a lot of research,” he said.

“I wanted to make sure I could articulate what brand name I would choose, why I picked my brand name, what kind of market am I going to hit; is it going to be a younger crowd, is it going to be an older crowd. I looked at a selection of clothing [for inspiration].

“I wanted the name to be unique and have meaning. So as part of my research, I was looking through Instagram profiles of footballers, as I’m a big football fan myself, on their profiles a lot of players had ‘God’s child’, ‘Love God’.

“I decided on my brand name Aime Dieu and from then onwards I decided on the items and colours, put them on social media, on TikTok, Facebook and see what happens.

“Throughout my childhood, I’ve always been very good at drawing, I’ve always been very creative, but my career has never been in that world, it’s always been in the financial world.

“I’m an avid watcher of motivational videos and I watched a lot of Elon Musk [videos]; there was a comment he made during my early days when I was made redundant that always stuck with me.

“He talked about his journey when he launched Tesla cars in 2008/2009 and he said if you bring anything into the market that is already there then it is going to be very hard unless you can bring something different.

“If you look at my items on my website you can see that you couldn’t match it with any other clothing wear out there.

“I reached out to Raphinha, who first played for Leeds and now plays for Barcelona, who I met along with his dad. He was the first celebrity who liked the items and wore the clothes around the football stadium and from then onwards other players saw my brand being worn and that’s how I got my contacts with [big stars].

“100 celebrities have taken a picture with my items including Roberto Carlos. I wanted to make sure my clothes were the best quality and the celebrities talked [positively] about the feel and look of my items. All the celebrities are of different generations, some are quite young, some are middle aged but they all like this look and I thought it had a clean look when I first launched it.”

Sohail’s brand Aime Dieu has since collaborated with Leeds United after meeting up with chairman Andrea Radrizzani, who was impressed with his determination.

Having been a big fan of his local team since childhood, this was a dream come true.

“Every day is like a dream; I meet football players, I meet celebrities, have a cup of tea with them, I’m collaborating with Leeds United which is great because they’re my team and a massive Premier League team. It’s surreal,” he said.

“I emailed Andrea for six months every day and never got a response, then one day, he replied to my email and the rest is history.

“On my birthday in April, I met up with [Andrea] and he gave me two tickets to come and watch the Leeds vs Liverpool match in the chairman suite. Before the match, we sat down, we spoke and he was very complimentary about how I’ve done it.

“He said to me that the reason he gave me a chance is because I was quite tenacious and that I wouldn’t give up.

“I want to get into the high street; I’ve got a meeting with a football team, I recently had a meeting with major Spanish team Real Madrid. I strive to work with other major football teams.”

Sohail reflected on his journey that got him here.

“When I was in school, I wrote a letter to Leeds United in 1995 asking them if I could interview some of the players. Leeds United replied back to me at the time. I’ve still got the letter.

“I got my first ever Leeds United Admiral shirt when I was 14 and one day in the early 2000s when I was [studying] at Leeds Metropolitan University, I applied to work at a Leeds club shop just to get close to the football team.

“Thinking from that age to now; being involved with Leeds United and in contact with the players - it’s surreal if I’m honest.

“I remember growing up I would watch Karate Kid as a youngster, I was a big fan of [the film] and now one of the [actors] from Karate Kid is wearing my hoodies regularly and talking to me regularly on the phone.”

Since his business has done well, Sohail wants to give back to the homeless community. With every item of Aime Dieu sold, a pair of socks will be donated to Centrepoint Homeless Charity.

“I want to now give back to the people who really need our support and help”, he concluded.