One of the secrets of Jo Tutchener Sharp’s success is the clarity of her vision for her business: her story, and that of Scamp & Dude, is clear and certain. Ten years into the journey, its origins remain the true heart of the brand and intertwined with Tutchener Sharp’s life story.
In 2016, Tutchener Sharp was undergoing brain surgery. While in hospital, she missed her little boys and wished she could give them something to cuddle. This inspired her to create Superhero Sleep Buddies, soft toys to comfort children who are apart from their loved ones. And, what if, for every Superhero Sleep Buddy sold, another could be donated to a child who had lost a parent or was seriously ill themselves? Once she left hospital, Tutchener Sharp got to work.
Next came a kids’ clothing line with a lightning-bolt Superpower Button to give kids strength when apart from their loved ones. Then she moved into womenswear, with a range of Super Scarves: for every scarf sold, another would be donated to a woman with cancer. The goal? ‘To wrap every woman starting chemotherapy in comfort and warmth – like a blanket with superpowers.’
To date, more than 85,000 scarves have been donated to women starting chemotherapy. More than 10,000 Superhero Sleep Buddies have been donated to children, and Scamp & Dude has donated more than £4m in cash and products.
“I think why we’ve done well over the years is because we are based on truth and not a trend”
Back to the beginning
Not everyone recovering after an operation decides to launch a business. For Tutchener Sharp, however, the surgery proved to be life-changing in several ways.
“The experience gave me a need to grab life with both hands and just go for it. It made me have no fears. Would I have had the guts to start a fashion brand before that? I asked myself, ‘if my life had ended, would I have been happy with how I’d lived?’ I’d had a successful PR company, and my dad said, ‘you’ve employed 50 people, you’ve given them a means to pay their mortgages’. But it wasn’t enough.”
Tutchener Sharp recounts the timescale: undergoes brain surgery in January; registers the name Scamp & Dude in March; finds a factory to make the clothes in July; launches her first collection in Liberty in November. It was, she says, “a crazy 11 months… it was so unbelievably hard at the beginning. I was literally doing everything.”
Her driving force was a deep sense of purpose before profit, but that doesn’t mean her business sense was left behind.
“We want to grow each year, because the more we grow the more people we can help,” she says. “I think why we’ve done well over the years is because we are based on truth and not a trend.
“Everyone knows what we’re about and we’re careful with who we bring into the company. That also helps us attract customers who have similar values.”
Growth spirals
Scamp & Dude’s debut women’s sweatshirt sold out online and in Liberty straight after its launch. Joggers and pyjamas followed. Celebrities have designed scarves for the brand. Scamp & Dude also quickly moved into bricks and mortar.
“I opened the first store really early on,” says Tutchener Sharp. “It was a teeny-tiny shop in Highgate. Instagram was launching a shopping feature and asked if Scamp & Dude would do a pop-up in Covent Garden. I loved meeting the customers and the idea of the shop. ”
That first store closed during the Covid-19 lockdowns, but when the pandemic ended, the itch was still there.
“I wanted to get into shops again. My husband joined the company, and we opened a store in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Online is still by far our biggest shopping channel, but the shops give our community spaces to visit and meet. They’re also great for new customer acquisition, as around 65% of instore customers are new.”
“It’s about feeling part of a club and having that connection. I think we’ve created a movement as well”
Brand as community
Scamp & Dude is a great case study in brand marketing. From the purposeful concept to the name (invoking pet names of Tutchener Sharp’s children), to the Bowie-style lightning flash that speaks to a target audience. It tells a story clearly.
A brand, is more than a company name or logo. It’s about the customer’s overall perception of what a company does and building a sense of community.
“When I launched the brand, I loved chatting to our first customers. It was me running Instagram and Facebook and replying to comments. I was building this community, which is now such an important part of the brand.
“It’s about feeling part of a club and having that connection. I think we’ve created a movement as well.”
Building on business skills
It is easy to see how Tutchener Sharp’s earlier career may have provided foundations for her current success.
“I set my PR business up from scratch and built it into a £5m turnover company. I already knew what it took, and how hard you must work to start and run a business. It’s not for the faint-hearted.
“With Scamp & Dude, having a business before helped me. But setting up a PR agency wasn’t as daunting as setting up a fashion brand. With fashion, I had no background in it at all. I learned everything I could and loved learning it. I saw it as an opportunity.”
Lessons for the future
After the steep learning curve of the past decade, Tutchener Sharp – who was made an OBE in the New Year Honours List for 2026 – says her education in business, and life, continues.
“I’m still learning so much,” she says. “But I’ve also learned a lot about myself.”
“There are also a few things I wish I’d done differently. Now, when I look at the numbers of how quickly we were growing, I realise I could have taken on help, rather than thinking I could do everything myself.”
Yet, ultimately, it has been Tutchener Sharp’s personal fearlessness that is behind the company’s success. The advice she would pass on to other business leaders reflects those attitudes.
“Don’t see the barriers,” she says. “Think you can do anything, but make sure you’ve taken the time to really learn about what you’re doing. Then, as a leader, be yourself. Inspire people. Get people on the journey with you. I think that’s the best way to lead.”
The big lesson, however, is about more than just hard work and personal conviction.
“It’s about integrity,” she says. “When you’ve got integrity, people want to come along and ride with you.”
Tutchener Sharp’s journey has been all the more successful for it.
Martin Bewick is a writer and editor at CPL One
This article is shortened version of the Big Interview article ‘Fashioned with purpose’ first published in the Spring 2026 issue of Edge. You can read the full version here
