Turning a lifelong passion into a thriving, sustainable business

TTS Services specialises in the cleaning and restoration of caps, and bags, but mostly, designer trainers – a great model for sustainable fashion.

Tom started the business in 2019 from his parent’s house where he’d restore around 20 pairs of trainers a month. However, TTS really took off last year and he now takes in around 150 pairs a month since going full-time with the business in August. He’s even worked with Burnley FC players such as Dwight McNeil, Bobby Thomas, and a few other big names including former Love Island stars.

We visited Tom’s town centre unit to see him in action and asked him about his business journey so far: “Sustainability is a massive part of what I’m doing. Instead of leaving a good pair of trainers to go to waste, I’ll give them a new lease of life. Also, not everyone has the money for a new pair of trainers every time they go wrong. My prices start from £25 which is a fraction of the price a new pair will cost.

“I’ll even restore unwanted trainers in my own time and take them to local charity shops.”

When asked what gave him the idea to start this venture Tom says:“Funnily enough, I’ve spoken about this with my family since I was young. I’ve always been into designer trainers;

I used to love wearing them, but I also always kept them.

“I had friends asking how they always looked brand new. It was because I kept on top of the cleaning, that’s really where the idea stemmed from.”

After gaining this passion from an early age, Tom has taught himself the art of trainer restoration and refined this skill over time.

“Restoration could be anything from re-dyeing a shoe, repainting it, regluing it, stitching work if your dog’s been chewing them, there are all sorts of bits and bats you can do to make them look like they’re straight out the box.”

With business booming, Tom’s now on the lookout for a Burnley town centre shop where he can focus more on the customer experience and possibly stem out into the re-sell of designer clothing.

“That’s my goal for this year - have a proper shop where customers can come and drop off their trainers and, if the shop’s big enough, I’ll tap into the market of used clothing.”

Kudos to this young entrepreneur for using his lifelong interest to make money and help us be more sustainable in the process. We’d love to see TTS Services in a Burnley town centre shop in the future and see how the company grows.

“As you’ll see throughout this magazine, we’ve got many amazing people and businesses in the borough who’ve shown resilience through difficult situations. And it got me thinking about what makes this area so good at dealing with adversity.

Well for me it starts with the fact that Burnley is a fantastic place, there’s a real passion for the borough from residents, businesses, and the council.

One of the key ingredients to our resilience has to be the fact that people are so willing to come together and help each other. From the Burnley Bondholders who provide support to each other through the Ask a Bondholder scheme, through to neighbours looking out for each other. There’s a real sense of community and a willingness to help.

This was demonstrated through Covid when we quickly pulled together the community hub - Burnley Together, with a range of partners. Everyone worked together with the shared aim of supporting our most vulnerable residents, and really exemplified the spirit of the borough.

As with everyone, Covid challenged

Mick Cartledge, chief executive of Burnley Council, has worked in Burnley for the last 21 years. During this time, he has worked on several major developments and has seen the borough face, and overcome, many challenges. Ahead of his retirement in July Mick shares his thoughts on our resilient borough: my personal resilience. I found keeping in touch with friends and family through Zoom calls and getting exercise when I could, really did help. From a work perspective having so many people pull together and the support from work colleagues and partners, kept me going.

Another factor is that Burnley has a real can-do attitude. People throughout the borough don’t just talk about things, they get things done which helps during challenging times.

I also think the geographical makeup of Burnley helps people remain resilient. Being able to access open spaces and beautiful countryside is so beneficial.

For me, Pioneer Place is a great example of how we’ve been able to overcome obstacles. The site has been vacant for around 20 years and over this time there have been a number of failed developments. But, as a council, we kept going and we were agile about the size of the development. We kept our ambition but ensured that the development was achievable. The council was resilient, it knew what it wanted to achieve and how important it was to diversify the town centre. It’s taken a long time, but it will be a great addition to the town centre offer.

The Future

I feel that Burnley has a really positive future, and that’s down to the positive cando attitude that I mentioned and the fact that there’s a real ambition from the council, from business, and partners.

Businesses continue to expand and seek larger premises within the borough and there are developments underway such as the conversion of Newtown Mill which is part of an expansion of the University of Central Lancashire’s campus (UCLan). The shared prosperity and Levelling Up funds will also help to set Burnley in good stead for the future.

There’s also still a great demand for Charter Walk and I feel we should be extremely proud of our town centre. When people from outside of the borough visit they say how clean and vibrant it is, which is fantastic.

That’s not to say there aren’t challenges ahead. Issues like the cost-of-living crisis can’t be ignored and people will need to continue pulling together to get through these times. There’s also the fact that employers are struggling to recruit into higher skilled jobs but with a strong performing college on our doorstep and the continued expansion of UCLan, I’m confident that this will help to fill these gaps.

As a council we are a resilient organisation – we’ve faced a lot; Covid, a reduction of financial support from the government. Throughout this, we’ve maintained good quality services, provided support to businesses and delivered on a number of major development projects and I’m confident that we will continue to do this going forwards.”