Who are Mad Cowes?
The beginning...The Mad Cowes brand culture evolved as an après sailing brand during Cowes Week back in 1997. That summer three Newcastle post grad students, James Haxton, PJ Scott and Ed Bruce-White came to Cowes and sold T shirts and other clothing emblazoned with ‘Mad Cowes’. Following the success of Cowes Week, they shortly acquired a shop on the High Street, which also operated as the company’s HQ.
And then...
Things have changed slightly since then. James Haxton went on to run Mad Cowes and moved up to Yorkshire (known to all Yorkshire men as God’s own county!). The shop in Cowes was sold and Mad Cowes continued to retail online and at events and shows throughout the UK. Shortly after Lucy Ward joined the business and took over running the Mad Cowes show unit and website.
And now…
Mad Cowes is now owned and run by Lucy and is based on James and Lucy’s small holding close to Malton, North Yorkshire.
Lucy Haxton (née Ward)
Position – Managing Director
'As far as Mad Cowes goes, I do everything, from emptying the caravan loo after a show to managing the design, manufacture and retail of our clothing.
Outside of Mad Cowes I’m a real country girl, which helps when roughing it at the shows during the summer! I’m originally from Lincolnshire and moved up to Yorkshire in 2008 to be with James.
I’ve always had a passion for horses, having ridden since an early age. I love animals; James and I have quite a menagerie of pigs, sheep, chickens, dogs and horses at home. I also love to cook and had I not run Mad Cowes, who knows, I could have been the Nigella Lawson of the North!'
