The Aussie Beach Bum Behind AussieBum on SameSame.com.au

“Watch this,” says Sean Ashby, the founder of clothing label aussieBum. He leads me into a dim back room inside his multi-storey warehouse in inner-city Sydney and switches on a desk lamp. Under the yellow glare, he holds a scrunched up pair of undies into the bulb, a conspiratorial smile creeping across his face.

Like a kids’ magician pulling a bouquet of plastic flowers out of his sleeve, Ashby pulls the undies clear of the lamp and something amazing happens: the underpants light up.

He waves the pair of glowing aussiebum undies around like a flag as the green fluorescent logo illuminates his hand. “Our newest creation. It’s world first technology, it’s actually woven into the band. Imagine them in clubs,” he says. Imagine them in bedrooms, I think to myself.

Mention the name aussieBum anywhere around the world, and it will evoke something different: the brand, the swimmers, the underwear, the Wonderjock.

Sean Ashby is the “forty something” man behind the brand. He has turned his small clothing brand into a global phenomenon that now ships up to 10,000 orders a week around the world, and all from an airy two-storey warehouse in Australia.

The warehouse is a breezy, open building crammed with various nooks – there’s a design room, a sorting and packing level, a well-stocked gym (“it’s because we’re lazy and can’t be bothered leaving here”, says Ashby), a chill out room for late nights, an open-plan kitchen, Aussie BBQ on the balcony, comfy lounges, a photo studio and thousands of aussieBum items stacked neatly around the edges. To this day, the success of the small company brings a smile to his face. “All I wanted was enough money to pay the bills and go to the beach.” Ashby’s office is now a half hour from Sydney’s vast coastline, but a large fish tank in a corner of his office brings some of the water to him.

Take a look through aussieBum’s warehouse, offices and at some of their hottest campaigns here.

Aside from the imminent launch of the new Glow in the Dark range, Ashby revealed a few other exclusives to Same Same when we visited last week: there’s the Wonderbum (to give you an instant booty, the counter invention to their famed Wonderjock), a line of yoga wear, and a mesh-meets-jockstrap contraption that we’re not quite sure goes where.

There are thousands of clothing labels competing for wallets worldwide, but aussieBum has managed to rise to the surface with its irreverent brand fully intact. If there’s one incident that defines the larrikin image of aussieBum to the worldwide market, it’s his appearance on The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency show, where Ashby called Janice a “super bitch” and “queen bitch of LA” to her face and fired her on the spot for talking about him behind his back (see below for unedited footage of the incident).

But what we saw on TV was not the full picture. “Like any good TV drama, it needs a villain,” he says. “We got wind about halfway through the piece that 2xist, already one of Janice’s clients, was going to make an entrance. But what you didn’t see on air was Janice going to town on everyone in the room. So I said she’s a bitch! It’s true, but I don’t hold a grudge, we got out of it exactly what a brand like ours should have….I had a choice, I could have towed the line and not said anything, but who’s going to remember that? We fuck up today, and we inspire tomorrow! She was a goddamn bitch!”

After the filming of the show, Ashby visited South Africa, where he came across a group of kids desperately in need of a new school. In an ironic twist of fate, Ashby used the $10,000 he was going to pay Janice’s model to help build a school for the children he met. He’s currently in South Africa checking on the school’s progress.

A few weeks ago, we reported on the rumour that aussieBum and Matthew Mitcham were in discussions for the Olympic gold medalist to land a sponsorship deal to become the Aussie bum of aussieBum.

But with each passing day, the Matt Mitcham story is looking less likely now that Mitcham has signed with a new manager. “We wanted to give him a career, something longer lasting that would help him out for life,” he says. “But we can’t compete with the Adidas and Nikes of the world.” Although Matt came to Ashby a few weeks before the Olympics of his own accord, his management now stand in the way of any communication. ”’Unfortunately Matthew is unavailable’, that’s all we’ve heard from them,” he says. “I still hope the day will come when we can have Matt back here,” he says. “He is the ideal person that our brand represents. I just hope that his new management isn’t negligent in managing his career.”

Spend some time with Ashby and a few things are quickly apparent. He’s vibrant, loud and says exactly what he thinks. He’s a strong supporter of the gay community that he’s a part of it, but he doesn’t trumpet it loudly. And he’s got an Australian humility that’s instantly endearing. He is nominated as one of GQ Magazine’s Men of The Year, but he laughs it off. “I mean, seriously, come on! Who’s going to vote for me?” he says. “It’s a great honour, but come on!”

Let’s prove him wrong. If you’re an aussieBum fan, vote for Sean Ashby as in the GQ Men of the Year Awards here.