The Art of Escapism – Richard Sutcliffe, Founder of Passenger Clothing

BY ROBERT STEADMAN, BERTHON UK

Definition: the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy.

Escapism isn’t about hiding. It’s about arriving. Richard Sutcliffe built Passenger Clothing on that idea and turned it into a £100m business.

^ Richard and his wife Alexa

We all need to switch off. From the inbox, the group chat, social media, the 24-hour news cycle. Modern life follows us everywhere now, including, ironically, to bed. The only question is whether we actually do anything about it.

Richard Sutcliffe did something about it. He turned that pull toward stillness, toward somewhere quieter, toward a version of yourself that isn’t permanently available, into a global brand that speaks to hundreds of thousands of people longing for exactly that.

^ Robert Steadman and Richard

We sat down with Richard at his home, a stone’s throw from Berthon HQ on the south coast, deep in the New Forest, where he grew up roaming the woods and beaches, to talk about escapism. Not the Instagram version. The real thing.

So Where Did It All Start?

For Richard and his wife Alexa, who co-founded Passenger together back in 2012, the moment of clarity came on their honeymoon. A trip across Canada ending on the remote west coast of Vancouver Island, watching the sun go down over the Pacific, a campfire crackling in the silence.

“Everything went quiet,” Richard recalls. “That feeling of just taking it all in, that was the moment.”

It sounds simple. It was. And that, he’ll tell you, is exactly the point. “Escapism is whatever it is in the moment. It’s not a negative thing, it’s about unplugging to recharge. It’s positive. It’s about being present and enjoying the little things.” The longing for that feeling, he believes, is the thread that connects us all, however differently we each go looking for it.

That idea, that escapism is fundamentally about the why and not the what became the beating heart of Passenger. The name itself grew from trying to piece it all together. Mountains, roads, sun, waves and trees. A brand purpose that felt, from the very beginning, entirely their own.

And the spiritual home? Right on his doorstep. Richard grew up in the New Forest, a place he describes with genuine warmth as a mini-Canada. Wild animals roaming free, ancient woodland, the sea never far away. “There are better places around the world,” he admits. “But on its day, it’s better than anywhere.”

A Small Start With A Big Idea

Passenger started as a side hustle. Expectations were modest, a lifestyle business, a bit of fun, nothing more. But something unexpected happened almost immediately. People didn’t just buy the T-shirts. They bought into why the T-shirts existed. “It was never about what we do, it was always about why we do it.”

“It was new,” Richard says. “It hadn’t really been described before. But when people got it, the penny dropped.” He pauses. “I never really doubted it, because the feeling was real. We created a category and put a brand in it.”

Success arrived faster than either of them expected — and all at once. Internet sales hit half a million. Stores came calling. Retail partnerships followed. “What we were doing was resonating,” Richard says, “and then it was just about getting the right team in place.”

A Universal Longing

Passenger’s audience isn’t united by age or income but by a shared instinct, a love of travel, adventure and the outdoors, and the sense that real experience beats a screen every time. Richard thinks the hunger for escapism runs deeper than demographics.

“It’s fundamental to human nature,” he says. “Everyone is looking for the same thing, just doing it in different ways. The less human things are, the more people need escapism. That’s why I believe the sky is the limit with Passenger.”

Escapism used to mean two weeks in the sun once a year. Today it’s a daily negotiation — a walk at lunch, a swim before work, a weekend with the phone on airplane mode. The goalposts have shifted because the distractions we’re looking to get away from got a lot bigger and a lot louder.

When we ask Richard what his own version looks like, he doesn’t hesitate. “If I can get on the water on a Friday afternoon with my family, I’m winning.” He also makes electronic music. Finds clarity on long drives. Loses himself in ambient tracks that, as he puts it, “take you somewhere different.”

Crucially though, Richard is clear that Passenger has never been a brand built on negativity. “It’s not a fight against the rat race,” he says. “It’s about how you live in the five to nine, not the nine to five. You don’t live to work, you work to live. It’s about balance and what refuels you.”

The Hardest Easy Thing

Here’s the paradox. Everyone wants it. Almost no one prioritises it. Richard recognises this without hesitation. “There’s always a reason not to do something. People are overwhelmed. Procrastination is the killer of time.” His answer is to stop thinking about escapism as something grand and complicated. A walk. A drive. Twenty minutes with the right music. “Break it down into the small actions,” he says.

And Passenger itself? Not an outdoor brand, he’s very clear on that. “The big macro trend uses the word outdoor,” he says. “We’re not an outdoor brand. We’re an outside brand.” It’s a small distinction that, when you think about it, says everything. Outside isn’t a category. It’s a feeling. It’s wherever you find it.

Passenger became bigger than he ever imagined, not because he chased growth, but because he stayed stubbornly close to the why.

Find the thing that makes the world go quiet. Do more of it. It really is that simple — and that hard.

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