The Lad Collective: Brothers reinvent bed sheets and doona cover

When brothers Ed and Bill Ovenden moved into a Queensland share house they quickly realised how much they hated making their beds – and sought a better solution. 

But the options were limited, so they decided to reinvent traditional sheets by designing an alternative with tags on each end to easily work out which corner each side belongs to.

Since launching The Lad Collective in September 2020 the business has turned over more than $2million and has a customer base of 12,000. 

Before they started, the brothers were ‘gobsmacked’ that no one had thought of a solution to the annoying chore until now.

The boys moved into a sharehouse and hated changing bed sheets, so the reinvented the design by adding four tags onto each end to to easily determine which corner each side belongs to

Each tag is marked with the corresponding corner, such as BL for bottom left (pictured). Ed and Bill told FEMAIL they would often never change the bed sheets because they hated the difficult task, but were forced to when they moved houses

Ed, 25, and Bill, 27, told FEMAIL they would often never change the bed sheets at home because they hated the difficult task, but were forced to when they moved out.

‘I looked at Bill and realised that the once white sheets mum had bought me were cream yellow because I hadn’t washed them in 12 months,’ Ed said.

‘We realised that if we had these issues, surely a lot of other men would too.’

The brothers had ‘no idea’ where to buy decent sheets and said they were too reliant on family members to do it for them. 

After having the ‘lightbulb moment’ they got to work ordering samples to get the ball rolling.

‘The first samples were so flimsy and terrible,’ they said but eventually they designed a product they were happy with and launched in September 2020 during Covid.

That same month, the brothers ambitiously decided to quit their jobs in a call centre and logistic industry, which they were nervous about at first.

‘We had all the faith in the world and knew how to market the product in a unique way,’ Ed said.

‘We’re a true-blue Aussie brand that loves a good laugh and we’re not home décor experts but know we have a good quality product.’

The sheets are made from 60 per cent bamboo material that’s durable, anti-bacterial and ‘odour-banishing’, along with 40 per cent cotton to keep you cool in summer 

The sheets are made from 60 per cent bamboo material that’s durable, anti-bacterial and ‘odour-banishing’, along with 40 per cent cotton to keep you cool in summer

In December 2021 the brand launched another creative product – a doona and matching cover designed with magnets to make it easier to change over

In December 2021 the brothers launched another product – a doona and matching cover designed with magnets to make it easier to change.

‘Like the sheets, we were equally struggling to put on a cover onto the quilt and thought how we can create a new solution,’ Bill said.

‘We went back to the whiteboard and were fascinated by magnetism so we thought ‘what’s the strongest magnet we can find?’ and went to Bunnings.

‘There weren’t too many loopholes for us to jump through luckily and we found a good magnet then took three months to develop the product.’

The ‘rock solid design’ features four magnets in each corner that clip together and don’t move.

And while the products was initially targeted towards men, women have also praised the innovative designs

Ed said The Lad Collective had also designed a sheet set with braille and tactile lettering on the labelled corner straps to make it straightforward for blind and visually impaired people, as well as those with physical and intellectual disabilities. 

‘There are 575,000 Australians living with blindness or vision impairment and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to those facing everyday challenges such as making the bed,’ he said. 

‘We’ve heard from blind Aussies about how they’ve previously had to use safety pins on their sheet corners to help them figure out which direction the sheets go on, and our braille corner straps have eliminated that inconvenience.’ 

And while the products was initially targeted towards men, women have also praised the innovative designs. 

To view the products, click here.