Sir Ernest Shackleton

// MEET THE BOSS

Inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton

Our company is built on the life and achievements of polar titan Sir Ernest Shackleton and is supported by our friend and colleague, the Hon. Alexandra Shackleton, granddaughter of 'The Boss', as he was known to his men.

Our founders, Ian Holdcroft and Martin Brooks are lifelong Shackleton devotees and have made it their life’s work to share his inspiring example of courage and camaraderie around the world through our company. You can read all about Shackleton’s extraordinary story in the articles below.

The company’s stated purpose is to inspire, enable and equip people to Live Courageously. Courage is the essential spark that we all need to face difficulty and danger in order to realise our potential, whatever walk of life we choose.

We hope you find inspiration in the words below.

// MEET THE BOSS

A star that shines brighter than ever

On 5th January 1922, Ernest Shackleton suffered a heart attack and 'entered life eternal' as his gravestone holds. He was just 47 years old.

Shackleton's death marked the end of the 'Heroic Age' of polar exploration - a period dominated by the race to claim poles and name lands for king and country. The names of the age are well known - Scott, Amundsen, Mawson and more, yet somehow Ernest Shackleton's star seems to shine brighter, not dimmer as the years roll on.

What was it about him?

What does he mean to us, to make us care more, not less?

We asked leading Shackleton authorities to answer these questions... but first, our own feelings towards the man himself...

Martin Brooks - Shackleton Co-founder

"You either get Sir Ernest Shackleton or you don't."

Or, to be more precise, if you’ve a restless spirit and a yearning for adventure, Sir Ernest Shackleton gets you.

Once you read of his exploits, he takes hold of your imagination. And then he becomes the benchmark by which you measure the goals you set yourself … the way you go about achieving them … and how you treat those who share that journey with you.

That’s certainly how my co-founder Ian Holdcroft and I feel about Sir Ernest. He was “The Boss” to the men in the Antarctic. He is “The Boss” to us, today.

Sir Ernest Shackleton

"It is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown."

Ian has a passion for endurance sports - he has, amongst other things, run across Chile's Atacama desert and rowed the Atlantic. I have a lifelong love of the sea and long-distance, transoceanic sailing. So we were living in Sir Ernest’s lengthening shadow years before we started this business.

Already in thrall to the man, we decided there was no better way to honour and perpetuate his memory than name our venture for him.

We took as our inspiration Sir Ernest’s conviction that “It is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown”. Then, with The Hon. Alexandra Shackleton on board, we set out to create an enterprise that encouraged and equipped the intrepid few who share that belief.

Sir Ernest Shackleton

"We had reached the naked souls of men."

Like our hero, we hold that your true self is revealed only when you face challenges that test the limits of your endurance. As the man himself said at the end of his most famous expedition: “We had seen God in his splendours, we had heard the text that nature renders. We had reached the naked souls of man.”

At its most fundamental, our challenge mirrors that of Sir Ernest’s greatest feat: to keep alive those who are exposed to the most dangerous and hostile conditions on earth.

You can read about the lengths we go to to create the world’s most effective high-performance, expedition grade apparel here.

But stay with us now to learn more about the man whose name that apparel proudly bears.

Polar historian and Shackleton biographer Michael Smith explores and explains the expedition that made Shackleton’s name. Carving a route towards the South Pole that would lay the trail for others to follow years later, only to turn back 97 miles short to prioritise his men’s lives over fame.

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After the Nimrod expedition, the man who finally conquered the South Pole, Roald Amundsen said: “Shackleton’s name will always be written in the annals of Antarctic exploration in letters of fire.” But his thirst for adventure has not been slaked. In 1914 Sir Ernest embarked on his greatest ever challenge: The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was an audacious plan to be the first in history to trek across the entire Antarctic Continent from coast to coast via the South Pole.

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With their ship, Endurance, sunk, death now seemed inevitable for Shackleton and his 28 men.

But then Shackleton set out on his boldest expedition yet: standing resolute at the stern of the tiny open lifeboat, James Caird, he struck out in search of rescue across 800 miles of the most hostile waters on earth.

The remarkable journey of James Caird is among the greatest sea voyages ever recorded.

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SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON

"We've had some great times together, but this is the greatest of all. This time it really is do or die, as they say in the storybooks."

SIR RANULPH FIENNES

"I am doing this for many reasons, some of which I don't fully understand. That there is an inner urge is undeniable."

That sounds like Sir Ernest, doesn’t it? But it comes from the greatest explorer adventurer of our own age, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

It is no surprise that Sir Ranulph, who has inspired so many others to face their own challenges, is himself a devotee of Sir Ernest.

Incidentally Sir Ranulph believes “There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” Which is a fundamental truth we endorse completely!

In this article, Fiennes explains how Ernest Shackleton has been a driving force behind his own ambitions.

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SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON

"If you're a leader, a fellow that other fellows look to, you've got to keep going."

The Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration was characterised by countless courageous characters, many whose names are now sadly forgotten.

But Sir Ernest’s memory is as alive today as the morning he staggered into the Stromness Bay whaling station, his “face black from blubber smoke, thick matted hair down to his shoulders, and filthy clothes in rags”.

And not just because of his superhuman resilience, courage and optimism. As Professor Nancy Koehn of Harvard Business School here explains, it is Shackleton the leader who has lessons for us all.

In ‘Forged in Crisis’ she argues that his team’s only hope was to forget the disasters he and his crew had endured and “face forward” with grit, ingenuity and improvisation. “Crisis leaders get better and better and better.”

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SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON

"I love the fight and when things are easy, I hate it. I am just good as an explorer, and nothing else."

Reading Professor Nancy Koehn, you can only conclude that, in a world lacking in leaders we can trust, emulate and rely upon in times of crisis, Ernest Shackleton is more relevant today than he was in his own time.

Indeed, the world needs more people like him - individuals who are ready to test their mettle to the limit and, in the words inscribed on his gravestone:“strive to the uttermost for their life’s set prize”.

This indomitable spirit is, we feel, Sir Ernest’s great legacy. And we want to inspire, prepare and equip others to follow in his daring and determined footsteps. For we believe it is only when, like The Boss, you’ve faced the challenge of the coldest night, the longest trek or the steepest wave that you can say you are truly alive.