Quade Cooper Talks Rugby, Fashion, And The Bold Move That Changed Everything
Footy to fashion
By Jackson Gregory | 1st April 2025Quade Cooper. You know him as the rugby star, the Wallaby, and now, the entrepreneur. For our April issue, I sat down with him to go beyond the game and discover who Quade Cooper really is. From launching his new brand, SHOSAI, to his passion for fashion and life in Japan, he opened up about his inspirations, business ventures, and how his experiences are shaping the future of SHOSAI.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
You get inspiration from all different places. For example, my teammate’s kid had this knit jumper on, but it had this little flame, just on the back. It’s hard to explain. But I was like, “Wow. That would look cool, that’s what this jumper’s missing.”
So then I just messaged the team, and I just drew something up and sent it through WhatsApp. Then she sent me the photo saying, “Hey, the sample’s finished.” I then went in and grabbed that photo and drew over the top of it with what I wanted, which was really nice. Usually, you will have a graphic designer, and you get them to draw up a whole new design, or if you’re a graphic designer yourself, you go draw up a whole new design. But to be able to just go in there freshly and say, “Hey, this is what I’m feeling, I want you to do this,” allows you to be more free. It should come out pretty cool, I can’t wait to see it.
Is fashion something you knew you always wanted to do? Was there always a desire and big interest in the space, even though your goal was being a rugby player?
Man, this is a really interesting question because there are so many different touchpoints to answer.
When I was growing up, we didn’t have much money at all. So I remember going to school, and we had a costume day, and I would have been around six years of age. I remember wanting to go as Peter Pan, and my mum, being a seamstress, said she was going to make me a Peter Pan outfit. I remember being like, “Nah, I want the one from TV that everyone else has.”
But if that was now, I would much rather her make a costume. But when you’re a young kid, you don’t quite understand that. So for me, it was more about me wanting something because everyone else had it. With clothes or fashion, you can be quite self-conscious about them as a kid. Like, if you don’t have the newest shoes, if you don’t have the newest hat, or have the newest hoodie, or whatever it may be. For young kids, man, it can be tough out there, especially with bullying at school and so forth.
The main reason I wanted the new Peter Pan outfit was because I just wanted to fit in, you know? I guess there’s that element of it that fashion started to mean something to me. It wasn’t necessarily that scenario that made me say, “Oh, I wanna get into fashion because of this,” but I knew it had an important role to me.
As I got older, I realised, using that same mindset, that fashion can make me feel a certain way. So when I was able to dress how I wanted to, it was a way of expressing how I felt, but also making myself feel comfortable when I left the house, you know? When I got older, it didn’t necessarily mean that it was what everyone else was doing, and that’s where the individual aspect came into play. I could express myself how I wanna dress, and it makes you feel like you can walk with your chest out.
So, as I got older, fashion started to play a different role in my life, but it certainly was that moment as a six-year-old when fashion was sort of etched in my brain.
In saying that, it hadn’t always been something I wanted to do because rugby was always my passion. From a young age, I always knew I wanted to be a rugby player. But as you get older, you start to acquire a taste for different things. So fashion just became something that I love because it was a way to express myself, and I feel it’s essentially an extension of your personality.
In general, we all wear uniforms, or if you work in an office, you all wear a uniform. You wear the same stuff. And so you’re just the same, but then you watch how people wear those uniforms – it’s very different. You’re still trying to find a way to just be yourself in amongst a cookie-cutter environment where everybody’s expected to act a certain way, be a certain person, turn up at a certain time, dress the same way. You’re still trying to find out, hey, how can I still express myself and be Quade Cooper? So that’s how fashion started to be important to me.
It sounds like you started to appreciate fashion from a really young age. I assume now, living in a different country, you get different inspiration from different areas. Has living in Japan given you inspiration when designing new collections for SHOSAI?
There’s so much inspiration living over here in Japan, man. It is so cool that people can be unique in an environment that is so structured. Japan is probably one of the most structured places. For example, men have to wear a suit when they go to work, and women are very modestly dressed. But if you come and walk around the streets, you just see so many different ways to be able to style a suit. The way and how they find a unique way to dress, even though there’s so much stress on conforming to the same – it’s very hard to explain, bro.
But for me, being over here, especially the silhouettes and how Japanese people dress, I love the silhouettes. Baggy pants, the shapes in the pants. Like, that’s probably where I’ve got my most inspiration – in the pants.
A lot of the shorts here are kind of just covering the knees, whereas Australian fashion is short above the knees. So it’s longer shorts, you know, kinda like suit pants. If you watch over here, there’s a lot of streetwear. Everybody wears pants here. So it’s like jeans or slacks that are pleated pants that would normally be seen in suits. They just change the shape of them, which I really love.
And again, it’s very modest over here. So I’ve enjoyed that as well. But I think more so, the inspiration has just come throughout each sort of step of my life. Like, there have been periods of my life where it’s been a bit chaotic, and the way I’ve dressed, when I look back at it, has been more chaotic.
Then you look at me now, being over here, my fashion sense has been a lot cleaner in the sense of no big branding.
A lot of my new knit jumpers here just have a small brand in the left corner. So it’s a lot cleaner in that sense. What I’ve relied on more so is textures. So, like, if you see it up close, it’s properly knitted. The jumper has a nice texture in it, and you can see the details of how it was woven.
So you can really see that quality and that detail in it?
Yeah, man, and I’ve been inspired more so as I’ve gotten older by the sense that less is more. When I was younger, you know, I was really into loud pieces where they might have a statement text on them and things like that.
And look, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll never come back to that, but right now, in this phase of where I’m at and what I’m enjoying, it’s more minimalistic with a lot more textures involved.
So you’re letting the pieces speak for themselves instead of the brand? It looks like you’re really taking extra care and focusing on the quality of it as well as the textures.
100%! If you can allow the garment to speak for itself, and then the person wearing it brings in their own unique way of wearing it as well, I think to me, that’s more so fashion instead of having statement pieces that do all the talking and then the person’s personality is kinda hidden behind them.
Since getting into the fashion realm now, have you looked at any designers particularly, or are there any designers you’re like, “Oh, I would love to collaborate with them”?
I mean, there are so many in the industry, bro. And it’s like, for me, like, if I’m looking at someone who’s a bigger designer, someone that I’d love to collaborate with, Russell Westbrook would be a great one. We’ve kinda gone through a very similar walk of life in the sense we’re both born in ’88, and our style of play is very similar.
I also love the way he plays the game. The way that he expresses himself on the court – he’s just one of those guys who competes nonstop. Then his fashion sense as well, I love that he’s being very creative and expressive with the way and how he dresses. His brand, which is called Honor the Gift, I think is an amazing brand. What he’s been able to do with it as an athlete, mate, it’s definitely inspired me to keep pushing at this. He’s a guy that I would love to collaborate with.
There’s a brand called EFFN. Wairua Takarangi, who’s the founder of EFFN – I just think he’s such a creative guy, and it’s like, there’s been a lot of people who have copied a lot of his products and stuff. Like, he’s one of those guys who just goes out there and posts it up and calls it out. But he calls it out in a really creative way. I remember there was this brand that copied one of his designs, and he put together this whole post, and I genuinely thought that he was doing a collab with this brand. I had no idea that it was even him sort of getting back at them for copying the piece. I think that he’s just a really creative mind, and so I admire what he’s doing.
There are a few other brands that are doing the same in Australia, and I just sit back and admire what they’re doing. I love that, you know, because a lot of people get competitive in this space. And I feel like there are enough people for everybody to do well rather than trying to put shade on each other as brands. For example, I go and purchase other people’s brands because I’m like, I see what you’re doing, and I want to be able to support. I’m not out to put shade on them. I like to show them I’m supporting their brand. I know for these guys how hard it is, and I know the work that’s gone into it – even if I can just support a brand by buying a hat.
I think that to me is something that, you know, we as designers, brand owners, and founders can do better – rather than throwing shade so much, you know? More so just go out and support each other. Don’t not buy something that you like just because it may be a competitor or something.
I think the key there is that sometimes somebody’s just going to do something better than you. I feel that you need to use that as motivation and enjoy it. Like, hey, if someone does a better knit jumper than me and I really like it, I’m gonna go and buy it because I love it. It’s a great way to also support and sort of show that other brand, “Hey, continue doing what you’re doing, you’re doing well, and you’re pushing me to be better.” I think that’s probably one of the aspects of being an athlete that I take into this space – we’re used to competing, and we want to compete. Whereas, people who have not competed look at it in the sense of, if someone makes a shirt, I need to rip it off, or they’ll choose to never speak highly of that brand.
That’s a really good point, coming from that athlete background with the setbacks that are inevitable and having that competitive drive to keep going. For other aspiring entrepreneurs or even athletes looking to get into the business world, what are the three biggest lessons you’ve learned since launching SHOSAI?
We’ve had so many lessons, bro. The first one is obviously to be persistent because, in this space, you’re gonna make mistakes. But don’t just let one mistake knock you down – you have to get back up. I think, as I was sort of saying before, when you come from a professional sports environment where everything is based around optimising your body, being competitive, and looking for ways to find an edge, you naturally bring those qualities across into business. And you have to, because it’s not gonna be easy. If you’re expecting it to be easy, well, you’re in the wrong game. So I think for me, the lessons have been just to keep persisting at it. And making errors – that’s okay. If you feel something, go and do it and don’t be afraid to get it wrong.
You also need to sharpen your own sword. So for me, when I first started SHOSAI, because I was time-poor, I was paying a lot of people to do a lot of things for me. And honestly, it wasn’t about making money. So it was like, hey, I’m happy to spend money to get everything up and running, but I just want SHOSAI to be progressing, and I want it to be building. So I was paying a lot of people to do things, but then I wasn’t learning at all. You know what I mean? So for me, if I look back and if I’m giving advice to anybody else, it would be to stop cutting corners and don’t try and just explode from the start.
You want to understand and learn the ins and outs of it – learn the small things, how it operates, how it works. Start as small as possible so that when you do make mistakes, they don’t cost a hell of a lot. Because of the cost involved with starting a business, we look out and we see people who are successful now, but we don’t understand what they went through at the start. So everybody wants to get to the endpoint rather than know how to get there.
If I build this from the ground up, the foundations are gonna be super strong. I’m gonna understand everything. So when something goes wrong – because it will go wrong – I’m going to understand how to fix it. When things go wrong on a small scale, it’s easy to fix. You can go, okay, I can live with that mistake, I’ve learned from it, now let’s push forward. If you jump straight to step five and you do something wrong, well, now it’s on a massive scale. Like, you can’t afford to do it again. You know what I mean?
So I feel like that’s the biggest advice I’d say – learn for yourself. Do as much as you can yourself at the start, and then get people on to help you. When you do get people to help you, try to learn and understand what they’re doing.
I would say you’re definitely a student of the game back in the rugby world. Have you become more of a student of this industry?
I think that is the key, bro. If you can be a student of the game in anything that you do or anything you’re trying to master – it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna master it, and there’s going to be people that are better than you that you’re gonna get in to help you. But if you understand nothing about it and you’re doing it yourself – the business, the service, and everything involved in it – if you understand that at a high level, it makes it so much easier. So when you need help and employ people that are better than you at it, you will still have that understanding, especially when issues arise.
I think that was a massive key for me getting into fashion – I just had this feeling to learn, you know? It’s just so much more fun when you’re immersed in it and not just standing on the outside watching everybody else do everything. Because even with sport, the fun always comes after the hard stuff. You know, it’s not like you just walk out on the field and it’s fun. It’s the best when you immerse yourself – riding it, getting in the trenches, learning about it, enjoying it, and taking the good with the bad. Always be searching for growth.
Now, Quade, casting it back a bit to your SHOSAI Pure Drop, you guys included some pieces for the female demographic. You previously mentioned that you take some inspiration from Hailey Bieber, especially with some of her layering. What is it about her specifically that inspires you, and can you see SHOSAI releasing more womenswear in the future?
I think we’ll definitely do more womenswear in the future. We had a lot of girls buying some of the pieces, especially our basketball shorts.
With women’s fashion, I don’t want to say it’s more creative, but it offers more variety. Whereas with men’s fashion (and this is a big problem I was trying to solve), the way we dress is quite minimal. You’ve got shorts or pants, a top, a T-shirt, and then accessories. What else can you do? A hat or some jewellery? So, we slowly introduced more pieces and got a little more creative for men. Then we thought, why don’t we introduce some female pieces and see how they go?
Look, we knew it was going to be a risk because, obviously, our audience is predominantly male. It was a massive risk, and while I wouldn’t say it paid off completely, it was still an interesting move. We did take a hit in that aspect, but we also had some girls messaging us asking, “Are you guys going to do more women’s stuff?” The answer is yes, we will, but we need to continue to build and grind through this stage first. It wasn’t the best decision financially, but it was good to open that door and give it a shot.
I also think it’s about finding the right person to partner with. Being a man and a rugby player, my audience is mostly male. However, I have the girls who work behind the scenes with me – Gabby, Megan, and Chandra. As we build and grow, we definitely want to create content featuring them so people can actually see who SHOSAI is and how it comes to life behind the scenes. Once those three girls start becoming more prominent in our messaging and overall brand identity, that’ll be the right time to fully step into the women’s space.
Looking ahead for SHOSAI, what can we expect in upcoming drops?
For our next drop, we have a heap of knits in our autumn/winter collection. But, as I mentioned, it’s more about building textures. We also want to create a community that inspires a lot of athletes and encourages guys to try something different.
As you know, I’m an athlete who’s jumped into fashion, and a lot of the time, I get comments like, “You should stick to rugby.” But I want to provide inspiration for people. Just because you’re a teacher doesn’t mean you have to only be a teacher. You can always learn something new. You can play a sport, pick up another profession, or start a side hustle. You don’t have to be limited to what you’re already good at. That’s a message we really want to push throughout our upcoming collections.
I love that mentality. Now, you’ve been playing in Japan for the Hanazono Kintetsu Liners for about six years now. What’s that experience been like compared to playing in Australia?
Yeah, well, it’s a really interesting lifestyle over here, and the rugby landscape is so different.
Just to give you a bit of background, you play for corporations here. For example, Panasonic, Toyota, Yamaha, and even Coca-Cola had a team. In Australia, you’re playing for towns or cities – like the Brisbane Broncos.
Now, while the Brisbane Broncos are a brand, they’re not a global corporation. The way it all started over here is that these companies used to hold an annual social tournament where employees would form teams and play. Then, some of the bigger companies started recruiting foreign players and paying them. So, even now, there’s still this semi-professional aspect to it.
For instance, I still have teammates who work for their company. When Japanese players graduate from university, they’re often offered two choices: become a professional rugby player or a company player. The company players work for their employer while also playing rugby. Many Japanese players choose this route because it guarantees them a stable job for life.
On the other hand, professional rugby has a short lifespan. You could lose your job after a year due to injury, selection changes, or other factors. But as a company player, you’re likely to stay with that rugby team until you physically can’t play anymore, and you’ll often climb the corporate ladder within that company based on your university background.
So, it’s a really unique system. When I first arrived, there were no sponsors because these corporations don’t need sponsors. There’s no major TV rights deal either because, to these companies, rugby is essentially a tax write-off. It was never about making money – it was more about losing money for tax purposes.
That’s such a bizarre concept! I had no idea. Thanks so much for the chat, Quade, and for all those insights.
No worries – thank you!
