When we started developing the SunGods MMXXVI Founder Bath Sheet, I wasn't particularly interested in creating another beautiful towel that looked impressive folded on a bathroom shelf, because there are already thousands of those available, and while I certainly wanted ours to look and feel luxurious, I was far more interested in what happened after somebody brought it home, when the beautiful photograph was forgotten and the product became part of the ordinary routines of showering, washing, drying, packing for the beach, heading to the gym and occasionally wrapping yourself in something warm and snuggly at the end of a very long day.
I wanted a bath sheet that could move between those moments without requiring me to own a different product for every occasion, something generous enough to feel luxurious but not so heavy that it became cumbersome, beautiful enough to hang in the bathroom but practical enough to throw into a beach bag, and made from materials we had taken the time to understand rather than simply accepting the conventional construction because that was how towels had always been made.
Which sounds relatively straightforward until you start trying to design one.
The bath sheet we actually want to live with isn't necessarily the bath sheet the industry has taught us to expect.
Luxury Has To Work Beyond The Bathroom Shelf
One of the things building SunGods has changed for me is how I think about luxury, because I have become increasingly convinced the real measure of a beautiful product isn't how impressive it appears at the moment of purchase, but how well it continues to serve you once the excitement of owning something new has passed and it becomes part of your everyday life.
A bath sheet is a perfect example.
It might look extraordinary in a photograph, but if it is unnecessarily heavy when wet, takes up half the washing machine, feels cumbersome to carry or becomes something you avoid taking to the beach because it occupies too much room in your bag, then I start questioning whether the design has genuinely considered the person who will be using it.
That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with a thick, plush terry towel, because different constructions serve different preferences and purposes; it simply means that for SunGods, we wanted to challenge the assumption that the heaviest, thickest or largest version must automatically be the most luxurious.
We wanted something that made sense in the context of how we actually live.
One Bath Sheet. More Than One Ritual.
Living on the Australian coast has probably influenced my thinking more than I initially realised, because the distinction between a bathroom towel, a beach towel and something you might take to the pool or gym has always seemed slightly artificial to me when, fundamentally, I am asking those products to perform many of the same tasks.
I want to step out of the shower and wrap myself in something comfortable, but I also want to be able to take that same bath sheet to the beach, sit on a rock watching the surf, dry off after a swim or throw it around my shoulders when the afternoon breeze picks up, without feeling as though I have packed an entire linen cupboard to leave the house.
That became part of our design brief.
The Founder Bath Sheet measures 170 × 90 cm, giving us a generous surface without moving into unnecessary size, while the approximately 345 GSM waffle construction allows us to create texture and substance without relying on the weight traditionally associated with dense terry products.
Neither measurement was chosen because we wanted a particular number on a product label.
They emerged from questioning what the product actually needed to do, how it would be handled and how its proportions would influence the experience of using it.
For me, that is where thoughtful design becomes interesting, because a relatively small decision about weight or dimensions can influence hundreds of ordinary interactions over the life of a product.
The Waffle Became Part Of The Experience
We have already shared quite a lot about why we chose a waffle construction and how we arrived at 345 GSM, so I won't revisit the entire development journey here, but what I do think is worth explaining is how those decisions come together in the finished bath sheet.
Waffle has a distinctive dimensional structure that gives the fabric texture and character, and rather than trying to create the experience of luxury predominantly through mass and thickness, we wanted to explore how the weave itself could contribute to the way the product feels.
There is also something visually appealing about waffle which I have always liked, because it has texture without needing to be overly decorative, and it can sit comfortably in a bathroom, beside a pool or across a beach rock without looking as though it belongs exclusively in one setting.
The finished experience, of course, depends on considerably more than the weave alone, because the fibre blend, yarn, fabric weight and finishing all contribute to how the textile behaves, which is why we spent so much time developing those elements together rather than treating them as separate decisions.
Our Founder Bath Sheet combines 54% Good Earth Cotton™, 21% SeaCell™ Lyocell and 25% TENCEL™ Lyocell, three different fibre origins brought together in one textile system, but the important part isn't simply being able to name those materials; it is whether the finished bath sheet delivers the experience we intended and that is something we will continue learning through use.
Four Gods. Four Identities. One Bath Sheet.
The other part of the Founder Bath Sheet I particularly enjoy is the way the four Gods give the same underlying product four different identities, without requiring us to create four entirely different fabrics, weights or constructions simply to give people a choice.
Pontus represents flow and movement, expressed through our navy wave embroidery, while Helios brings energy and transformation through the gold rising-sun motif. Gaia returns us to beginnings, earth and regeneration through its deep red emblem and Demeter represents nourishment, care and continuity through the green botanical design.
Each God has its own visual identity, but all four share the same bath-sheet architecture, because the objective was never to create an enormous range of variations; it was to allow somebody to connect with a particular story while maintaining the same considered material and product system underneath.
The embroidery is also part of the physical design rather than something added simply for decoration, with the signature God motif, the structured border detailing and the MMXXVI Founder marker giving the bath sheet an identity that belongs specifically to this first collection.
I like the idea, these details will become familiar over time, not because they shout for attention, but they quietly distinguish something that has been designed with intention.
Designed To Be Used, Washed And Used Again
One of the easiest things to overlook when developing home textiles is the product spends much of its life being cared for, and while washing instructions are rarely the most exciting part of a product story, they are enormously important to the experience of owning it.
A bath sheet isn't a decorative object.
It will be wet, washed, dried, folded, hung, carried and used again, which means the decisions we make about its size, weight, construction and finishing have to consider those repeated interactions rather than concentrating exclusively on how the product feels when it is brand new.
This is also where I think some of the more interesting questions about responsible consumption begin, because buying something made from considered materials is only one part of the story; how frequently it is used, how it is cared for, how long it remains useful and what happens when its first life eventually comes to an end all matter.
I would much rather somebody owned a bath sheet they genuinely enjoyed using repeatedly than bought something because of an interesting sustainability claim and then left it sitting in a cupboard, the purpose of a product is to be used. If we are going to ask people to buy fewer, better things, those things have to earn their place in everyday life.
The First 400 Are Just The Beginning
There will be 400 Founder Bath Sheets, 100 each of Pontus, Helios, Gaia and Demeter, and while that makes this first production run deliberately limited, the number was never intended to create exclusivity simply for the sake of having something scarce.
It is about beginning with a defined quantity, learning how the products perform in real homes and understanding what people value once the bath sheets become part of their lives rather than remaining development samples, specifications and photographs.
How does the waffle behave after repeated laundering, how does the bath sheet feel over time, how do people use it beyond the bathroom, which details become important and which assumptions do we need to reconsider before the next production run?
These are the questions that make the Founder Run meaningful to me, because I don't want our first collection to represent the moment we stop learning; I want it to represent the moment our learning becomes much more connected to the people actually living with the products.
Eventually, when these first bath sheets have completed their useful lives, we want the circular return system we are building to provide a pathway for what comes next, recognising that the materials still have potential value even when the original product no longer serves its purpose.
That pathway remains part of the system we are developing, rather than something I want to claim we have already perfected.
The Bath Sheet We Actually Wanted To Live With
When I look at the Founder Bath Sheet now, what interests me most isn't any one feature, specification or material, because none of those things tells the complete story on its own.
It is the relationship between all of them.
The fibres we chose, the yarn and waffle construction, the weight, the dimensions, the embroidery, the way it feels when you pick it up, the ease of carrying it between home and the beach and the hundreds of ordinary moments in which it will hopefully become something somebody reaches for without having to think twice.
We didn't design the Founder Bath Sheet for the five seconds you spend touching it in a shop; we designed it for the hundreds of times you will actually use it, because that is where the difference between something that looks luxurious and something that feels genuinely well considered begins to emerge.
Perhaps that is the simplest expression of what we are trying to build at SunGods.
Not more products for more occasions, but fewer products that make more sense across the lives we already lead, designed with enough thought that their usefulness extends well beyond the moment they first arrive.
A bath sheet for the shower, the beach, the pool, the gym and all those ordinary moments in between.
The bath sheet we actually wanted to live with.
Designed with a beginning, a life and a way home.