‘They’re Fighting for Me Now’: Ben Roberts-Smith Clothing Label Draws 17,500 Orders in Seven Days as Bailed War Hero Turns Viral Airport Arrest Photo Into a Best-Selling T-Shirt
- Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith’s new apparel label EPIC 1 TWO drew more than 17,500 orders, 230,000 website visits and 75,000 Instagram followers in its first week
- The best-seller is a black tee carrying the viral image of federal agents leading him across a Sydney Airport tarmac, and it has almost sold out
- The 47-year-old, on bail over five counts of war crimes murder, says corporate Australia abandoned him and the brand will help pay legal bills and support his twin daughters
- Critics have attacked the timing of his public comeback, and his criminal trial may still be five to seven years away
He was once the most decorated soldier in the country. Then he became one of its most divisive figures.
Ben Roberts-Smith is now selling T-shirts, and Australians are buying them in their thousands.
The former SAS corporal faces five counts of war crimes murder and a wait of up to seven years for trial. In that time he has moved from courtroom to shopfront.
His new clothing label has pulled in a level of public support that has surprised supporters and alarmed critics alike.
The figures are striking. EPIC 1 TWO recorded more than 17,500 orders in its first seven days.
Its website drew over 230,000 visits, and its Instagram account passed 75,000 followers within a week.
Roberts-Smith, 47, started the brand with his partner, Sarah Matulin. He says he did it because he had to, not because he wanted to.
He told news.com.au that corporate doors closed on him after the war crimes allegations surfaced. He needed income to pay growing legal costs and to support his twin teenage daughters.
‘I’ve gotta try and find some way to make money for my family,’ he said. He argued that media pressure on organisations makes open support for him almost impossible.
Public figures who argue he deserves a fair process, he said, are ‘trashed’ for doing so.
The label’s most talked-about item is a black shirt called ‘Spirit of Australia’.
It reproduces the widely shared photograph of federal agents escorting Roberts-Smith off the tarmac at Sydney Airport, and it is already close to selling out.
The men’s ‘No Quit Tank’, the women’s ‘Black Represent Crop’ and a unisex ‘OG Trucker Cap’ are also selling quickly.
The name has a military origin. EPIC 1 TWO was Roberts-Smith’s radio call sign at the Battle of Shah Wali Kot on 11 June 2010.
That firefight in Afghanistan earned him the Victoria Cross.
‘When I was fighting in Afghanistan I kept going because I believed in Australia,’ he said. ‘I was fighting for Australians then … now they’re fighting for me.’
The launch came soon after his first long interview in years. In it, he described reaching ‘absolute rock bottom’ and thinking about suicide before deciding to keep fighting.
His public return follows more than a decade of legal conflict.
In 2023, Roberts-Smith lost his defamation case against Nine newspapers when a Federal Court judge found, on the civil standard of proof, that some of the reports alleging serious misconduct in Afghanistan were substantially true.
His later appeals failed.
The criminal case is separate and has not been tested. Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing.
Like every accused person, he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a criminal court. That principle is central to the debate his brand has reopened.
The case also sits within a wider national reckoning. Investigations into alleged conduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan led to the creation of the Office of the Special Investigator.
It works with the Australian Federal Police to examine alleged war crimes.
Analysis: What This Means for Australia
The week’s sales say less about clothing than about how divided Australians are over the legacy of the war in Afghanistan, and over how the justice system treats the people sent to fight it.
Each of the 17,500 orders is a small public statement.
For buyers, the purchase seems to back the idea of a ‘fair shake’, as Roberts-Smith puts it, and to express doubt about years of media coverage.
For critics, a best-selling shirt built on an arrest image risks trivialising extremely serious allegations involving the deaths of Afghan civilians.
The legal stakes are significant. Courts protect the right of accused people, and the prosecution, to a trial decided only on the evidence.
A heavily promoted public campaign by a defendant years before a jury is empanelled creates real tension. Media outlets will also have to cover the story without breaching contempt laws.
There is a broader social cost too. Veterans’ groups have long warned about the strain these investigations place on former soldiers, many of whom were never accused of anything.
Each new turn in the Roberts-Smith story reopens that wound in the veterans community.
The story also has an economic side. It shows how a figure dropped by corporate partners can bypass them through direct-to-consumer sales, using social media reach and a loyal base.
As cost of living pressures squeeze households, thousands still chose to spend on a cause rather than a product.
Legal observers say the public campaign carries risks.
They note that judges have tools to manage pre-trial publicity, but warn that a defendant building a commercial brand around his own prosecution is rare in Australian legal history.
Law enforcement insiders warn the image on the flagship shirt shows agents performing a lawful duty. They say turning it into merchandise could feed hostility towards investigators working on other sensitive war crimes cases.
Brand and marketing analysts believe the first-week result reflects ‘grievance branding’, where consumers rally behind a figure they see as persecuted. They warn that such surges often fade, and that the label’s long-term future will depend on the outcome of the trial.
Social commentators argue the episode exposes a growing gap between institutions and the parts of the public who no longer trust them.
Roberts-Smith is not backing down. He says he has enjoyed taking ‘control of my name again’, and accused others of exploiting it for profit for more than ten years.
Thousands of emails from well-wishers and curious buyers, he says, have kept him going on bad days.
His team is preparing new designs as stock runs low. ‘We have so many product additions in the pipeline,’ he said.
For now, a man who could spend years waiting for his day in court has found an audience outside it. Whether that support helps or hurts him when the trial finally begins remains to be seen.
If you or someone you know needs support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling on 1800 011 046.