Jon Pumper is the creation of Sydney Swan stars Jude Bolton and Amon Buchanan. For anyone unfamiliar with the Sydney Swans, they wear red and white, and play AFL.

For anyone unfamiliar with AFL (which Savvy suspects is anyone who doesn’t live in the lower states of Australia), it’s a game. It’s a game played employing a prolate spheroid ball, on large oval shaped fields, with four posts at each end. It’s between these posts that the players play Savvy’s favourite kind of sport – a contact sport. As Buchanan puts it, he and Bolton “tackle boys” for a living. 

But enough of boys and their tackle. This is the style section. It is at this point that you are most likely unsure as to why two footballers have their own fashion label. Why, you wonder, couldn’t they be like every other sports star and look forward to doing breakfast cereal commercials and sports commentary in their spare time?

Buchanan and Bolton laugh, admitting to Savvy Style that they both have a “passion for fashion”. Why they have a passion for Pumper may be a different reason altogether. 

It is no small wonder that these two didn’t name their label after themselves, as does everyone else in the industry these days. The alliteration, Savvy points out, would have worked well. This deliberate aversion of their own names not only proves their modesty, but it is testimony to the power of Pumper.  Not only is he (according to his press release) an international man of mystery, but he is super cool, and a ladies man to boot. Who wouldn’t want to wear his clothes? It lends a whole new meaning to dressing the part.

“The thought of being able to travel at 600 miles per hour while having a drink was the combining of two of his three loves,” quotes Bolton of their label’s namesake. Pumper was, according to the same release, banned from flying with the now defunct TAA for indulging in his third love at 30,000 feet. There are no prizes for guessing what they are.

Jon Pumper. According to Buchanan and Bolton, his legendary status as a ladies’ make has seen him linked with nearly every high profile woman, and then some. Savvy Style wonders, though, if the two football stars (because we all know what footballers are like…) are hiding behind this pseudonym, or if the label truly has taken on a life of its own.

Last season witnessed Jon Pumper‘s transformation from a high school quarterback star to racing cars with Steve McQueen, with a brief stint in a Buddhist monastery. Now, Pumper’s Winter ‘08 continues with the label’s, and the lad’s, love of speed and high flying goodness-knows-what. This season, Bolton and Buchanan have expanded their range to include bright hoodies, preppy cardigans, jackets and v-neck sweaters.

While Bolton and Buchanan copped a bit of flack from their team mates initially, now they watch them line up for their standard-issue Jon Pumper attire. And they are not alone – Jon Pumper is making his mark on the pages of many a fashion glossy and on the sidewalks, and Tom Williams, GQ’s Man of the Year, is a fan.

The future does indeed seem bright for these fashion-conscious footballers.

On the web: www.jonpumper.com

Watch as Savvy Style gets Up Close & Personal* with Jon Pumper!
That is, if by ‘Up Close & Personal’ we mean ‘shirtless’.