Ben Roberts-Smith launches clothing brand named ‘Epic 1 Two’ to support his family amid ongoing court battles
Updated . First published at
Ben Roberts-Smith has launched a clothing brand to support his family amid his ongoing court and legal battles.
The former SAS corporal and Victoria Cross recipient, 47, officially launched a website on Sunday for the brand “Epic 1 Two”, named after his military radio call sign.
Ben Roberts-Smith is currently awaiting trial for five charges of war crime – murder. James Brickwood
The online store sells t-shirts, hoodies and trucker hats.
The former soldier can be seen modelling some of the clothing on the site.
Among them is a graphic t-shirt with an image of Roberts-Smith posing in military gear on the back.
Another shirt is embellished with an image of Roberts-Smith during his arrest earlier this year.
“The day I was arrested and escorted onto the tarmac, I had no idea the images would capture three words emblazoned on the aircraft behind me. Spirit of Australia,” Roberts-Smith wrote in an email to website subscribers.
Ben Roberts-Smith during his arrest in April. A Current Affair
Roberts-Smith seen modelling some of the clothing available on the website Epic 1 Two. Epoic 1 Two
The website describes Epic 1 Two as a brand “forged in adversity”.
The items cost between $49 and $85.
The brand also offers a 10 per cent military discount.
Roberts-Smith initially offered little detail about his new project, with the only hints being the hashtags #underdog and #neveroutofthefight.
He earlier told News Corp that the brand was a means to “make money for my family” as he faces several high-profile war crime - murder charges.
Roberts-Smith was hauled off a plane at Sydney Airport in April and charged with five counts of war crime murder in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
He was granted bail in after spending nine days on remand at the Silverwater Correctional Complex.
The charges are expected to kick off the largest and most significant war crime prosecution in Australia’s history.
His arrest was the result of a joint AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) investigation into the Australian Defence Force (ADF) that began in 2021.
It came after Nine newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times published allegations of war crimes against an anonymous SAS soldier known as “Leonidas” in June 2018.
In August, Roberts-Smith is named in reports after his lawyers unsuccessfully sought an injunction.
A snapshot of a video posted to the Epic 1 Two Instagram. Instagram
Roberts-Smith then sued the publishers of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times for defamation in the Federal Court.
His case against Nine was dismissed after the judge found that most of the war crimes and bullying allegations against him were substantially true, with a defence of contextual truth accepted in a domestic violence allegation involving an unnamed woman.
The judge found, to the lesser civil standard of defamation law, that Roberts-Smith had killed four unarmed Afghan men and had broken the rules of military engagement.
Nine is the publisher of this website.
Roberts-Smith has always denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
It is not the first time the former soldier has launched a business venture.
After retiring as a full-time soldier in 2013, Roberts-Smith formed his consultancy business, RS Group Australia.
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