The Story Behind GAROE

Walk through the corridors of almost any sports club and you’ll find walls filled with history: league titles, cup wins, team photographs, honours boards. They tell the story of a club’s greatest achievements, but they rarely tell the story of the people behind them.

Behind every promotion are the people who rarely make the headlines. Coaches who spent years developing talent. Physiotherapists who helped players battle back from injury. Kit managers who prepared thousands of shirts. Volunteers who gave up evenings and weekends because they believed in their club. Academy staff who shaped young players long before anyone knew their names.

When the celebrations are over, those contributions often fade into memory.

That was the beginning of GAROE.

GAROE is now a sports recognition business in its own right, turning seasons, careers and years of service into something permanent. It started with a single personalised plaque, made from premium composite aluminium, and grew from there.

Where It All Started

GAROE didn’t begin with a business plan. It started with an idea born from years inside professional football.

Through Michael’s experience working within the game, we saw the same thing time and time again. Framed shirts had become the traditional way to celebrate milestones, but they weren’t always practical. They’re large, expensive, difficult to display and, if we’re honest, not something every family wants hanging on the wall at home.

We believed there had to be a better way: something more modern, something more personal, something that still captured the significance of a career milestone but in a format people would genuinely be proud to display.

That simple idea led to the creation of our first plaques.

That first plaque marked the start of what’s now a full range of personalised sports plaques for clubs, academies and individuals, each produced from 3mm composite aluminium and finished with professional UV printing, so the recognition lasts as long as the achievement itself.

As we developed them and spoke with clubs, we realised the opportunity was far bigger than creating an alternative to a framed shirt. We discovered that recognition itself was often being overlooked.

Academy players could spend over a decade progressing through a club with little lasting record of the journey they had taken. Members of staff quietly dedicated 10, 20 or even 30 years of their lives to a club without receiving permanent recognition. Volunteers gave up evenings, weekends and holidays simply because they cared. Even behind every promotion, cup win or championship, there were countless people whose contribution was just as important as the players on the pitch, yet many were left without anything to remember their part in that success.

Clubs wanted to celebrate these people, but with so many competing priorities, recognition often became nobody’s responsibility. What started as a fresh alternative to the traditional framed shirt quickly evolved into something much bigger. GAROE became a business built around preserving sporting legacies.

Recognition Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought

Sport creates moments that deserve to last: a first academy season, a professional debut, one hundred appearances, twenty years of loyal service, a promotion, a retirement after decades of commitment. These aren’t just milestones. They’re chapters in somebody’s life.

Yet too often they’re recognised for a single evening before the medal is put away, the certificate fades over time or the moment simply becomes another memory.

We believe recognition should last just as long as the achievement itself.

That thinking sits behind every GAROE recognition programme, whether it’s a long service award marking decades on the staff team or a season-by-season academy plaque following a young player’s progress from their first call-up onward.

More Than a Plaque

One of the biggest things we discovered was that recognition doesn’t always happen because nobody owns it. Everyone agrees people deserve to be celebrated, but who makes sure it actually happens?

Within a busy club, responsibility can easily be lost between departments. Academy staff are focused on player development, coaches are planning the next session, operations teams are preparing for matchday, administrators are keeping the club running. Recognition becomes something everyone values, but nobody has the time or responsibility to manage.

GAROE exists to change that.

We don’t simply produce premium plaques. We create complete recognition programmes that help clubs celebrate the people who make them what they are. From managing season-by-season academy collections to long-service awards and milestone recognition, we help ensure achievements are recognised consistently, professionally and permanently.

Three Programmes. One Purpose.

Everything we do is built around one simple mission: preserving achievement.

Different programmes. One purpose. To ensure no achievement, no contribution and no story is ever forgotten.

Within the Legacy Programme specifically, career milestones are marked through our Black, Copper, Silver and Gold tiers, giving clubs a consistent way to recognise every stage of a career as it builds.

That same thinking carries beyond the pitch too. Businesses face the same problem clubs do: retirements and employee of the month achievements are just as easy to let slip past unmarked, which is something we cover in more detail in our guide to employee recognition awards.

Looking Ahead

GAROE was built on a simple belief: every badge represents years of dedication, every shirt tells a story, every milestone means something to someone.

Whether it’s a young player proudly displaying their first academy season, a member of staff recognised after thirty years of service, or a club preserving a historic achievement, every piece we create is designed to become part of someone’s legacy.

Our ambition is simple: to help clubs and organisations build a culture where recognition isn’t an afterthought. It’s part of who they are.

Because achievements fade. Legacies shouldn’t.

Why the Name GAROE?

The name GAROE is the most personal part of our business. It was created using the names of the people who mean the most to us: our children, George, Albie, Rafe and Otto, together with our family name, Eames.

Long before GAROE became a business, it represented our family. Then something unexpected happened.

After choosing the name, we discovered the story of the Garoé Tree on the Canary Island of El Hierro.

Known as the Sacred Tree, the Garoé was believed to capture moisture from the trade winds, providing fresh water and sustaining life for the island’s people.

It became a symbol of resilience, hope and something that continued to give long after it had taken root.

We didn’t choose the name because of its history. We discovered that afterwards. But the more we learned about its story, the more it reflected our own.

GAROE was built to preserve what matters: to recognise dedication, to celebrate achievement, to ensure the people who shape sport leave behind something that lasts.

When we look at the story of the Garoé Tree, we can’t help but see reflections of our own mission. Like a tree, every journey starts with strong roots.

A family name. A remarkable coincidence. A business built around recognising the people who make sport what it is. And a reminder that the greatest legacies continue to give long after the moment has passed.

How Every GAROE Plaque Comes to Life

We sat down with GAROE founder Olivia Eames to talk about why every material was carefully chosen and what makes every GAROE plaque different.

From Design To Delivery

Every GAROE plaque follows the same four stages, whether it’s a single Moments commission or a full season of Academy plaques for a squad.

Every GAROE plaque is designed, personalised and produced in Wales using premium 3mm composite aluminium and professional UV printing technology. Because every story deserves something built to last.