Tom Davies’ new interest has replaced fashion and provided focus during Sheff Utd injury nightmare
Tom Davies has made just nine appearances since joining Sheffield United in August 2023 but the midfielder has used his free time to make a difference off the pitch
by Felix Keith · The MirrorTom Davies has endured a difficult time on the pitch since joining Sheffield United last year, but he is not letting his injury struggles get him down.
Davies has made just nine appearances for the Blades since joining them from boyhood club Everton last August. His last game was in March, during their slide to relegation from the Premier League, with a hamstring problem a source of huge frustration.
Given the circumstances, the midfielder could be forgiven for wallowing in self-pity, but he has taken a different approach. As well as working tirelessly to recover full fitness, Davies has thrown himself into another passion.
The 26-year-old is managing director of ChopValue UK – a company which turns used chopsticks into home and office products. It is a surprising business venture for a footballer, but Davies is very happy to stand out from the crowd.
His interest in high-end fashion has previously made headlines, with he and former Everton team-mate Dominic Calvert-Lewin turning heads at New York Fashion Week, and now Davies is focusing his energy into a more rewarding pursuit. “I was really interested in fashion but it just came to a point where I was enjoying going to shows and being around creative people, but it didn’t feel like it was doing much for me,” he tells Mirror Football.
“So that’s when I decided to look a bit deeper in myself about what it really was I was trying to help with. With this platform I’ve got through football, with this resource I’ve got through football and the earnings I get, I’ve got a great outreach through fans. Football is one of the biggest sports in the world, so I’ve got a chance to make an influence over my immediate fans. That was when the switch became clear in my head that I wanted to try and do some good and leave the world in a better place than when I found it.”
ChopValue UK officially launched in June after spending a year accumulating a mountain of used chopsticks from restaurants. The company currently has a stockpile of around 5million chopsticks rescued from landfill which they will press and turn into panels to create sustainable furniture. Working with companies like Wagamama, they have recycled over 178m bamboo chopsticks to date, saving nearly 9m kgCO2e in emissions.
Davies has always been drawn to creative pursuits away from football and eventually found that sustainability was a better fit than fashion. “I felt like I needed something more fulfilling in my life,” he explains. “It was more of a surface-level interest for me, whereas this is something I’m really passionate about. When I first got interested in sustainability, I didn’t know everything about it, which has been really important for me on this journey, to learn about the things I used to do and the things I do now, to try and live a more sustainable and healthy life.”
He has given up eating meat, drives an electric car and tries to use his platform to speak about what he believes is important – even if that occasionally means dealing with the backlash. Wycombe midfielder and PFA sustainability champion David Wheeler told Mirror Football that some players are scared to speak out because they are worried about being labelled hypocrites, but Davies has been pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback he’s received from Everton and Sheffield United fans.
“You put something out there into the world, but because you’re a footballer and you have this huge following, it can be torn to shreds,” he says. “I think when people care about things, it’s easier to keep them close to you so there isn’t that opportunity for them to be torn down.
“But for me, sustainability is something I want to put out there to my followers to give them the opportunity to learn more about it, understand it a bit more, because I think it’s important for all of us to really realise the state of the earth and the planet and how we’re affecting it. Because you can just blindly follow trends and be stuck in your own ways and until you look and see what you’re actually doing it can be hard to get out of it.”
Davies was given a community champion award by the PFA earlier this year after getting involved with a men’s mental health campaign and in planting trees with school children in Sheffield. His work in the community and his posts on social media have helped build a connection with fans, despite a lack of game time.
“I’ve met a lot of people now who have come up to me and spoken about sustainability, even though I haven’t been playing football the last year,” he says. “It’s always ‘how’s the company doing?’ and ‘what else are you doing?’. That organically turns into ‘We can’t wait to have you back’ because we now have that mutual connection because I’m not a footballer who hides away or has been injured and you don’t know his story.
“I’m trying to bridge that gap through sustainability and working through the community. And I feel like when I get back to playing the fans will know me and know my journey a bit more. Ultimately what you’re looking for is a connection to other people and I think the fans crave that – as players you can run away from it, or move into it.”
Davies has now re-joined Sheffield United training and is certain that getting involved in off-the-field passions has helped deal with the frustration of injury. “With an injury it’s sort of like it freezes you – you can’t affect anything and you’re conscious of how long you’ve been injured for,” he adds. “It can become a very lonely place and when it’s your only focus, it can be like your world is injured too – you don’t want to leave the house because you don’t know what to do. Or because you’re injured you can’t connect to other people because you’re feeling bad yourself.
“I think for me, it’s a massive help to have other interests. I understand that it needs to not affect how you’re performing on the pitch. As long as physically you’re not draining yourself by doing other things off the pitch – I’d encourage any player to develop other interests, especially those coming through now because of how intense the game is now. It’s really important that you have a break.”
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