The Tailor for Football Stars

Less than a kilometer from Chattogram District Stadium, a small shop stood on the western bank of Askar Dighi. Beneath a tin roof and behind bamboo fencing, football jerseys and shorts once filled its shelves. The shop was called Orbit Tailors.

A signboard once hung above it. It was later blown away in a storm. Yet this dilapidated little shop, weathered by time, once welcomed some of the biggest names in Bangladeshi football. Ashish Bhadra, Sheikh Aslam, Tutul, FI Kamal, Sabbir, and many others. Nearly four decades ago, they were stars of the national football team.

The owner was Sunil Kanti De. During the 1970s and 1980s, countless football stars would sit in his shop, waiting for the pants they had ordered. There was one reason so many renowned players crowded into Orbit Tailors: impeccable stitching and perfect fitting. The old sewing machine that earned him that reputation still sits beside him today, carrying the memories of another era. His income is no longer what it once was. Yet he speaks without regret.

Mention those old days, and a glow lights up the face of the man now in his seventies. He drifts back to a golden age, when football was one of the country’s greatest spectacles and captivated millions.

“Football fever was everywhere then,” Sunil recalled. “Club football, the Chattogram and Dhaka leagues, they were full of excitement and emotion. I loved football myself. I used to play with neighborhood boys in Halishahar. A few of them later played for the Steel Mill team.”

Born in center of Halishahar, Sunil opened his tailoring shop on the western bank of Askar Dighi around 1977. A friend suggested the name Orbit, though he no longer remembers who it was. Before that, he had learned tailoring under a man named Jalal Uddin in Halishahar. At one point he drifted away from the trade and opened a motor parts shop at Barik Building intersection. But through Orbit Tailors, he eventually returned to the profession of sewing, known locally in Chattogram as being a darji, or tailor.

“In the late 1970s, I stitched pants for several Steel Mill players,” Sunil said. “Among them were Subhash Das and Niranjan Chakraborty. I also regularly made pants for players living around Askar Dighi. Gradually, word spread. Then the bigger players started coming. I became particularly well known after making shorts for Shahed Azgar Chowdhury’s Star Club.”

At the time, Chattogram hosted vibrant First and Second Division football leagues. Footballers from Dhaka regularly came to play in those competitions. Stars such as Aslam, F.I. Kamal, Ashish Bhadra, Satyajit Das Rupu, and later Sabbir all passed through the city.

“One day, Ashish Bhadra brought me a pair of pants from Dhaka,” Sunil remembered. “They didn’t fit him properly. He wasn’t sure whether I could fix them. After I altered them, he was delighted with the fitting. After that, I stitched many of his pants.”

The name Sunil of Orbit Tailors remains vivid in the memories of former national team captain Ashish Bhadra and players like F.I. Kamal. Ashish recalled that Sunil was exceptionally talented. As he stitched pants for one player after another, his reputation grew. At the time, if someone needed football shorts or sports trousers, Orbit was the name that came to mind.

Back then, footballers in Dhaka often relied on Siraj Tailors at Stadium Market. But the shop was crowded, and many players looked for alternatives. According to footballers of that era, Sunil’s name gradually spread as Chattogram’s answer to the famous tailoring house in Dhaka.

The area around Askar Dighi, beside Chattogram Stadium, was almost a stadium neighborhood. National team footballers such as Tipu, goalkeeper Khokon, Babul Dev, and Mahbub regularly played league football there. Through them, many more players found their way to Sunil’s shop.

Former national star FI Kamal grew nostalgic upon learning that both Sunil De and Orbit Tailors still exist.

“I visited that shop so many times,” he said. “No one in Chattogram could stitch pants like him. The fitting was outstanding.”

Yet amid all the praise, Sunil earned one enduring criticism: he rarely delivered orders on time. F.I. Kamal himself was among those who suffered from the delays. Sunil spent as much time chatting with players as he did sewing for them, and friendships naturally developed.

When Kamal’s name came up, Sunil smiled. “He came to Chattogram from Karnaphuli Paper Mill High School in Chandraghona and later played in the league. He was a fantastic player.”

Sunil also stitched pants for Sheikh Aslam, Johny, Munna, Chunnu, and many others. At the time, Aslam played for Chattogram Customs. Thanks to his friendships with players, Sunil never needed a ticket to watch matches at Chattogram Stadium. He still remembers one amusing story.

“Once, Chattogram Mohammedan signed a foreign player who was playing in Dhaka at the time. They told me to make his pants by watching him on television because there wasn’t enough time. So, I did. That’s the kind of relationship I had with everyone. I used to watch matches from the pavilion without a ticket. The players would simply tell the gatekeepers to let me in.”

A supporter of Argentina in the World Cup, Sunil De still sits inside Orbit Tailors and works at his sewing machine. But just as football itself has faded, so too has the demand for custom-made shorts and trousers.

Sitting in his worn-down shop, surrounded by memories, he reflects on the state of the game he once loved.

“Football ended after 1990-95,” he said with a sigh. “Yet what incredible excitement there was back then.”