Classic Football Shirts pop-up store “packed out” on opening day
The co-founder of popular clothing website Classic Football Shirts has revealed that their first Glasgow pop-up store has been “packed out” since opening on February 19.
Sports fans have been flicking through stacks of merchandise from the 1990s to the present day to reminiscence about the best memories and greats of the game as part of the 11-day event that ends on March 1 at the Sneakers ER store at Trongate.
“We thought it would be busy first day anyway, it’s always busy, but it’s been chaos from 9 o’clock in the morning onwards,” said Doug Bierton on the initial hours.
“We were thinking about having to tell people to queue up to come in because it was getting so busy at one time. There’s been ten people queuing at the till at times, so it couldn’t have gone any better so far.”
The 34-year-old was surprised by the response despite targeting the time period of arriving with Rangers and Celtic’s Europa League action.
“Obviously the first day anywhere’s big, but this has been every minute of every hour has been big. In Dublin we had a great response, Manchester, London,” he added.
“We did Liverpool during the time that Liverpool won the Champions League, so we were very busy then, but this is even comparable with that.
“A guy bought about six shirts and he was from Montana in the United States and came over specifically to watch Rangers versus Braga. Maybe he wouldn’t have been in town if it weren’t for the European games.
“There’s been people from 16 to 60. A couple of old women on Facetime with their grandson buying a Henrik Larsson shirt for him. A woman bought a referee shirt and collects them, says she’s got loads.”
This temporary shop is the realisation of a long period of being asked when they were coming to the country after similar periods spent in England.
“We’ve wanted to come for a while,” he added. “The first shop we did was in London in April 2018 so as soon as we announced that then you start seeing saying, ‘come to Glasgow, come to Glasgow’.
“One of the lads came up here and walked around Glasgow and tried to find empty units that were to let, trying to make contact with landlords.
“He had come up about three times and gone to different locations, got so far with it, and eventually someone came in here, met Al (a Sneakers co-owner), and then went upstairs and it just happened really.”
With Scotland still without an international tournament appearance since 1998, and 2020 being the first year since 2008 that two teams have reached the last-32 of the UEFA Cup/Europa League, Mr Bierton said that people were interested in rolling back the years.
“It’s just people reminiscing about the glory years of Scottish football when all those star names are up here and getting the shirts from that time.
“Henrik Larsson, Paul Gascoigne, they are the two players that everyone wants a shirt with a name and a number on their back. You could see people that are going to go home and put it straight on.”
The presence of Rangers playing Braga and Celtic facing Copenhagen in Europe also played a role in deciding when to travel between hectic timeslots.
“We’re busy in the summer with the European Championships, and then after Christmas rush, we had a January sale, this is the first time in the calendar that we identified as convenient for us.
“The major tournaments make a difference, people want to get behind the country, yeah, it’s a time to patriotic and get your national team shirt on.
“Maybe Scotland won’t qualify, and you want to support all the teams that are playing against England, or there’s a romantic story of a team who gets to the semi-finals of something, like Croatia in the 2018 World Cup.
“A general person before who wasn’t interested in Croatia is now thinking: ‘I love the red and white pattern, and I want to a Croatia shirt’. I’m definitely looking forward to that, it should be a busy time.”
The store is located at 73-77 Trongate in the city centre, opening from 9am to 6pm on weekdays, with later weekend openings of 9:30am on Saturdays and 10am on Sundays.
Photos of items that were put on sale can be viewed below.
