By Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
Simon Cronin
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
Classic Football Shirts is the largest collection of classic, rare and vintage football shirts in the world. Meet the founders Matthew Dale and Doug Bierton and learn how they created a shop that captures the history and culture of football in the heart of Manchester.
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
How was the business founded?
Matt: In 2006, we were just finishing university and trying to avoid getting a real job and ended up stumbling across selling football shirts. We started from a small collection of fifty to a hundred shirts and from there just progressed, buying more, and investing everything we made into just buying more stock.
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
Doug: We worked so hard at the beginning to get things up and running. We were working 14 hours a day, seven days a week. We did every type of job; we bought the shirts, we washed the shirts, we took the shirts to the post office, we did all the customer service, all the marketing. Everything was just us.
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
How does your location play into your business?
Doug: Manchester is great place to be with Manchester United and City, especially when they’re competing in the Championship League, all the international tourists are coming here. Manchester is the centre of football, really. That means we can be part of this tour of Manchester, whether it's going to Old Trafford, going to the Northern Quarter or going to Classic Football Shirts.
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Take a virtual tour of Old Trafford in Manchester
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
How do you get the stock?
Doug: The majority of the shirts now come directly from customers who are either sorting out their own collection, moving house or tidying up the garage and come across these boxes of old shirts. That’s where we get a lot of the great classics from.
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
How does a shirt become a classic?
Doug: Obviously, time is a key factor, how old something is. Then there’s the design, is it particularly iconic and special or different from what’s gone before? The players that have played in it. Has it been a successful team, that’s won something or done a memorable match? The more of those boxes that get ticked, the more classic something is seen to be.
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
Different shirts mean different things to different people. Over the years we’ve sold shirts from as much as £10 to as much as £10,000. We try and cater to as many different people as possible.
There’s somebody buying a museum piece for their collection that they’ve curated over 25 years, all the way to down to someone who just wants a cheap shirt to go and play five-a-side in and everything in between.
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
What advice would you give to graduates starting a business?
Matt: Go for it really. That’s what we did. It’s a good time if you do have an idea to at least try and put everything behind it. That's what we thought and we didn’t really have anything to lose essentially. If you can start small and scale up that's the best way to do it.
Classic Football Shirts (21st Century) by Dan EdenGreater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
What are your plans for the future?
Ideally, we would go everywhere and give everybody the opportunity to have Classic Football Shirts in their hometown for a period of time. The same with exhibitions, we would like to go to all the major cities and countries around the world and give everyone the opportunity to see these amazing shirts.
Old Trafford Football Ground, Trafford, Manchester (1994) by Aerofilms LtdHistoric England
