Page 27 - May2021

Birmingham Store

The latest store launch for the brand was its site at the recently opened Designer Outlet West Midlands in Cannock. “Aside from this,
the reality is that we have to focus on the stores we have until we understand the new normal and how the high street will evolve. We
do have a couple of pop-ups in final negotiations, which will enable us to test the water before committing to
anything more long term,” Poole comments.
Outside of the UK, they have a trial concession partnership with Alshaya Group in the Middle East.
This started in Kuwait and due to the success of this first store they are rolling out another two
shop-in-shops and five further trial sites which they hope will develop into full concessions and
eventually standalone stores.
Discussing new products and initiatives, Poole explains that the brand is continually evolving
to market changes, and the moves happening in the wider retail market to more sustainable
products has led them to develop a new teams sports range, of which the whole collection is
made from fully recycled fabrics and packaging with greener roots.
They also have a new lifestyle concept store designed and ready to rollout in the right locations.
They had planned to launch this pre-Covid in a new development in Bicester UK, but they are
aiming to put it live when things get back to normal and it consists of a mix of music, sports, drinks,
lifestyle and clothes.
“Across social media platforms we have focused our efforts on sportspeople and teams primarily,
advertising and being the clothing partner to soccer teams like Aston Villa, we feel that this works
better for our men’s sports fashion arena. We will be launching our women’s performance range in late
autumn/winter this year and we will delve into influencers again to promote both the men’s and women’s
ranges,” says Poole.
In the past three years, it is the digital side of the business that has had the biggest investment and
everything is now built around the customer experience and journey. Their focus has been on simplifying
the journey and ensuring product is showcased and described better.
Poole feels that customers have shown loyalty to the brand in its 20 years because they offer an
exclusive experience for an inclusive audience and their allegiances with sporting teams has brought
them closer to certain clubs and their followers. The founder Luke Roper remains passionately
committed to delivering the very best clothing at the very best price and this will not change in
the future.
“We continue to build a brand from strong foundations that our next generation will be
proud to take on to an even bigger and better audience, it is an old fashioned ideal for a new
world,” he explains.
As we come to the end of our time with Simon, we ask him what is the greatest challenge
facing the company?
“Every year brings new challenges, recently it feels like you overcome one obstacle and
a new one pops its head up and takes you down another road, such as the move from
bricks-and-mortar, the demise of traditional wholesale B2B, the way to compete with
the huge multiples that dominate the UK market, the growth of online, while we have
the strength, drive and belief and we know what has passed and how we did it. We have
now invested in a younger skilled team that brings new eyes and new ideas for how we
continue to do this going forward,” Poole concludes.

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