Rangers kit partners Castore are set to sign deals with four new clubs next season as they take their footballing portfolio to an impressive seven across Europe.
Speaking to Sport Business, Castore co-founder Tom Beahon also namedropped Rangers having previously cited the success of the Ibrox deal as one of the main reasons why the company has been able to make moves in football.
Whilst the now-Manchester based retailer didn’t give away who they’ll be working with in the 2022/23 campaign, they did reveal that the clubs will come from four of Europe’s top five leagues.
Castore claim they have secured kit supply agreements with an unnamed club apiece from the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A and the German Bundesliga.
This builds on Castore’s pre-existing deals with Rangers and Premier League duo Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United.
Rangers perfect example of criteria targeted by Castore in kit deals
There are specific criteria associated with the clubs targeted by Castore – such as large fanbase, room to grow in e-commerce marketing, and on pitch-improvement potential – with Rangers cited as the ideal example.
Disruptor brand Castore also pride themselves on bespoke designs and a high-level focus on each of their partners, something they claim isn’t provided by “big three” Adidas, Nike and Puma.
“Given the weight of the club’s history, we took the educated risk that over the course of a long-term partnership Rangers would achieve success again, that has paid off and we’ve been able to help grow the club’s marketing alongside the on-pitch performance,” said Beahon.
“It’s a situation in those leagues where the big brands focus resources on a small number of clubs and where they have invested outside of tier one, they haven’t put the same resources into development.
“We’ll enter Germany, Italy and Spain following our existing strategy, while being aware of the nuances that are always present in local markets.
“The big three will tend to argue about a small number of assets at the top tier, these are the ones they will want to allocate the majority of their budget to. For the biggest teams it therefore really makes sense to partner with these brands.
“For the clubs just outside that tier one bracket, they are not necessarily getting access to the global marketing, bespoke product designs and day-to-day attention the big three provides to the top clubs.
“That’s where we identify the opportunity, to help those clubs just outside tier one to improve their retail and marketing programme, internationalise and improve e-commerce, helping those clubs to grow their revenue and in turn growing the Castore brand.”
An emerging sportswear brand, it’s telling that Castore value the Rangers partnership so highly as it acted as a springboard into the retailer signing deals with other clubs.
It’s not just in football that Castore are making waves either; the retailer has a host of partnerships with elite level sportspeople as well as deals with Sir Andy Murray, McLaren, Saracens Rugby and the West Indies Cricket team amongst many others.
All the sounds suggest that Rangers partners Castore could also “benefit hugely” from the PIF led takeover of Newcastle United earlier in the season.