Tom Beahon, co-founder of the British sportswear brand Castore, believes that his company and Rangers were the perfect commercial partnership.
Having built a billion-pound business as a result of partnering with several football teams, Thomas Beahon founded the company in 2015 with his brother Philip.
Castore provides kits for several football clubs as well as teams in rugby league, rugby union, cricket, motor racing and also tennis, swimming and golf stars.
One of the kit supplier’s most high-profile partnerships is its connection with Rangers, having been the club’s kit supplier for the past five years. Castore’s CEO has since spoken out about the success of the partnership.
Castore owner speaks on ‘transformational’ Rangers partnership
Appearing on the Secret Leaders podcast, the former professional footballer was asked by co-hosts Dan Murray-Serter and Chris Donnelly about which partnerships ultimately helped build his business and if there was one in particular that really made the difference.
“Rangers Football Club was the transformational partnership I would say,” he replied.
“A globally recognised club and brand, genuinely global fanbase,” the entrepreneur began.
Thomas revealed that in 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the building blocks were put in place at Ibrox to be Castore’s first football club sponsorship. A year later the Gers would go on to win the Scottish Premiership undefeated in 2020/21.
“A lot of clubs think they have a global fanbase, there’s not that many that do. Every Formula 1 team has a global fanbase because they race all over the world so, by definition, they have fans all over the world.
“That isn’t true in football. People might watch the Premier League in Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Mexico but they tend to support quite a small handful of teams. Rangers is one that people know all over the world.”
Rangers presented a gap for Castore to exploit
The company would later choose to supply kit for other British teams such as Wolverhampton Wanderers, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Everton. And they also took the brand elsewhere in Europe, sponsoring overseas outfits such as Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen, Feyenoord and Genoa.
However, he later explained that the biggest sportswear brands in the world would obviously want to partner with the crème de la crème of European football, as he named the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
“That was when the opportunity to partner with teams really came up, because Nike and Adidas had other things to worry about and focus on. Therefore, they weren’t prioritising teams as a category and any team that they were prioritising was what we call a tier-zero (they were the very best in the market)”.
The Rangers first team have been kitted out in Castore ever since. It appeared as though the Gers were opting to switch kit suppliers from the 2025/26 season, but Castore own the rights to Umbro in the UK so the partnership shows no signs of slowing down just yet.
