State of Football

Football Merchandise

How beautiful is it when you have founded a business that now, in 2018, is one of the largest players in the field of merchandising for football clubs! “And 80% of the turnover is generated through export. Remarkable for a small SME business in Deventer”, says Roel Bakker, CEO of State of Football, on his company and team. Football club merchandising can be divided into branded merchandising, which brands like Nike and Adidas bring to the market, and non-branded merchandising which only uses characteristics of a club to develop collections. So no ‘swoosh’ or 3 stripes. State of Football deals only with the latter category. The design team of the company creates one or more collections for clubs annually. For example, they have 162 articles for St. Germain. State of Football works for Dutch and international top football clubs.

Innovative in merchandising
Bakker: “We are always looking for new and innovative materials and alternative production methods.” From 2010, the company has picked up and executed the change that has resulted in State of Football’s enormous growth. The company has also become a distributor of merchandising outside of home countries in Europe and beyond. How cool is that! For example, the development of a football for Real Madrid that the company now distributes worldwide and the collections will follow. In the Netherlands, we are familiar with the shirts of FC Barcelona, those little boys and girls are wearing their favourite! Now the Dutch competition leaves much to be desired, the merchandising of shirts is noticed and sold by several different European football clubs.

More tracks
To be at the top, you must consolidate your business. Roel Bakker: “We work in two tracks, the merchandising for the clubs on the one hand and the sales within the country and Europe on the other hand. Parties who cannot keep up leave, and I am of the opinion that 4 to 5 big parties are left who have a say in matters. We want to be one of them. With the good business contacts we have built during the past years and the large number of innovations concerning merchandising products and our collections, that is realistic. With a young team, we are capable of responding quickly, and we can do business at Champions League level.” State of Football gives advice and facilitates clubs.