For this business, jersey "roulette" is paying off
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Soccer Premier's Sergio Sanchez is from Mexico but also supports Portugal, England and Spain in the World Cup. Photo: Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi/Axios
Harry Hines Boulevard is usually quiet on Sundays, a day off for smoke shop distributers and wholesale businesses.
- But over the last two weeks, World Cup fans have been keeping the jersey shops in the area busy seven days a week.
Vibe check: Inside Soccer Premier, you'll find racks of official jerseys, matches streaming on a large TV and customers conversing in different languages.
The intrigue: Soccer Premier has been in the same Harry Hines location for over 17 years and sells jerseys from all over the world, including Nigeria, Italy, Colombia and Spain.
- The store had to order its inventory 8–11 months before the World Cup, guessing which jerseys might be popular over others.
- "It was like a Russian roulette for us," assistant manager Sergio Sanchez told Axios on Sunday, between talking to customers, answering phone calls and heat pressing last names on jersey backs.
Zoom in: Soccer Premier has always sold World Cup jerseys. This year, though, sales have skyrocketed because North Texas is hosting matches, Sanchez says.
- Jerseys that sat on the rack for months or even years are selling. What Sanchez didn't anticipate was the demand he's now seeing for South Korea, England and Croatia jerseys.
What they're saying: To Sanchez, there's only one word to describe why fans are drawn to jerseys: "identity."
- "They want to identify with the players that are on the field — it doesn't matter who they are or where they're from," he says.