As sports rule the fashion conversation, Classic Football Shirts secures investment and opens first US store

Doug Bierton knows just about everything there is to know about soccer jerseys. The founder of the nearly 20-year-old Classic Football Shirts, an online marketplace for buying and selling vintage soccer jerseys, could tell you the history behind nearly every one of the 6,500 most-coveted shirts in the company’s vault in Manchester, U.K. At the mention of Samuel Eto’o, for example, Bierton was able to pull one of the player’s jerseys off the rack and describe where and when he got it in less than 30 seconds.

It’s the authenticity that Bierton and his co-founder, Matt Dale, bring to the business that convinced The Chernin Group to invest nearly $40 million in Classic Football Shirts, the company announced on Thursday. Greg Bettinelli, partner at TCG, said he’s been looking to invest in another company that he felt was on the cusp of a breakthrough. Formerly a partner at Upfront Ventures, Bettinelli was an early investor in other resale startups including GOAT and ThredUp.

“We’re interesting in investing in enduring consumer businesses,” Bettinelli said. “We’ve spent a lot of time identifying opportunities at the intersection of sports and fashion, and football is the king of all sports.”

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