Changes for the club shop and retail at Oxford United
Oxford United will this week begin a total overhaul of the club’s retail operation, aimed at improving the experience for fans.
The club has chosen not to renew its contract with JustSport who have been providing an out-sourced retail solution for the past five seasons, enabling the club to have total control over its entire retail range and sales operation.
As a result the club now has the ability to work directly with suppliers across a range of kit, training wear, leisure wear, gifts and souvenirs and this will lead to totally bespoke playing and training kit – moving away from the template based selections of previous years with Avec and Nike.
There will be brand new home and away kits for the coming season, with exciting news coming soon on the designs and both kits launched by the end of July, and in the future there will be opportunities for the club to incorporate more fan-led initiatives and designs which will generate revenue directly for the club.
The current club shop unit, adjacent to DW gym, will close on Friday 29th May in the short term as the club reviews possible options. We are currently working closely with Firoka to agree a location for new retail unit on-site at the stadium ahead of next season.
A brand new OUFC shop website will be launched ahead of the new kit announcement – with pre-orders available and great new ranges.
Kevin Smith, Director of Business Operations said:
“This is a huge opportunity for the club to take control of a key revenue generating area for us. We’d like to thank JustSport for their work over the past 5 years and we part on good terms, but we feel that now is the right time to take back operational control of both the playing kit and retail operations.
“By sourcing our products directly from suppliers we are afforded significantly more choice and can offer unique and bespoke items for our supporters at the right price, which we feel is the right thing to do.
“We are excited about the 2015/16 playing kits, which have been designed following fan input and which we hope will be very popular. We’ve invested in our new retail website which will go live ahead of the new kit launch in July and are working to improve the match day supporter experience at the Kassam Stadium with the introduction of a new retail unit on site.”