Private equity firm The Chernin Group (TCG) announced an investment of over $35 million in soccer apparel company Classic Football Shirts.
Classic Football Shirts sells vintage and current soccer apparel and match-worn shirts. It was founded in Manchester, U.K., in 2006 by Doug Bierton and Matthew Dale. The company has stores throughout the United Kingdom and is opening a pop-up shop in New York City on May 16.
Greg Bettinelli, a partner at TCG, led the investment. He was intrigued by the authentic nature of the company, which started as a tiny operation and has since grown to have over 1.5 million followers combined on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
“What’s great about this business is it’s organically grown for 18 years. It’s been profitable every year along the way,” Bettinelli said on a video call. “They don’t spend a tremendous amount of money on Facebook or Instagram … it’s all been done organically and those are the attributes that we’re looking for.”
Classic Football Shirts was entirely self-funded before TCG’s investment. Bierton and Dale do not recall exactly how much they put into the business but reminisced about the long nights and maxed-out credit cards they went through to keep it afloat.
Peter Chernin, Jesse Jacobs and Mike Kerns formed TCG in 2010, and it focuses on consumer businesses in sports, digital media and gaming. The firm also has investments in Premier Lacrosse League, Barstool Sports, Oura, Cars & Bids, Action Network and other companies.
The firm recently invested in David Blitzer and Josh Harris’ Unrivaled Sports, the parent company of the private equity giants’ youth sports assets. TCG and Classic Football Shirts see the value of future partnership opportunities in the youth sports space.
“I think we could see pop-up shops around our youth soccer events, something like that or potentially do something collaborative where we have stores in New York and Los Angeles and other places if we have content or youth sports experiences, we could potentially come together,” Bettinelli said.
TCG’s investment in Classic Football Shirts is in line with some of the other investments the firm has made in the authentic memorabilia space. In 2021, TCG headlined a $40 million investment in Goldin Auctions alongside Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban and NBA star Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns.
TCG also invested in Collectors Holdings, which is owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and venture capitalist Nat Turner. Collectors Holdings bought Goldin Auctions in 2021 and sold it to eBay last month.
