Welsh teenager kicks off vintage football shirt company to fund university

Stephen Price

It began with a box of football shirts, then two, then a few more, until eventually she had over 2,000 shirts filling her parent’s spare bedroom.

Eleri Williams isn’t your average teenager – at 15, she started her own business and is now preparing to open her own store in Cardiff’s Royal Arcade.

The idea came in 2023 when Eleri decided she wanted to study law at Cardiff University. However, she wasn’t too keen at the prospect of being tied to student loan repayments.

“I wanted to give myself a head start,” she said. “The goal was to set myself up to leave university without any debt, so my dad suggested looking into the football shirt market.”

Her father Will is an avid football shirt collector, boasting an impressive Manchester United collection spanning decades.

Eleri, who lives at home with her parents in Aberdare, set up Ballers CP and began selling some of her father’s unwanted items through eBay.

She quickly realised the demand was huge, and her little side hustle developed into a full-fledged business. She began buying from private sellers, at in-person football shirt events, and from individuals online looking to sell their unwanted jerseys.

“Nothing from my GCSE Business Studies could have prepared me for this,” she said. “We went from eBay auctions to big in-person events all around the country and now we’re opening a shop.”

The shirts at Ballers CP typically sell anywhere between £20 to £200. So far, Eleri’s rarest find is a PSG x Louis Vuitton 2006/07 away shirt which sold for well over Eleri’s usual price range.

She continues: “We have been in trade for three years and currently hold six figures of stock.”

As well as private sellers and bulk buying, Eleri has built relationships with several Premier League clubs to buy match-worn and player training shirts.

“These relationships came via word of mouth,” she said. “It started off when we were put in contact with a kit man at a Premier League club who would send me photos of training shirts and player-issue kits asking if I was interested in buying them.”

When asked if she had reached her goal to fund her studies, Eleri confirmed in the last three years she has made over £30,000 and is set to fund her own tuition when she starts her law degree at Cardiff University in September. She plans to continue running Ballers CP throughout her studies.

The vintage football shirt market has grown exponentially in the past couple of years, with giants in the market like Classic Football Shirts reporting to sell around 300,000 shirts a year.

When asked why she thinks vintage shirts are so popular, Eleri said: “I think people love to hunt for nostalgia because people want to reflect on positive and happy memories. We sell a lot of Man United and Cardiff City stuff at the minute because people want to relive their glory days.

“Social media plays a massive part, too. You see influencers wearing classics shirts instead of the new ones, and others like to reflect on iconic matches and players in their content, so fans become more aware of the shirt and want to own it.”

It’s no secret that classic shirts come at a price. Some reach several hundreds of pounds, which has pushed some fans to shop for counterfeits.

Around 16.2m ‘fake’ shirts are sold in the UK every year, according to leading brand protection company Corsearch.

Eleri explains the authentication process that goes into buying each shirt: “We normally authenticate the shirt before we buy them through individual jersey codes, because you can always tell by the tag if you’re not sure,” she says.

“I have an eye for it now. I know by just looking at the photo if it’s real or not, and in person it’s all down to the stitching in and around the tag, the pattern of the shirt, and the all-important product code on the manufacturer tags.”

Eleri’s parents Will and Nicola are both retired and have helped her set up the business and handle the day-to-day admin, like emails and social media messages, which has helped Eleri balance the business with her revision and exams.

“I’ve been lucky to have them every step of the way,” she said. “My dad thinks it’s great because he loves football.

“He wants to be involved in the designing and the online stuff, but he is in his fifties, so he doesn’t really get the social media side of things. I’ve had to ask him to share things with me before posting anything.”

Baller CP will open its door in Royal Arcade on 11 June. You can contact Eleri and the team by visiting their Instagram.

Marika Jones, Centre Manager for the Morgan Quarter, said: “It’s wonderful to welcome Eleri, an amazing young entrepreneur, to the Morgan Quarter, and we can’t wait to see lots of football shirts around the arcades this summer.”