Happy Birthday To Us! 7 years
Everyone likes to celebrate a birthday, we are no different!
Well, not sure exactly how to celebrate during the current COVID-19 crisis, but we would still like to make a bit of a fuss. This week Moving Forward Sports is 7 years old! It’s been quite a journey to say the least.
The Start… Moving Forward Sports began under an acronym, MOFO Sports, with our first premises at Victoria Ground, the historic home stadium of Bromsgrove Sporting FC in the old un-used “club shop” from the days of the former club Bromsgrove Rovers. Founder of the business, Jamie Marler, a coach at the club, had been working in the sports teamwear industry, and saw an opportunity to create his own business. Agreeing a deal with the football club to take over the club shop space, while at the same time becoming the clubs official kit supplier.
The traditional “stand outside the entrance” photo!
Small & cosy, Bromsgrove Sporting merchandise alongside samples of kit, clothing and equipment for other clubs and customers.
The shop allowed good networking with introductions when away clubs visited, cup finals and when other events were hosted. The business grew slowly building mainly on word of mouth recommendations or networking with local leagues. Very early on, a deal was done to be sponsor of the Bromsgrove & District Football League. Stock was sourced including clearance items from JJB which was closing down. The first football brands offered were Uhlsport and Givova, as well as starting our own custom designed kits, working in collaboration with Irish teamwear company KiT Sportswear. Some of the more well known early customers were Chasetown FC Academy section, and the newly formed Hinckley AFC. It was a good place to start, but it was clear we would soon outgrow. Such restrictions like having no phone line, or internet made splitting time with an office from home and using an internet dongle not ideal.
Moving on… After a year of running, aware the initial agreement of occupying the “club shop” was for only two years, the hunt for new premises began, looking for a good mix of being closer to home, bigger premises, overheads being affordable, a few disappointments came and went, until we settled on a new home, Sterling Park in Woodgate, a 680 square foot unit at the back of a trading estate, hidden away, but ideal for showcasing more of what we could do, and suitable with the “meeting by appointment” opening hours. The space was a shared front door, which to start with was fine, as was shared with a storage look up that was hardly used. The front of the space was used as a showroom with rails of clothing on the walls, a small sofa and chairs to sit down with customers, and a back area split off to use as office space. We now had the ability to work with landline phones, internet, card payment machines, to operate fully.
Kit wise, we were able to offer more brands as suppliers saw the business expanding, selling Joma, Errea, Adidas, Nike, having the space to stock and offer equipment from Diamond and Precision Training, showcasing merchandise with other services. Multiple in house printing machinary, and more. The company and own brand moved to becoming “Moving Forward Sports” and we worked hard to start our own manufacturing in England, that was fully our own brand. The customer base grew, higher profile links came with higher level non league clubs such as Barwell FC, Walton & Hersham and Alvechurch. We formed exciting links with the likes of AtTheMatch, a company representing football players, providing their clients with training clothing packages. Supplying the UK FootGolf team with kit for the successful win of the European Championships. Building official links, and designing the logo for the Midland Football League, and the Youth Basketball League.
Premises number 2. Showroom area, it seemed big when we moved in!
Seating area for customers.
The business quickly outgrew the premises it was based in, and after 3 years, another move was planned. This time the move would need to be bigger, with more showroom space, more office space, warehouse space, and more.
Again we had the frustrations of finding a suitable place, after much work and viewing, some very hard decisions had to be made, before finally, a location we had been interested in before the previous move, became available at the 11th hour. We moved quickly, securing our new premises on Station Road, Northfield. As we have moved in, fitted out the premises, and been operating for our first year, we know we have found a fantastic location space (although it seems we can always use more room!). Right next to a railway station, full height glass frontage, lots of car parking, in the middle of lots of local clubs we supply to. We moved in during March 2019, having our official grand opening in October when we invited our customers in to see our new set up, thanking them for their support over the years. The new premises has been fitted out by ourselves to suit our requirements, a large showroom in an industrial style, complete with astro turf flooring, fun interactive parts such as the imported Portuguese table football, the bespoke 5-a-side Subbuteo table, a vintage retro arcade machine, and the meeting room decked out with sports memorabilia, not forgetting the fully stocked bar with coffee machine. The separate office area allows customers to be shown around while work continues, new in house printing set up, that is being added to all the time for new products for clubs, warehouse space to hold stock for quick turnarounds for customers needing urgent top ups of essential items.
We further established links with local multi team clubs such as Bartley Reds, Redditch Borough, Solihull FC, Meadow Park, Rubery Juniors and many more. Our new ecommerce website launched, with online club shops, providing a service to make life easier so players and parents can purchase direct, taking admin work away from club volunteers. It also proves extremely useful for our partner clubs further a field such as Hampton & Richmond Borough, near London, and AFC Ottery St Mary, in Devon. Our customer base has expanded to international sales, our kits manufactured in England have been developed year on year using the latest fabrics and technology. We now offer fully bespoke off field clothing ranges as well, which see clubs creating their own unique identities, that best of all, never get discontinued or go out of stock. As our own brand grows, we have streamlined our stock brands to ones we can trust, and know offer fantastic quality, value, and service, Joma, Hummel, Kappa and Uhlsport all offering advantages for different reasons, who we work with for clubs wanting the stock option, and we can operate as the local supplier for kit deals for clubs of all sizes and levels.
New premises. Front of showroom, with Table Football to play. Displays of trophy samples, examples of custom design hats, scarves and socks.
Meeting room. Sit down, view the sports memorabilia, and be serviced refreshments from the bar.
A year into life at our new premises, we have reached our 7th birthday, a time we would have loved to invite people in to celebrate with us. Although it is a great success, it also represents our biggest challenge yet. Now should be the exciting period as we hit the busy time with clubs looking for trophies for end of season presentations, football trips and tournaments, which are so much fun, planning for the new season. All of which are opportunities where as a business we look to provide for our customers, generating our main income for the year. The current COVID-19 has had a devastating effect. We have had to work from home, orders have obviously ground to a halt. Clubs and other customers are unable to plan for the future, as decisions of the current season remain unconfirmed.
We don’t know what the future brings, nor do our customers. Meetings are on hold with no date known of when things may return to some kind of normality. At this time, there are more important things than selling kits and other items to our customers. At this moment, we want to wish all our existing, and potential customers the very best of health to them and their families. We hope you all stay safe and well!
In the meantime, we will be working hard behind the scenes to have things ready for when you need us. Our made in England manufacturing will give help to quickly turn around orders when needed. The busines, supply chain and workers means that even a local team buying one kit, supports well over 30 peoples jobs.
Again, we wish to thank every customer who has supported us over the last 7 years, we will certainly make up for it next year, having a double birthday celebration for number 8!
Grand Opening, ribbon cutting by Carl & Lisa Hart cutting the ribbon to open the new shop.
The day was linked to raising awareness and fundraising for their daughter and “Amelia Kicks Her Curves”