Luke O'Connor and Kitlaunch continue to prosper

The second edition of Kit Con Éire - a gathering of football kit collectors, vendors and enthusiasts - takes place at the Carlton Hotel, Dublin Airport tomorrow.

Among those showing his wares will be Glanmire native Luke O'Connor, the founder and owner of Kitlaunch, which is based at Cork's Marina Market as well as offering a strong online presence.

Luke, who combines the venture with his day job with Morgan McKinley, has always had an interest in football strips.

“The first time I went to Old Trafford, around 2006, 2007, I got a jersey there," he says, "white v-neck with the gold nameset on the back, Rooney 8 before he became Rooney 10!

“A few years later, my aunt passed on the United Champions League jersey to me from 1999, the treble season. That was a stand-out piece because it was so retro, none of the lads my age would have seen it.

“I remember wearing it to training and parties and lads would be asking me where I got it. I remember wearing it to a Sydney FC game when I was on holidays and I had people shouting, ‘Cantona!’ at me, even though he wasn’t on that team!

“That was a good few years before I started Kitlaunch, but it stemmed from that, the realisation that old jerseys resonate with people, especially those worn during successful periods. Over recent years, United have had some lovely kits but they’re not going to be well remembered because they haven’t been good times for the club."

POSITIVE

The move towards starting a business came during the enforced downtime brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It was during lockdown, May 2020, that I had the idea,” he says.

“I was floating the idea with my friends, asking what they thought about retro shirts and they were positive towards them – nice to have to something to wear going over to a match or even going to a concert or on holidays.

“The idea just came from there. Initially, I just started sourcing jerseys for people – they’d text me asking if I could get a particular one and I’d scour the internet for it and get it sent to them, basically saving them the effort of going out and looking for it themselves.

“One thing led to another and I set up the website – I did it through Shopify so there was no coding or anything like that involved though it took about two weeks of hard work to set it up.

It was great – rather than having people texting you or getting in touch on Instagram, it was all in one place on the website.”

"It was at December of that year that Luke set up a pop-up shop at Marina Market, clearing the rails in the last five days leading up to Christmas Eve. That eventually led to a more permanent presence at the venue as the business has grown.

“There have been loads of people helping me, family and friends, and I have one guy, Killian, employed at the Marina Market at weekends,” he says.

“It suits him – he’s in college and he loves football, which is the only requirement!”

“I’ll always price-match with eBay and Depop, there’s no point selling something for three times the price that it’s available somewhere else.

“I won’t bring the premium stuff down to the Marina Market – nobody’s going down there to spend €300.

“I tend to bring stuff of better value down there, the €30-40 range, something to wear for five-a-side.”

At the other end of the scale, has Luke ever had 'seller's remorse', wishing he'd hung on to a shirt for posterity?

“It’s tough,” he says, “because a lot of them that come in, you’re thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’ll every find one of them again.’

“I actually had a couple of Molde shirts from when Ole Gunnar Solskjær was still the manager and Erling Haaland was playing there – you’re thinking they might be worth something in years to come.

I do have my own collection, separate to the stock, and what goes in there won’t come out of there.”

As well as Kit Con, Luke has recently had a pop-up shop in Cork city centre and he's hoping to do something in Dublin before too long. As awareness grows, so does the stock, helping the business to prosper.

“It’s definitely gotten easier,” he says.

“People will come up to me at the market and say that they have shirts at home that they haven’t used in years and ask if I’d be interested.

“I’ll be able to do trades or give store vouchers and it’s definitely worthwhile – they’re able to offload five shirts and pick up one that they’d prefer to wear instead. I like keeping diverse stock, too, so it works for everyone.”

• See www.kitlaunchcork.com and kitconeire.com for more