How a Mindarie hobbyist turned retro jersey collections into a fully-fledged store in Perth’s CBD

Vintage football lovers rejoice! A humble reselling hobby based out of a Mindarie bedroom has evolved into a physical store in Perth’s CBD, stocking around 400 jerseys per month.

The Kit Dealer opened its doors in June, coincidentally right in time for the hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Perth.

The demand for owner Robert Childs’ rare finds has been widespread, starting from humble beginnings in his Mindarie bedroom.

“I was 14 when I bought my first jersey and it just became an addiction, I just started really networking with people that I started to buy from in Europe and other places around the world,” he said.

Right throughout the rest of his schooling life, Mr Childs became an avid collector and started a party photography business and worked on a farm to pay for more jerseys.

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In this time, he started selling some of his collection on eBay and became an expert in identifying the difference between authentic and knock-off memorabilia.

2020 saw the birth of the Kit Dealer name, starting with an Instagram page but getting slow traction in sales and with a limited inventory.

Mr Childs would eventually catch his break in the form of a UK celebrity who reached out to him on Instagram.

He offered to send UK rapper Jelani Blackman a jersey along with rapper friend Big Zuu.

“He (Blackman) messaged me randomly, which I was really shocked about, and he ended up asking me if I could get a jersey for Big Zuu because he had to go on a live broadcast for Sky Sports,” Mr Childs said.

“He asked me for a Liverpool kit in like XXL or XXXL.

“I started panicking because it’s an obscure size and obviously I didn’t have much of a collection back then.

“I ended up finding one on Marketplace somewhere in Perth and I shipped it out to him.

“It got to him and he wore it on Sky Sports — I had to watch like an illegal stream because obviously we don’t have Sky Sports here.”

From there, The Kit Dealer organically took off, cementing itself over the years as Perth’s main retro football jersey supplier.

Teasing its loyal customer base with various pop-ups, The Kit Dealer finally opened a bricks-and-mortar store in Perth’s CBD at Piccadilly Arcade. The launch saw around 200 people step foot through its doors.

Mr Childs was studying aviation before the success of the business meant he had to halt his studies. He joined the team at Perth-based streetwear brand StreetX, learning the ins and outs of running a store from owner Dan Bradshaw.

“There’s so much to learn from Dan because he’s seriously a pioneer in Australian streetwear, the way he runs his business, he runs it as a family. Everyone gets a chance to ask questions and if you want to work in a particular avenue, you can work in that,” Mr Childs said.

His stint working at StreetX gave him priceless knowledge about how to run a business and store, and he now employs three of his own staff.

However, it is the connections he has made since the age of 14 from all over the globe which has allowed for the success of the business and constant influx of rare vintage jerseys.

“I have a space in Napoli in Italy, I ship everything to one of my friends there, who runs his own vintage store,” Mr Childs said.

“I worked out it was logistically cheaper to buy everything from around Europe and ship it to Italy, get it authenticated there by my friend and then boxed up all into one box and shipped over here.

“I buy from Portugal, Spain, Germany, England, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine before the war and basically everywhere around Europe.

“I’ve networked with all different people. People in Europe know that I’m the person that they can come and sell to.”

Before opening the store, Mr Childs said he was quickly running out of room to wash and hang the garments at his parents’ Mindarie home.

“In the beginning I was barely getting in 10, 11 shirts per drop. I would wash, detail and then hang the shirts,” he said.

Numbers rapidly grew to 50-shirt releases, in which he had to build makeshift clotheslines inside and outside the home to hand dry all the garments.

As demand grew even further midway through 2022, he turned to his grandparents for extra line space at their home.

“At this point, we are getting in around 200 shirts a week, I needed to run three lines down both sides of both houses to be able to dry everything,” he said.

“It was really cool because a lot of my school friends and people around the area started supporting the brand. They knew me through so and so and they thought it was a really cool idea, the northern suburbs really supported me in that way.”

With the legacy of the successful Women’s World Cup front of mind as the A-League season in Australia commences, Mr Childs said football culture was alive and well in Perth, evident by his loyal supporter base.