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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt recently concluded a deal with Liverpool Football Club, while there are agreements with Spanish soccer giants Barcelona and Real Madrid \u2014 the world\u2019s most valuable club at $6.8 billion, according to Forbes \u2014 in the offing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March alone, Old School started selling gear celebrating Southern Guards GC<\/a>, a South African team in the LIV Golf League and added gear for London club Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> to its catalogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company \u2014 which employs more than 250 people across its head office, warehouse and retail operations \u2014 has over 20 standalone stores, kiosks and pop-ups in premier retail locations throughout South Africa, having opened its flagship shop in Stellenbosch in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the eve of that opening, the business almost ground to a halt when the South African Rugby Union sued Old School for copyright infringement on its intellectual property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe realised we can\u2019t use someone\u2019s IP if you don\u2019t pay for it,\u201d Steinmann said. \u201cThat for us was a big turning point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoiding court, they reached an agreement that resulted in a partnership that has endured and flourished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Firms like Old School \u201care capitalising on national brands and are using them to build their own personal value,\u201d said Bronwyn Williams, a strategic foresight adviser at Flux Trends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey play in the margins by making their brands close enough to the reference brand to trigger value, but without having to pay the licenses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With brands of national interest such as the Springboks, entrepreneurs such as the Steinmanns aren\u2019t taking the registered trademark for specific logos and colours, but are instead making the most of the association by navigating the nuance of the law, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In many cases, lawsuits only come to light when the startups become profitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams said governments could consider placing these assets into a national fund that enables society to profit, rather than effectively ring-fencing who gets to make money off national identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sports brands\u2019 deals with companies like Old School differ from the global kit-manufacturing rights that clubs have with sportswear behemoths such as Nike Inc. and Puma SE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Nike holds global rights to design and make official Springboks, Liverpool and NBA kit, for example, these retailers operate further down the value chain, focusing on sales and distribution of these goods as well as selling now-licensed fanwear and some replica items made by the startup itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe felt that we were entering\u00a0a space where there was already a globally proven model of people wanting to buy into their most beloved brands,\u201d said Steinmann. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey don\u2019t want to just buy the kit or athleisure wear \u2014 they want to wear it in a fashion piece. That for us was why we kept building this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While brands such as Nike, Adidas AG and Kappa \u201cplay on-field,\u201d Old School \u201cneeds to be this very premium storytelling and quality authority around the brands we work with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extending this logic, it\u2019s working with 100 schools in South Africa, developing and making athleisure items for alumni and parents \u2014 \u201csomething that they can unite behind and that creates loyalty to our brand and that ecosystem,\u201d Steinmann said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He declined to share whether the company is making a profit or breaking even, saying only that funds are reinvested into the business. Steinmann also wouldn\u2019t say where the clothing is manufactured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company is working to replicate its model in other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late March, it\u00a0announced a partnership<\/a>\u00a0with Schools\u2019 Sports Ltd. (UK), a tech company that provides software platforms for more than 1,000 educational institutions\u2019 sports programmes globally and in Britain, to roll out a schools division in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It has also set up and registered to operate in India<\/a>, \u201cone of the more complex builds we\u2019ve taken on,\u201d Steinmann said in a LinkedIn post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the rollout in the world\u2019s most populous nation, Old School is launching a tribute range honouring South African cricketer A.B. de Villiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n De Villiers played for the national Proteas team and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League, a club-cricket competition with a business valuation of\u00a0$18.5 billion last year<\/a>, according to the IPL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Old School\u2019s mission is to \u201cunite people with legendary products,\u201d working to bring goods associated with the world\u2019s best sports teams to South African aficionados, Steinmann said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe really believe sport can unite this country,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd we thought merch is a great way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By\u00a0Enzokuhle Sabela for Bloomberg News<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A South African clothing startup is taking on the global athleisure market, led by brothers Daneel and Stef Steinmann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":856564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[24450],"class_list":["post-856553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-old-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856566,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856553\/revisions\/856566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"