Castore No More – Very final traces now removed from Newcastle United | OneFootball

Yes, at last, yet another part of the Mike Ashley shambles at Newcastle United, is now history.

All trace of the Castore retail operation has now been removed from club outlets.

As we all know, Adidas the replacement and very high expectations on numerous fronts, much of that based on the successful partnership that ran between Newcastle United and the German kit giants for a decade and a half, from 1995 to 2010.

Newcastle United fans trying to visit the club’s official online store on Wednesday morning are seeing this…

The club, to nobody’s surprise, taking merchandising in-house once again.

The last remaining (Mike Ashley closed all the rest of them in favour of his nearby Sports Direct stores) official physical club store is now currently closed at the Gallowgate End for a massive refit / rebuild and will be back open later this summer.

In the meantime, a temporary official club shop opens today opposite the Gallowgate End (next to the Strawberry).

With canny queues expected when the first replica home kit of the new Adidas deal goes on sale in nine days time, on 7 June 2024.

With Mike Ashley unsuccessful with an injunction, at least for now, his Sports Direct empire will no longer have access to official Newcastle United merchandise. Replica kits only available via the club’s official NUFC online and physical stores, JD Sports and Adidas themselves.

Newcastle United official announcement – 8 May 2024:

‘Newcastle United has commenced work to move its retail operations in-house for the first time in more than a decade with the construction and imminent installation of a temporary club store and new e-commerce website.

Following initial groundworks in April and May, the first of five modular ‘Rapid Retail’ units began to arrive at St. James’ Park on Wednesday to form a larger temporary store that will serve fans this summer.

Meanwhile, the club is currently building a new online retail platform – shop.newcastleunited.com – that will go live on 29th May, supporting the sale of official merchandise to supporters around the world.

For visitors to St. James’ Park, the temporary store will be situated between The Strawberry pub and the St. James’ STACK presented by Sela, and will be operated by Newcastle United’s new in-house retail team. It will also officially open on 29th May to coincide with the closure of the existing stadium store, which is currently operated by Castore, and in time for England men’s and women’s international matches.

When the agreement between Castore and the Magpies concludes later this month, the current stadium store beneath the Gallowgate End will undergo a significant refit. In its place, a brand-new retail experience will open later this summer as part of the upcoming partnership between Newcastle United and global sportswear giant, adidas. The temporary store will then be removed.

Peter Silverstone, Chief Commercial Officer at Newcastle United, said: “We are hugely excited about engaging with supporters directly through our new in-house retail operations.

“We have big plans for our retail business, and the first step on the journey is to launch a new digital retail platform while completely revitalising how we meet supporters’ needs in our physical stores.

“The temporary store at Strawberry Place will enable us to close the existing retail outlet at St. James’ Park and put significant investment into the site. The result will be the launch of a world class retail experience at a flagship stadium store, filled with new kit and merchandise that we anticipate will be hugely popular.

“We are building a passionate local team to drive this new retail operation, helping us to deliver on the huge demand for Newcastle United products through best-in-class service.

“We recognise it will take time to get our service to the perfect levels we strive for, and we thank supporters for their patience as we go through this important transitionary period over the summer months.”