Greaves Sports, Glasgow’s oldest sports retailer, will not renew its exclusive retail partnership with SFL club Partick Thistle after the four-year deal expires at the end of the season.
The agreement has seen the club receive a guaranteed annual royalty payment that rivalled any SPL club’s retail arrangement outside of the Old Firm.
In addition to giving Partick Thistle a designated area in its Sauchiehall Street store in Glasgow city centre, Greaves operates the club’s match day retail and online store.
In partnership with Puma licensee Genesis, Greaves was responsible for some of the club’s most ambitious and successful kit launches, such as the infamous pink hooped away kit and the current purple thistle print away jersey.
A spokesman for Greaves Sports said: “We would like to thank the Partick Thistle fans for their support of our business over the years, they are a tremendous group of fans and it’s been an honour to serve them.
“We always tried to innovate and give them something a bit different from rival clubs and they bought into that.
“Our kit launches have knocked the Old Firm off the back pages at times and have even made headlines in the Italian press.
“We’ve sent Thistle jerseys all over the world from Vegas to Vancouver and we even managed to get one to Pamplona in time for the famous bull run, which happened to coincide with our launch date.
“Ultimately there aren’t too many partnerships or sponsorships driven by emotion these days, but our deal with Thistle was just that.
“Obviously the numbers don’t stack up, but they never actually did and we were fully aware of that at inception.
“The main thing is we made a significant financial contribution to the club through a difficult period in the context of Scottish football and the fans hopefully benefited from a great service and some great merchandise.”
Greaves has set up a clearance website at www.ptfcsale.com to give Partick Thistle fans the chance to buy official club merchandise at a fraction of the usual cost.
