The story of Unisport

09.02.2023

Written by Zlatko

Unisport is one of the World's leading retailers of football boots, football shirts and other football equipment. Based in Copenhagen, Unisport has provided premium service to football players, fans and clubs across the globe, since 1995. Besides flagship stores in the heart of Paris, central Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo Unisport run local webshops in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria - and serve football consumers across the globe on unisportstore.com.

Making football dreams come true since 1995

The year was 1995, when Unisport first saw the light of day in the little football-country, Denmark. The company kicked off in a small flat in Copenhagen by entrepreneur, and huge Tottenham fan, Henrik Larsen.

After just six months in the initial flat, an opportunity to move to a larger location on Istedgade came along. Back then we could already offer football shirts from all over the world, which was our great passion. The store would attract people from all over the world, eager to explore our huge assortment of football shirts.

The many years at the 'Vesterbro Torv'

After just six months on Istedgade, we had outgrown the location, and it was time to relocate once again. This time the destination would be Vesterbrogade 45.

The bar was raised yet again as the store in Vesterbrogade was expanded to include an extra floor. The first Nike Football shop-in-shop in Denmark became a reality, and the expansion gave us the opportunity to complete the football experience by also offering football boots. This made us dream big, and sparked the dream of becoming "The World's Best Football Store".

Starting the online adventure

In 2002 we decided to start selling our football products online, and our first website unisport.dk was launched. The online business had a rather slow start, but the 2004 European Championships enabled us to slowly but surely increase the number of customers.

In the mid 00's e-commerce was really exploding, and in the summer of 2006, we relocated our office to Vesterbrogade 15 and 17. The physical store also got new home grounds right across the main entrance of the famous Tivoli in Copenhagen.

An increasing number of employees, and brand new positions were born. Innovation was key, and the now famous Unisport WebTV concept was launched. Our very own WebTV channel, where football boot reviews, interviews with footballers and product videos were uploaded. Last but not least, a small team was put together to produce daily blogs on the latest football gear. Everything in order to offer more value for our users, and provide the knowledge needed for a proper football shopping experience.

Unisport Team Sport

After a couple of years with continuous development of our website, it was time for yet another expansion – Unisport Team Sport. A new department serving football clubs and companies looking for knowledgeable guidance when shopping for clothes and team kits. A showroom was built and the Unisport Team Sport launched a new catalogue, lead by one of the loyal 'players' from the rapidly growing Unisport squad.

In 2018 we launched Unisport Kit Builder as an online service to make it possible for football clubs, company teams and Sunday League aficionados all over the world, to easily order their team kits with full flexibility. Besides enabling access to a premium team kit assortment we also started to offer everybody in grassroot football to be sponsored by Unisport, and get premium service for their team.

From Valby to Sydhavnen

While the Danish Superliga was on winter break around the beginning of 2010, the full Unisport squad were working hard. This time it was a final goodbye to Vesterbro for both our warehouse and offices, as we moved to new home grounds on Gammel Køge Landevej in Valby just outside of Copenhagen.

Rapid growth in Denmark, as well as launching Unisport in Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands resulted in a short stay of just three years. During the winter 2013 we moved to our new offices at Bådehavnsgade 38 in Sydhavnen, where our administration is still located today. In the second half of 2018, our warehouses moved to bigger facilities in Albertslund to enable future growth of the business. At the end of 2022, the growth in online orders forced us again to move to a bigger warehouse. This time, we chose the lovely city of Køge, located by the coast and 39 km southwest of Copenhagen.

Unisport Flagship Stores

Copenhagen

In late 2015, just before Christmas, we opened up the doors to our brand new Flagship Store in the heart of Copenhagen. The purpose was not only to create a premium retail destination, but a truly unique football experience. With constantly changing initiative areas, a football museum in the staircase, touchscreens to explore products, and a tryout cage in the boot room, we have translated our digital football experience, and combined it with the best parts of physical retail.

Paris

During World Cup 2018 our sales in France really started to boom. And when we found a perfect location in Paris in the beginning of 2019, we decided that this was going to be the home of our second flagship store. We opened up the doors to Unisport Paris on Rue Berger in the Les Halles area in May 2019 - just before the Women's World Cup.

At the same time as we opened the doors to our store in Paris, we decided to launch a new visual identity, and replaced our classic logotype with a new and modern version. You can read more about the development of the Unisport logotype here.

Stockholm

In December 2021 it was time to open the doors for our 3rd physical store in Europe. This time the location was Sweden - more specifically on Sergels Torg, Sveavägen 2 in Stockholm. With our new flagship store on 300 sqm, we are welcoming the Swedish football lovers to a whole new world of football. The opening of the store was celebrated in style, over 3 days, with fun football activities ranging from street football to speed shooting competitions and much more.

Oslo

March 2024 marked the opening of Unisport's 4th physical store, as we opened the doors to our store in Norway, specifically Karl Johans Gate 37 – 43 in Oslo. In connection with the opening, we also launched, in collaboration with the NFF, Norway's official national football shirt. The store, which measures over 600 square meters, is today home to the world's coolest football products, a football museum and, in general, an extraordinary football experience.

Award winning e-commerce

We have won the user award three times – in 2011, 2012 and 2017. The user award goes to the company that receives the most votes from consumers, and then gets the best results from a Best Practice Review conducted by a jury. We won the Social Commerce award in 2012, as a result of our work in relation to combining e-commerce and social media.

In 2013 we won both the B2C award and the E-commerce Gold as the best Web shop in Denmark. As a result of the latter we went to defend the honour of Denmark on the big international scene. Among the biggest and best we were awarded European bronze, and took the third spot in the rank of the best web shops in Europe.

In 2014, we made our way into the spotlight again when winning the Cross Border award. An achievement that we repeated in 2016. The same year as we also won the best webshop in Sweden, and placed in Top 3 webshops in Norway. A proof that our concept can stand the distance in other countries. Every awards is a great recognition of our team, who all work very hard to make a difference.

In 2018 we hit the magic mark of 1 million followers on YouTube and won the Golden 1 million YouTube Award. Followed in 2020 getting the Silver YouTube award for reaching 100.000 followers on our French YouTube Channel, less than year after we started the channel. In 2023, we gained more recognition when we won a total of 3 Youtube awards, including The Big Grand Prix Award

From 1995 to "The World’s Best Football Store"

It all started with a passion for football shirts in 1995, and today you will find football shirts from every corner of the world, and a massive selection of football boots and equipment, plus all the lifestyle products footballers need. Our squad has increased to more than 300 employees. We have a WebTV channel with more than +1 billion views. We have several social media accounts, including global and local Instagram- and Facebook-accounts, global TikTok-, Snapchat and Twitter-accounts and two YouTube channels. All of them combined results in more than +8 million followers in total and they deliver a daily news feed to keep you updated on the latest and greatest football products.

We are in constant development and always striving to improve - on our mission to inspire everyone in the world with our passion for football. And the most important thing for us, is to help making your football dreams come true. Let's make it happen.

#unisportlife