Just three days after Leicester City "stormed to an unlikely English Premier League title," the club shop put next season’s replica shirts on sale, according to Malcolm Moore of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The new shirts bore a "small but important change: a gold badge on the sleeve to denote the club’s champion status." They "sold out in minutes." Puma, the kit sponsor, plans to raise production to have 90,000 shirts on sale by the time the new season kicks off in August. Leicester’s triumph "caught the imagination even of people who do not follow football." Companies, meanwhile, "were quick to link themselves to the club." The club, however, "has to be nimble." Its star "could fade if it suffers a loss of form when the new season begins, giving it a matter of months to reach as many agreements as possible." Sports marketing exec Patrick Nally, who helped FIFA build its commercial model, said, "They have to capture the impact quickly. Their window is six to eight months. I hope they have already planned to respond ... This is an opportunity for Leicester to expand, particularly through Asia." The club -- controlled by the owners of Thai duty-free company King Power since '10 -- "has moved quickly to consolidate its south-east Asian links." Leicester City Council Dir of Tourism, Culture & Inward Investment Mike Dalzell said that from King Power's view, things have "gone bananas." The value to the company of the publicity that the club is enjoying "is huge." The number of the club’s followers online "has grown dramatically." Brandtix, which analyzes social media exposure, said that Leicester City’s following jumped from 2 million across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to 5.6 million. Many of Leicester’s new fans are overseas, "giving the club the chance" to sign up foreign "partners." If Leicester City "can consolidate a global fan base, it will open a route to multiple sponsorship regions and categories" (FT, 6/7).
