Teenage entrepreneur selling mystery football shirts sees surge in Hong Kong sales, now looking to m

“We have had more than 50 orders from Hong Kong and more than 3,000 website hits, it has been crazy,” Jones said. “I can only think it is a result of the power of social media.”

Jones came up with the concept after asthma kept him away from his paper round following the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020.

“I got lazy and did not want to get up at 6am to do a paper round again, but still wanted to earn £20 per week,” Jones said. “I used my birthday money to buy three shirts, then boxed them up as surprises and charged a premium when selling them.”

Surprise Shirts’ sales grew to the point where Jones left college midway through his first year to concentrate on managing the business.

After being laid-off during the pandemic, his father, Rob, spent redundancy money on trademarking a business website, and before long, both parents were working for him full time. The family soon realised that overseeing orders and deliveries from their home was impractical.

“Around Christmas 2020 you could not walk two feet in the house without stepping on a football shirt,” Jones said.

Jones secured office premises, and soon upgraded to a larger space, with enough warehouse storage for around 10,000 shirts.

The 19-year-old has traded shirts of clubs from between 60-70 per cent of the world’s nations, and sold to nearly 70 countries. While buyers can specify teams, leagues and colours they do not want, Jones still provides the consumer every opportunity to learn about a club they may have never heard of.

“We include a fact sheet with every shirt, so it is a pathway to learning about a new team and, maybe, following a side who are not rivals of your club,” Jones said. “And as a gift, it is a surprise, on a surprise.”

Jones, who supports Coventry City, likes shirts that are “brash and out there”, in sharp contrast to those from his home country.

“There is nothing too outlandish in England,” he said. “The kits are quite predictable, Manchester United’s past six home shirts are all similar.

“But in Mexico, the shirts are plastered with sponsors. There are crazy kits, with dragons and different patterns, in Indonesia and Malaysia. I love a shirt that is blow-your-mind crazy.”

Jones sources shirts directly from clubs, as well as “from smaller brands and manufactures”, and brokers dotted around the world.

Given the jump in sales from Hong Kong, the teen is hoping to further tap into the newly intrigued market.

“We would love to work with clubs from the city, and stock their shirts and promote Hong Kong football around the world,” Jones said.

Jones is now looking to partner with an angel investor, with hopes of selling the business in about five years.

“We will not sell ourselves short,” he said. “My dream is to retire my mum and dad, that would be amazing.”

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