Stunner is a Ukranian-born brand that are mainly known for their exquisite collection of vintage football shirts rivalling any great collection. They also photograph football matches and write about the sport they love too. We caught up with the Stunner owners, Serge and Polina, to gain an insight into their brand, and just how influential Manchester has been in their journey.
Serge: “We began in Kyiv where we sold our shirts online at first, then at some point we thought it deserved attention in the real world, so just like we did here, we found a very promising piece of property and we just went with it. It got to the point where there was no space left in our flat, it was like we were living in our own store! We decided we needed to go physical with this.”
Unfortunately, no account of a Ukrainian business from the last couple of years can ignore the devastating conflict that has taken place in the country, we asked the team how it affected them, and how from there, Stunner ended up in Manchester.
Serge: “We closed the store and left Kyiv on 23 February 2022, hours before the first rockets started landing in the city. We were initially going to close it for two weeks as we felt we needed a break and we wanted to visit a friend in Brussels who owns a similar, but more successful store, to see if we could learn anything from him. Those two weeks are still ongoing for us and we haven’t been back since. Luckily, we had family and friends to help us to close Stunner while we were away, and around 18 months later we opened the store in Manchester.”
“Manchester is where the whole scene kind of started, with brands like Classic Football Shirts, so it was always like this Mecca destination for us to visit. It has been a nice year this last 12 months with the store in Manchester, and we have gone through with our idea, which was to close it come September, regardless of how well it was doing.”
Speaking to the Stunner team, it is clear to see that their passion for these shirts runs far deeper than purely aesthetic, as Serge explains to me: “These are not merely fashion items, they have become fashionable items in the past couple of years, but to most people these are like time capsules, and whenever they see them, so many stories pop into their heads- every shirt brings memories to people and that’s why they’re special.”
There are a multitude of star-studded retro kits adorning a hanger either side of the two owners, from Andreas Iniesta to Zinedine Zidane and everything in between, the selection is enough to make any football fan or fashionista drool. We asked the team to each pick their favourites.
Polina: “I have a theory that 1998 was the best year for football shirts, so my favourite is France’s World Cup winning 98′ kit, with Zidane on the back. I also recently added a new piece to my personal collection which is the Ukraine national team shirt from the same year, so that is now my second favourite. Maybe I should just stick to that year as they seem to be the best.”
Serge: “I agree with Polina’s theory, design and persona wise, shirts from this year just cannot be topped. For me, my favourite is Dynamo Kyiv’s shirt, also from 1998, it is very hard to come by as they were never properly commercially available.
Off the back of recently closing their Manchester store, what does the future hold for Stunner?
Serge: “We’re at a point of transformation right now and we are trying to focus on our media aspect. Shirts is just one of the things that we do, we also do journalistic work at football matches such as photography, it is impossible for us to be tied to one specific aspect of Stunner, but the shirts was the very first thing we did so we hold it very dear to our hearts.”
“We are just trying to go step-by-step and see what happens in the future. I know what will happen tomorrow, we will go to Old Trafford to cover Man United versus Tottenham, but whatever will happen next week I have no idea. Maybe one day we will re-open in Manchester, or maybe London, or maybe even Argentina! I don’t know, we will just go with the flow.”
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