The Big Interview
On your head T
ony has been involved with merchandise at all levels for the past 40 years. His career began in the 80s when he ran the club shop at Watford FC – a dream job for a lifelong fan.
During his tenure as the football club’s first ever full-time shop manager, Tony served loyal supporters with souvenirs and merchandise throughout the club’s glory years, while rubbing shoulders with the likes of club chairman Elton John, manager Graham Taylor, and the footballers themselves, including left winger John Barnes.
“The last time I saw John Barnes, I was out shopping in London and was going down one escalator, while he was going up another. My wife pointed him out, so I just shouted across ‘Barnesy’ as a reflex because that’s what I called him. He looked at me and said ‘Oh, Tony!’, as he disappeared. My wife said: ‘You do realise you haven’t seen him for about 20 years and he still remembers you.’ That was pretty amazing,” remembers Tony. After 10 years of making contacts across the merchandise world, Tony became the general manager of the Chelsea FC club store for the following five years.
Sourcing and supplying In both stores, Tony learnt a lot about sourcing and supplying merchandise. The souvenir and clothing suppliers would always show their whole range first, before showing the baseball cap to Tony as a last resort. This led him to think it was crazy that no-one specialised in headwear.
“One of the first baseball caps that I
There is nothing that Tony Marks doesn’t know about the world of headwear. In an interview with P&P editor Melanie Attlesey, the director of Product Zone takes a trip down memory lane.
merchandise in the UK, with a particular focus on baseball caps. Tony explains: “I was the first supplier to supply more than just a basic cap. I introduced a sandwich peak cap, which no football club had ever done before. I then introduced the woven label to the inside of the sandwich peak cap with the team names running around it. Then we introduced a pink and an ice blue cap specifically for female supporters, because previously there had never been a cap for women. This was when I realised, I could actually specialise in headwear.”
Headwear specialist Another project beckoned and in 2006, Tony Marks founded Product Zone in 2006
produced and sold at Watford, was famously worn by Elton John. It was a Sharon Lee foam fronted trucker with a flock print on the front. It was such a hit that it got me thinking that baseball caps were more than just another accessory,” says Tony.
After an enjoyable 15 years at Watford and Chelsea, the time was right for Tony to move on. In 1997, he decided to utilise his knowledge and contacts to found Home Win which supplied football clubs and sports goods retailers direct. This company quickly grew to become the largest supplier of licensed football
Tony sold his half of the business, which is now owned by a leading American manufacturer of licensed products. The same year Tony launched Product Zone to supply headwear to the sports industry and charity sector, in particular supplying the Walk the Walk breast cancer charity for over 20 years with headwear and other product. As Tony’s customer base grew, he stopped supplying to customers directly, instead supplying to the trade. During this time, Tony has seen certain styles of caps and headwear come and go. The sandwich peak cap was once the bee’s knees, but its popularity dropped with the arrival of the flat peak snapback. The popularity of the classic six-panel heavy brushed cotton baseball cap, however, has stood the test of time. The
Elton John wearing the first cap that Tony Marks supplied for Watford FC
| 46 | January 2021
Tony Marks pictured in 1982 while working in the Watford FC club shop
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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