"It evokes a lot of memories" - New shop selling vintage football kits opens in Halifax's Piece Hall
The owner of a new vintage football shirt shop in Halifax says the business has had a great reaction from footy fans since it opened earlier this month.
Dean Finelli has opened the shop, Calcio Clothing, on the top floor of the Piece Hall.
And he says the shop has proved a winner with football supporters so far.
"It's been absolutely brilliant," Dean said. "We're up to 500 likes per post on social media.
"It's been really positive. It evokes a lot of memories.
"We've had great conversations with people about what the shirts mean to them.
"We couldn't have asked for a better start."
Dean says he spotted a gap in the market for a physical shop rather than just selling online.
"It started with Luca (Dean’s son), he started collecting vintage shirts a couple of years back," Dean said.
"He took us round a few shops that were similar to this and it just grew from there.
"The more we looked into it, the more we found there wasn't anybody doing this based in Yorkshire - this is the only physical shop we're aware of.
"We like to offer something different. People can come in, inspect them, try them on.
"You can put in your measurements online but I don't know what my pit-to-pit size is.
"We always encourage customers to try them on because throughout the years, kit sizes have changed. The nineties were really baggy and then it went tight, and it's kind of gone full circle.
"The beauty of having a physical shop is you can try them on."
Calcio has around 450 shirts in stock, with around 250 on display.
"If the demand's there, we've got the space to expand on that but we wanted to start at this level first and see what the reaction is, but we've got the capacity to build on that," Dean said.
Around 30 to 50 different teams are represented on the shelves.
"We try to cater for everybody," said Dean. "We have a UK club section, which is quite Yorkshire heavy with Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds.
"Then there's the international section, the kids section, which is really popular and I can see that growing because the price points seem good for people.
"And they're buying an authentic shirt. It's not a fake or a remake."
Dean says the most popular shirts are Bradford City and England ones.
"We sold a Sweden shirt from the early 2000s on Saturday, which was a bit random, but I think he was a collector.
"We get fathers and sons, families, women, it's just great to hear all the stories.
"Someone was going round saying 'that's when we won this and that's when we won that'.
"Being half Italian I've got a soft spot for the Italian ones, the Roma ones from the early 2000s that are tight fit.
"The Italian ones are really popular as well - Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus."