Ballinasloe entrepreneur is a proud Boot Boy!
By Paul O’Malley
What started as a frantic online search for a pair of All Black legend Dan Carter’s boots has since blossomed into a thriving business for a former Galway underage footballer
The story of RetroBoots.ie began in 2012, when Ballinasloe native James Shaughnessy was manager of a St Pat’s Colleges Intermediate team.
“There was a lad there, Shane Hardiman, who was getting some slagging for being tight and buying his boots second-hand off eBay. I thought it was a great idea! Something just clicked with me and I went home, started searching online, and picked up a few pairs,” he says.
His original search led him to a New Zealand ‘buy and sell’ website, where he found a rare pair of Dan Carter’s Adidas PowerSwerves; only problem was that to purchase the collector’s item, you needed to be based locally.
“I had to get onto a friend’s son based in New Zealand to pick them up for me. After a big rigmarole, I got my hands on them in the end,” says James.
That whetted the Galway man’s appetite – and from 2012 to 2016 his collection grew to between 70 and 100 pairs.
The boots, sourced from a variety of sources, were mainly Adidas makes and models no longer in circulation.
His passion was shared by his roommates Gordon Glynn and Kevin McCabe, two fellow enthusiasts still involved in the business – but how his collection turned into a business is open to discussion.
“My girlfriend Aoife likes to say it was her idea. She was like ‘Jeez you need to sell some of them boots!’ Luckily she did because selling them ended up paying for the flights to move to Dubai that year,” he says.
However, Shaughnessy’s move to the Middle East posed some logistical difficulties for the operation – and as demand grew, a delegation of duties was required.
“I was selling every pair I could get my hands on. My mother was posting the deliveries for me!” he reveals.
Over the past twelve months, the fledgling business has gone from strength to strength. With 17,000 followers on Instagram, the online retailer has blossomed from humble beginnings.
Read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie