Fanatics Collectibles flagship retail store on London's Regent Street set to open during spring

Fanatics Collectibles has announced its first ever flagship store, set to open in the spring of 2025 on Regent Street in London. 

The focus will be sports and entertainment trading cards and trading card games, featuring Fanatics Collectibles’ brands, including Topps, Merlin, Match Attax and Bowman.

Last year Topps secured the exclusive trading card rights to the Premier League, with product launching in time for the 2025/2026 season. It also currently has the exclusive rights for UEFA national team competitions and club competitions and will begin making licensed NBA product later this year.  

The store will span 803 square metres (8,647 square feet) and will include a central display of the rarest and most desirable cards, all with a giant suspended circular screen above. It will offer exclusive product and have thousands of unique items, inclusive of single cards, retail boxes and high end hobby releases. 

It will also see community building events from monthly trade nights, kids rip events, athlete signings and appearances, partner activations and grading drop-off.  Along with retail space, the store will feature a breaking studio (live and taped opening of card packs), interactive customer education touchpoints, and a personal card creation suite.  

“We are incredibly excited to cut the ribbon on this amazing community building retail space, one that we hope will delight collectors and be a true home for the hobby in Europe,” says Topps President of Trading Cards, David Leiner. 

“It’ll be a destination for millions of fans as well as our own internal partners – and team and club partners, the latter using our dedicated space to launch and showcase new products in a way that has never been done before.” 

Speaking to internal partners, the store will serve as a drop off point for users of Fanatics Collect, a marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of trading cards. Currently there are less than five Topps partner hobby shops in the UK, and less than 30 in all of Europe. 

Other items will also be sold, including apparel (both Topps branded and Fanatics owned Mitchell & Ness) and memorabilia (signed kits, jerseys, balls and other equipment) and trading card supplies. 

Types of trading card products in the store: sports (soccer, football, baseball, F1, basketball, UFC, WWE), sports gaming cards (Match Attax) and entertainment (Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Garbage Pail Kids, Stranger Things).

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Physical stores were a key focus area at the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our 2024 hall of fame entrants were revealed during an event which took place at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London on 21st November, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by comedian Lucy Porter.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “The event is now into its sixth year and what a journey it has been. The awards started life as an online only affair during the Covid outbreak, before launching as a small scale in real life event and growing year on year to the point where we’re now selling out this fine, historic venue.”

He added: “Congratulations to all of our finalists. Many submissions did not make it through to the final stage, and getting to this point is no mean feat. Checkout-free stores, automated supply chains, immersive experiences, on-demand delivery, next generation loyalty offerings, inclusive retail, green technology. We’ve got all the cool stuff covered this evening.”

“But just importantly we’ve got lots of great examples of companies taking innovative tech and making it usable in everyday operations - resulting in more efficiency and profitability in all areas.”

Congratulations to our 2024 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended November's gathering.