Clubsport Dundee

In the beginning

From Broughty Ferry to Dundee city centre

Clubsport first opened in 1983. The first shop was a small site in Broughty Ferry, a seaside suburb of Dundee. It tried to sell a wide range of sports goods, but experience in sport showed that proper equipment choices were hard to find. Specialising became the focus.

Within three years the shop expanded to a bigger site in Broughty Ferry. In 1988 Clubsport opened a second premises, a 2,000 sq. ft. shop in the Wellgate Centre, then Dundee's main city-centre mall.

Getting bigger

Responding to changes in sports retail

Further expansion arrived in 1991 with a third shop and a second city-centre site, with staff numbers growing. At the same time, multiple sports retailers were acquiring sites across town, putting pressure on independent stores. The response was to specialise to survive.

Then specialising

The shift to focused equipment service

In the late 1980s sports retail boomed and sports supermarkets appeared everywhere. Clubsport embraced more sports fashion at the time, but the core ethic remained to serve sports people with the right kit, not to chase fashion. There was no need for showy premises on prime sites.

A base was found on the north-west edge of Dundee's city centre: an 800 sq. ft. showroom with free car parking at the door. That is still the current location. The year 2023 marked Clubsport's 40th birthday and 30 years of phase two, following the formative 10 years of phase one.

What is sold

Four shops in one

Clubsport is four shops in one: a cricket shop, a hockey shop, a bowls shop, and a club shop. Between April and August the showroom is lined with cricket stock. Between September and March, hockey takes the lead. Bowls stays year-round, alongside club orders.

Club orders are generally placed to order rather than stocked. Typical examples include embroidered polo shirts for a golf trip, football strips for a Sunday league team, or a dozen basketballs for a school requisition.

Finding Clubsport

Dundee, Scotland

Clubsport is in Dundee, Scotland's fourth city with a population of around 150,000. Dundee sits on the east coast with a classical cityscape between hill and river. Within Dundee the showroom is central, about half a mile north west of the city centre in the Blackness area between Perth Road and Lochee Road.

Nearby landmarks include Verdant Works, Dundee's award-winning museum of jute, signposted across town and about 150 metres away. Beiderbecks restaurant and bar is within 100 metres. The southern view looks onto the University of Dundee campus. The Blackness Industrial Area is locally signposted as well.

Blackness Industrial Area

Historic jute trade buildings

The Blackness Industrial Area is made up of several former jute-trade buildings. The industry once employed more than 50,000 Dundonians. The buildings were converted into workshops, showrooms, and offices around 30 years ago, and today as many as 60 diverse businesses trade from the area.

Clubsport's showroom is in the second biggest building, Douglas Court, next to the five-storey Meadow Mill, which is a local landmark.