First he had reached the top as a soccer player, now as an entrepreneur. In 2013, Demy de Zeeuw (Apeldoorn, 1983) founded BALR. What started with selling T-shirts online has blossomed into a globally available brand. And with 433, he owns a soccer production house that provides content across all platforms. "We have become so big that even FIFA cannot ignore us," he says.
First he had reached the top as a soccer player, now as an entrepreneur. In 2013, Demy de Zeeuw (Apeldoorn, 1983) founded BALR. What started with selling T-shirts online has blossomed into a globally available brand. And with 433, he owns a soccer production house that provides content across all platforms. "We have become so big that even FIFA cannot ignore us," he says.
You were a professional soccer player until 2015, for which you had to train hard. What training did you go through to become an entrepreneur?
"Actually no, just starting. I started a blog that had a focus on soccer players' lifestyle: music, travel, clothing..."
In 2013, you founded BALR. How did that come about?
"That idea came about when I was on the road with my then club Spartak Moscow and saw my teammates carrying Louis Vuitton bags. I realized that there was no fashion brand at all that focused on soccer. For an item on my blog, I wanted to interview Ralph de Geus, the founder of VoetbalPrimeur, about that. By then he was already partners with Juul Manders, owner of social brand agency Wannahaves. They, too, saw opportunities. Together, we then created BALR. Months later, Gregory van der Wiel and Eljero Elia also stepped in as shareholders. We started as a premium fashion/lifestyle brand for professional soccer players, but quickly expanded to other top athletes, deejays, young entrepreneurs and others who own their own success. All of whom share the same lifestyle, meet off the pitch. They have worked themselves to the top and then get to enjoy their success."
You chased your own success as a soccer player and are now doing it as an entrepreneur. What's the difference?
"In business you have much more time to make decisions, in soccer it's all about split seconds."
Have you made the right choices in your career as a professional football player?
"Not only: Anderlecht I would have been better off skipping in retrospect. However, it was the right choice to go from Ajax to Spartak Moscow in 2011, because it made me very much better financially and it was also a nice experience. In the two years I lived there, I experienced how people live in Russia and how Putin decides everything. For example, when he went home, all the streets were blocked off so Putin could drive to his palace in one straight line. Sometimes you stood in traffic jams for half an hour. That's how much power he has."
Entrepreneurship is also a team sport. What system do Ralph, Juul and you play in?
"Ralph no longer has an active role in the company, Juul takes the organizational and business side and I am the creative. We are well matched and very agile."
In entrepreneurship, did you benefit from the lessons that trainers taught you?
"Yes indeed. One of the most important lessons I learned was from Louis van Gaal: as a footballer, you are never bigger than the club. You can only perform individually if you have a good team around you. As an entrepreneur, I am also not in an ivory tower, but am among the people. The company comes first and not my personal will."
In publicizing the brand, to what extent did you benefit from your network in the soccer world?
"Especially in the beginning, we got a lot out of that. We sent our stuff to friends, doing what is now called influencer marketing back then. For example, we gave our clothes to the entire Manchester United selection. Six months later Ángel Di María made the switch to Paris Saint-Germain and was photographed wearing a BALR. shirt at Doha airport, where he was for the medical. That image went all over the world. Another time, Neymar's little brother posted a photo of Neymar in a BALR. shirt. And most recently, a photo went around of Cristiano Ronaldo sitting on a boat wearing a BALR.cap in his spare time. That really gives us a buzz: "Wow, look at that! Surely Ronaldo is the ultimate baller. Marcello, Fernando Torres, Ivan Rakitic and Willian, among others, have also been spotted wearing our clothes. When footballers wear your clothes, the fans naturally follow."
When you see Ronaldo wearing a BALR. cap, do you approach him?
"No, we are not allowed to do that. Very soon we were knocked back by Nike and Adidas, because the players with whom they have contracts were wearing our clothes. They felt we were in their way and sent lawyers after us. We informed them that we are not a sports brand, but much more of a lifestyle brand. Surely they can also walk around in clothes from Louis Vuitton or Dior?"
You started with T-shirts, but soon sold bags, slippers, boxer shorts, shoes ... Initially only online. Why did you choose to open stores anyway?
"Because people like to feel and see the items. And for us it was an experience, What can we find out more? The Flagship Store on Kalverstraat was running well, until corona made its appearance. Eventually we closed the store, partly because it was not a very good building: four floors, very narrow, very small - and the first floor is where you make the money. We still have outlets, but we want to focus more on online again. Then you have less hassle and more margin."
Among other things, you launched a Rolex and a Porsche by BALR., rented a Vanquish in Ibiza plastered with BALR. stickers and gave the trendy beach club Blue Marlin a makeover so that it looked just like a BALR. beach club. What was the idea behind this?
"That's where the soccer players are too - they also buy a Rolex and Porsche, are also at Blue Marlin. We even wanted to open a BALR. hotel in Ibiza, but we put that on hold. However, we do now have a model home in Hyde Park in Hoofddorp. Buyers of one of the approximately 3,500 homes rising there can give their apartment the BALR.-touch by buying the package: a PlayStation, all sorts of other gadgets, a real BALR.-bed and everything digital."
You launched an exclusive Clubman S with MINI Cooper, a clothing collection with (RED) by U2's Bono and a backpack with DJ Hardwell. What other collaborations would you aspire to?
"Eventually, one day with Nike. But there are so many great brands! We have also previously done collaborations with Absolut Vodka and Samsung, for example, and have now partnered with Club Brugge: we provide the clothing they wear to the match. What you also see: many brands enter into pricey sponsorships with FIFA or UEFA, but in the end all that is done is stick their logo on the boarding. Turkish Airways is a good example: it is a sponsor of the Champions League, but approached us to activate the sponsorship further."
To push BALR. even more, you guys started channel 433 on Instagram. You started at zero, but now have more than a billion viewers. How did that develop so much?
"It was started by Rogier Deelstra. He had two thousand followers on his soccer-oriented Twitter account. That was at the time when Instagram was just coming up. I asked if he wanted to come work for us. He then continued to roll out 433 with our help. Soccer videos, trick plays, blunders, locker room humor... It really grew beyond normal, We now have 52 million followers. And based on our reach figures - 5 billion impressions per month - we are the biggest in the world. Clubs see us as an additional advertising column; players send us material so that we tag them in turn, giving them even more followers; and companies approach us for branded content. An example: Puma comes to us with a certain budget and asks if we can do something with Neymar. Then we make a nice creative concept around Puma and Neymar and post it on 433."
Do you earn more from 433 than from BALR.?
"With 433, we never had the focus on monetization. In the beginning it was even funded by BALR's revenues. Now we are at the point where we really need to monetize 433. That's why we started our own platform, our own app: 433 The Home of Football. With that, we can do a lot more than with Instagram, and we're also going to try to engage subscribers. If you see how many people we reach... If only 1 percent of them are willing to pay about three euros a month, it's already going fast."
What benefits do you get as a paying member of 433 The Home of Football?
"You can play matches and soccer quizzes, there's all kinds of trivia, videos and stats on there, everything a soccer app should have only nicer and better than the rest. In the future we will also offer soccer on demand. Young people want to decide for themselves when they play sports. Hence the decline in club membership. For example, are you in Barcelona or London and want to play a game of soccer? Then you look on the app to see if a match is organized in your neighborhood by 433 users and hook up. That way you can easily make new friends and the fields are better used, because during the week they are deserted. What we are currently setting up: measurements through sensors in your soccer shoes. So you can use the app to see how often you shoot with the right and left, how often with the inside and outside of the foot, you can find out everything. Moreover, last year we acquired JOGO, the platform for talent development within youth soccer, especially for the app."
What is your ultimate goal with the app?
"There are so many different soccer apps that you don't know where to look anymore. We are building one app that has everything in it. My ultimate goal is that if you want to read, watch, search or know anything about soccer in a moment, you go straight to 433."
Will you source content from other parties?
"No, we make everything ourselves and don't skim the Internet for news. At 433 we have 120 people working; the ability to create content ourselves is there. And we approach it in a positive way, we are not Football Inside."
Do you ever consider selling BALR. and focusing entirely on 433?
"Most of our time now is in 433, which is also a much easier business than clothing. If the right party presents itself that can grow BALR. then I don't rule out us bringing that party in to scale up even faster."
MASTERS MAGAZINE
Want to read more of the interview with Demy de Zeeuw? The winter issue of MASTERS was created in collaboration with Jordi van den Bussche. Many will know him as YouTuber Kwebbelkop, yet he has been working hard as an entrepreneur for some time, as he reveals in the Big Interview. What's new is that his company JVDB Studios is offering to do social media marketing and short-format content marketing for other companies. "They can also go and figure it out themselves, but we cracked the code." Jordi gives a stage to like-minded entrepreneurs such as Jay-Jay Boske, Demy de Zeeuw, Chahid Charrak and Marcella de Bie, and discusses developments around games, crypto and NFT: "Just as bitcoin turned the financial system upside down, the same will happen with gaming." This extra-thick winter issue also features Lengers' first own ship, an interview with Corendon chief Atilay Uslu, specials on the new BMW 7 Series and Samsung foldables, and - exclusively for MASTERS! - an interview with Max Verstappen.
