The Challenge
James spotted a gap. Cricket is an aspirational game and players invest heavily in kit, but the pro experience, a bat made specifically for you, sits out of reach for most. Meanwhile the small bat makers of the UK had the craft and no real route to a wider audience. The Cricket Store had to appeal to two very different groups at once: buyers making a premium, personal purchase, and makers deciding whether the platform was worth signing up to.
The Approach
We built an expressive brand with genuine nods to cricket tradition, including editorial writing about the game and textures drawn from cricket itself to give the site depth and character. Bat makers were given their own profiles so they are heroed rather than hidden behind the storefront, which makes the proposition far more attractive to them. Behind that sits a platform that lets makers upload their latest products, and lets The Cricket Store build a mailing list and take a percentage on every sale.
The Solution
The Cricket Store launched in 2022 and is still trading today, selling some of the highest quality bats available in the UK, made by the same people who make bats for the professional game.