On Monday morning, legendary striker Sam Kerr’s return to Gotham FC became official. By the afternoon, fans could already order her new jersey, Gotham’s third kit inspired by the Statue of Liberty, with free name printing for 48 hours through Foudys, a new brick-and-mortar store dedicated exclusively to women’s soccer in Manchester, England. Just a few years ago, this kind of rapid merchandise rollout would have been almost unheard of in women’s soccer.Helen Hardy experienced that firsthand. As she prepared to travel to France for the 2019 Women’s World Cup to support England, she struggled to find a Lionesses jersey to wear, a frustration that would ultimately inspire the creation of Foudys.“Everyone around me was wearing men’s football shirts,” Hardy told The Athletic over a video call from her home in Manchester. “You had fans who had traveled from the U.S., the U.K. and Norway to be in France for this huge moment, and nobody was wearing women’s jerseys.”The issue was not demand, but access. Women’s jerseys were difficult to find, often buried deep inside major sports retail websites even as England reached the semifinals and drew a massive television audience.“The message back to brands at the time was, ‘No one cares. They don’t want product,” Hardy said. “But the reality was they were hiding the product on page 12, 13, 14 of their shops.”Foudys provides women’s soccer shirts from around the world. (Courtesy of Foudys)She returned from the tournament wondering what it would look like if there were a website that spotlighted women’s sports merchandise year-round. The frustration grew as she attended Manchester City women’s matches and found that even with stars Carli Lloyd, Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton and Jill Scott, fans still could not easily buy WSL jerseys with women’s players’ names on the back.So, Hardy walked away from a career in musical theater and, armed with a $265 (£200) heat press bought on eBay, began pressing players’ names onto soccer jerseys from her bedroom in Manchester. Fans would mail her blank shirts, and Hardy would customize them by hand before sending them back.“In year one I did £50,000 on people just paying £25 for me to print the name on the back of the shirt and post it back to them,” she explained. “I didn’t have a deal with Nike, or anyone like that. Of course, I didn’t. I was just a crazy girl in my bedroom, right?”Five years later, that bedroom operation has grown into Foudys, a multimillion-pound retailer with its own flagship store and warehouse. As demand grew, Hardy spent nearly two years trying to secure a meeting with Nike to be an official retailer, while her business expanded rapidly. Revenue from jersey customization reached £55,000 (~$65,000) in its first year, climbed to roughly £250,000 to £300,000 in year two and nearly £900,000 by year three.