Couple put their shirts on new life
ON February 23, 2022, Polina Vynohradova and Serge Shcherbyna locked the doors of their retro football shirt shop in Kyiv’s Golden Gate area and boarded a flight to Brussels.
They planned to meet a friend in Belgium and discuss ways they could keep their business afloat as the threat of conflict grew. But at 4am the following morning, they received a call telling them war had broken out in Ukraine.
“We could feel that something was going to happen,” said Polina, 27.
“We decided to close the doors and go to Brussels to meet a friend who was running the same business but online.
“Our friend called us and said the war had started. The first reaction was shock and then I just kept crying.”
The couple could not return and with what little money they had, they travelled around Europe, before contacting a friend in Macclesfield they had met through trading football shirts.
They arrived in the town in November 2022, fell in love with British football culture and have now opened a retro football shirt shop Stunner, in Manchester.
The couple met at university and Polina gave Serge the idea to sell retro tops after she noticed his large collection.
Serge said: “I remember (as a child) I was hooked on shirts.
“Whenever I had some spare money I would just go to my local market and spend it all on football shirts and I had quite a collection, even though they were all fake.
“As I got older I realised there were authentic ones and it’s been ongoing ever since.”
Polina continued: “We moved in together and he brought all the shirts he’d collected.
“I was shocked at how beautiful they could be.
“I loved the concepts and the designs.
“Now I have more shirts than him.”
The store has only been open for three weeks but they’ve already discovered their top sellers - scarce Manchester City kits from their time languishing in the lower divisions. Serge said: “One thing we want to translate through running the store is that Ukrainians who ended up in the UK aren’t here because of choice but circumstances,
“We haven’t just come here to enjoy our careless life but to give something back.”