In the Düsseldorf airport there was a souvenir shop.
As I walked around it I noticed it sold everything Düsseldorf. It had snow globes, keychains and magnets all Düsseldorf.
But as I got to the end of the shop I found the football jerseys.
The first two on show were Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. I thought to myself, neither of those teams are from Düsseldorf but I could understand it, they were the two biggest German football teams right now.
Then just beside these jerseys were Merchandise for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Juventus. Not only are these teams not based in Düsseldorf but they aren’t even based in Germany at all.
So what are they doing in this shop?
Well if I were to imagine the shop owners reasoning behind selling these jerseys it must be because they think they’re going to sell.
They are willing to sacrifice their Düsseldorf image for stuff that sells.
But the danger I see in that is where does it end?
At what point do they throw in the towel as a Düsseldorf souvenir shop and become a shop for the masses. A fad shop, that sells only what people are buying right now.
Thomas Duggan 