At Mimi Imports, we often get asked why we decided to start carrying soccer gifts and memorabilia. We love answering this question, because it really explains how Mimi Imports came to be.

Growing up I, like many children, spent my summers playing on a community soccer team. As I grew up I stopped playing in an organized league, but the passion that I had for the sport continued to grow. Every year I couldn’t wait for the premier league games to start and was grateful I followed a sport with such a long season (even if it was difficult to find the games on TV!), but there was always something missing.For people that follow hockey or football they have no problem finding gifts and memorabilia for their teams. In fact, they are almost bombarded with different product options available both online and from countless local retailers. Unfortunately, my experiences had showed me that soccer fans were not granted the same opportunities. I have a background in sports memorabilia and was shocked that I couldn’t find soccer cards, stickers, or other popular items easily available in Canada or the United States.

I knew that if I was looking for these type of items there had to be countless other Canadian and American soccer fans looking as well. This prompted us to make our initial foray into the soccer market during the 2002 World Cup. During this world event, we introduced our line of car flags and other country related items. At the time, this was a new product line that the majority of soccer retailers had not carried before. After the World Cup concluded, we continued to develop relationships with our soccer retailers and expanded dour products and offerings to include both the World Cup and Euro Cup.

As the years went on, we noticed that the demand for soccer products was rapidly accelerating, and that international retailers were looking for ways to grow their business outside of the key tournament years. This prompted me to make connections with the top brands for soccer in Europe who were looking for a Canadian distributor to help expand the reach and availability of soccer memorabilia. Partnering with these European brands helped us build strong international relationships and gave us insight into the types of products that were popular with fans and what we should be bringing to Canada. Today, we carry products from 20 Clubs in the EPL, La Liga and Serie A, and have over 600 soccer products available for distribution.

Soccer fans across Canada and the United States now can easily find products to help them support their teams.