Ballers Market didn't start with a business plan. It started with a messy closet, a simple question and two people who believed that football culture could lead on sustainability instead of just following trends.
This is the story of how we turned player wardrobes into a movement.
Where it began
Ballers Market started in Linne's brother Tuur's closet.
Every visit revealed the same pattern: racks of designer pieces from different eras, gifts from exes, fashion statements that had stopped being fashionable. Quality clothing, barely worn, collecting dust.
Tuur's friends started asking Linne for help. "Can you sort my wardrobe?" "What do I do with all this?" That's how she rolled into lifestyle management. Not by plan, but by demand. Footballers had style. They also had chaos.
Then she met Mark.
Linne pitched her vision: turn these closets into something bigger. Not just resale, but a system that keeps clothing in use, supports people who need it and proves football culture can lead on sustainability.
Mark got it immediately. His background at Ajax, PSV, Club Brugge, Antwerp and digital platforms had shown him how clubs struggle to engage fans and how players want to build their own thing off the pitch. Fashion was one of those channels. Untapped.
In 2024, they started building.
Linne brought the lifestyle insight, player relationships and curation expertise. Mark brought operations, digital infrastructure and the strategy to scale beyond one-off drops.
Together, they built Ballers Market: where football culture meets circular fashion, where every item has a story, and where impact is the entire point.
The vision
We saw three gaps that nobody was connecting.
Player wardrobes with nowhere to go
Professional footballers build incredible wardrobes: quality pieces, premium brands, carefully chosen styles. But when they move clubs or refresh their look, those items often end up forgotten. There was no meaningful system to give them a second life.
Fans wanting deeper connection
Fans don't just want to watch the game. They want to connect with their heroes beyond the pitch. Merch and autographs weren't enough. They wanted something real, something personal, something that felt like a genuine piece of the player's world.
Sustainability that feels authentic
Circular fashion was becoming a buzzword, but most of it felt corporate or disconnected from culture. Nobody was making it feel cool, accessible or tied to something people actually care about.
Ballers Market was our answer to all three.
We're not just moving clothing. We're creating a system where players can clear their closets with purpose, fans can own authentic style while funding real impact, and fashion becomes circular by default, not by exception.
Every item extends its life. Nothing ends up in landfill. And the proceeds support causes that matter: The Salvation Army ReShare, DUCE, player foundations and first clubs.
This is what happens when football culture decides to lead. This is Ballers Market.
Meet the founders
Linne and Mark come from different worlds, but they share the same belief: that football culture has the power to move more than just the game.
Linne Dierckx
Linne's path into fashion started with family. Specifically, her brother Tuur's overflowing closet. Every visit revealed the same pattern: incredible pieces, barely worn, with no clear plan for what to do with them.
When more players started asking for her help "Can you organize my wardrobe?" "What do I do with all this?" she realized this wasn't just Tuur's problem. It was an industry-wide gap. Professional athletes had style, but they also had chaos.
That's when she leaned into lifestyle management. Not as a formal business at first, but as a natural response to a need nobody else was addressing. Like a big sister., She learned how to curate, sort and structure closets in a way that respected the player's identity while creating space for what actually mattered.
But organizing closets wasn't enough. Linne wanted those pieces to do more. To support people, fund causes and prove that circular fashion could be stylish, not just sustainable.
That vision became Ballers Market. Today, Linne leads player partnerships, closet curation and the lifestyle side of the business. She's the one who sits down with players (and their partners and families), understands their story and builds a model that works for them. Whether that's donating 100% as an Ambassador or splitting proceeds as an Impact player.
Her focus: making sure every collaboration feels personal, purposeful and rooted in the player's authentic story.
Every closet tells a story. Our job is to make sure that story doesn't end when the player moves on."
Mark van Wijnen
Mark's background is in football and digital platforms. He's worked with i.e. Ajax, PSV, Club Brugge and Antwerp, always focused on one question: how do you keep fans engaged when the traditional model isn't working anymore?
Clubs were struggling. Fans wanted more than just match tickets and merchandise. Players wanted autonomy to build their own brands, tell their own stories and connect on their own terms. And sustainability was becoming non-negotiable. But nobody knew how to make it feel authentic in the football world.
When Linne told him her vision for Ballers Market, Mark saw the bigger picture immediately. This wasn't just about reselling clothes. It was about creating infrastructure. A system where players, fans and causes could all win.
Mark built the operational backbone: the authentication process that ensures trust, the two-tier pricing model (under €90 in-store at ReShare, €90+ online with full transparency), the partnerships with The Salvation Army ReShare and DUCE, and the digital platform that makes it all scalable.
His focus is on systems, transparency and making sure the business model works for everyone: players who want impact, shoppers who want clarity, and partners who need reliable funding to keep their work going.
For Mark, Ballers Market is proof that football culture can lead on sustainability. And make it look good while doing it.
"This isn't just about selling clothes. It's about proving that football culture can lead on sustainability and make it look good while doing it."
Why this matters
Fashion is one of the world's most polluting industries. Every new garment produced requires water, energy, dyes, labor and packaging. The environmental cost is staggering. The human cost is often invisible.
When we buy pre-loved, we skip all of that. We keep what already exists in circulation. We reduce waste. We prove that quality clothing doesn't need to be disposable.
But Ballers Market goes further.
We're not just extending the life of clothing—we're extending the reach of the people who wore it.
When you buy a jacket from a player's closet, you're not just getting a piece of their style. You're becoming part of a system that:
- Funds youth projects through DUCE, giving young people in Rotterdam access to mentorship, sport and creative expression.
- Supports The Salvation Army ReShare in their work with people in vulnerable situations across the Netherlands—from clothing distribution to crisis response to community services.
- Backs the causes that players themselves choose, whether that's their own foundation, their first club or another initiative that matters to them.
This is fashion with a story. This is style with a backbone. This is what happens when football culture decides to lead instead of follow.
And we're just getting started.
