Castore launched Rangers' home kit for the new season yesterday and almost immediately sold out their stock.

An initial 50,000 strips were manufactured to provide supporters with merchandise they've been craving since the £25million deal with the Liverpool-based sportswear brand was announced. Supply and demand, and all that.

Co-founder Tom Beahon has had to deal with leaked images of the new jerseys appearing on social media in recent weeks as the anticipation became too much for some. But he's not too bothered. He understood the interest in the gear would be immeasurable. He knew launch day would be manic. Ultimately, though, Beahon is delighted with the initial figures right off the bat.

The slick design has played a part, he believes. Subtle details referencing Ibrox history and Rangers culture have made it into the fabric of the shirts and some eagle-eyed fans caught them. And Beahon praised supporters for literally buying into the partnership and plans moving forward. "It's been fantastic to see the feedback," Beahon said.

"Our job as a new kit partner was always to tap into that positivity and passion and get these people excited. That's very much what we've tried to do, we wanted to link to the history to the club as well as highlight a new era with Castore and a very exciting season ahead.

"A couple of the design features have been picked up by the fans like the wave pattern on the front that was to represent the blue sea of Ibrox. That's not something done previously on Rangers jerseys, but we wanted to link to the fantastic heritage of this football club.

"Based on the very early sales figures I saw, it looks like we'll sell out within 24 hours, the initial 50,000 units. That's a very positive response and another demonstration of the fantastic support Rangers have. We knew there was always a chance it would go that well so we've got plans in place to get additional stock ready very soon and as we look to August and the season starting, we're now very close to announcing a final date to the reopening of the megastore, which we're excited about."

The thing about Scottish football is that, when something happens for one side of the Old Firm, the other half are never too far away. From giving their opinion, that is. The minute Castore were announced as Gers' newest manufacturers, Celtic supporters questioned their credentials.

Beahon has expected the scrutiny and was ready for it. He knows all about the rivalry between Glasgow's big two and is okay with his brand being in the middle of it all. All it has done, in his mind, is serve to reinforce his desire to help Rangers win trophies in the Premiership ahead of Celtic.

"Everybody knows it," he added. "It's one of the greatest rivalries in football so I'm not hugely surprised that Celtic fans have been looking and commenting. I don't think it's a huge surprise. But our job is to get the Rangers fans excited about the season to come. That's the only focus at the moment.

"I like to think of myself as a young man at 30-years-old but I'm probably the least digitally advanced 30-year-old, if I'm honest. I don't keep up with social media which, all things considered, is a good thing." On photo leaks, he went on: "You can't get overly frustrated, we know there's a huge amount of interest in Rangers. I've been told a lot of the pictures that were leaked beforehand were not legitimate, maybe people being a bit cheeky here and there. We could only really control the controllable.

"We were very aware when we entered the partnership with Rangers that they were one of the biggest football clubs on the planet and there would be a huge amount of scrutiny. You're never going to keep everyone happy 100 percent of the time but the deal we have means the club benefits from every single sale we make. My main priority was always to make a contribution to Rangers being successful on the pitch.

"There was two ways to do that. Firstly by creating great products for the players to wear on the pitch, football is a sport of very fine margins and having the highest quality kit in the league could potentially be the difference, so that was very important. Then, secondly, the deal is structured that the club benefits directly. The more kits we sell, the more the club is financially going to benefit. That means more money can be invested back into the club. There will be a significant amount of money flowing directly back into the club.

"A lot of hard work from the team goes into getting the kit to players and it's great to see world class athletes like the Rangers team wearing our products on a global platform. Now we're excited about seeing the team in competition for the first time. We're excited about seeing the team lift trophies, that's what we're here for. We want to make a contribution to that."