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Guest Willow Owl
On 24/06/2019 at 18:19, Big Rons Hairspray said:

A replica kit is a tool for collecting revenue for the club in exchange for the sale of a product with a massive mark up.

 

Replica shirts are famously inexpensive to produce & the in house production (& sales, we’re not in Sugg or similar anymore...) should increase profits for the club.

 

As soon as the final whistle blows on the last game of the season the ‘current kit’ is immediately out of date.

 

Fans will want the new one, if it can be on sale from May it will have 3 months as a ‘new kit’ before the season even starts.

 

Then you have 9 month of it being the current kit.

 

It’s also a way of marketing the club by having branded merchandise being sported by fans at home & on holiday.

 

For those deriding fans who wish to see an early release date as juvenile just remember that the club is missing out on revenue by not timing/exploiting sales for the summer market.

Can't see how can you put out in May when you don't know which division we are going to be in (Demand). Imagine if we released a new shirt in May ran out of stock end of May after getting promoted.  Releasing in May is fine if you are a well established premier team with world wide sales, we aren't so have to maximise sales differently.

Interest drives sales and there is not much interest in the closed season and only spring bank school holiday end May.

 Our current main opportunities for sales are based around months July to September. ( OITP, PRE SEASON, SCHOOL HOLIDAYS, NEW SEASON, NEW PLAYERS) all create an interest and trigger probably 90% of our shirt sales.

Having a set sales period also helps with shipping costs, extra staff wages etc.

 

 While it may seem logical to have new shirts over a longer period of time, the reality is different.

Just my opinion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, sw1867 said:

 

Is it too much to ask for both?

 

As I’ve said previously, why should we want anything less than the best, especially (granted from the outside) is an easy win.

 

If we were a top Premier League club with global outreach then maybe would be able to ask for both, but at an astronomical cost that the club would have to either absorb or pass onto the fans.

 

Given the poor quality of other many clubs' name brand replica kits, I'd suggest that it really isn't an easy win at all. Setting up a bespoke design and sending it to large-scale manufacture (I think I read somewhere that the first of our Elev8-branded range saw 80,000 units produced) is not an easy thing to do without paying an absolute premium, especially considering the shorter lead times. This is why the majority of clubs have an easy-to-set-up template kit. From the products that my own company has been involved in over the years (we've designed product for adidas, New Balance and Puma, amongst others) the usual timescale from initial briefing and design to final release is 18 months plus. Just an anecdote here to show the kind of things that can happen: we designed a range of four limited edition New Balance trainers back around 2007. We knew they'd be fairly pricy because of the limited numbers produced and the fact that we chose all the materials and colours to very specific criteria. To make it extra special we felt that the product deserved a bespoke box: essentially a heavier-duty slip-case style cardboard box with bespoke artwork printed on it. Just a cardboard box, but that alone doubled the retail price of the products.

 

For me it's a real source of pride that we have gone down the route of - despite being outside the Prem and having a fanbase who are at least a little reluctant to splash the cash - having a premium quality, unique, bespoke kit.

 

If only DC had asked the manufacturer to put a sneaky Swoosh or Trefoil on the shirts. Our fans would be absolutely drooling.

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I would be interested how much profit margin we have on the kits in comparison to someone who does not make theirs 'in-house'. Suppose that is the bottom line (literally).

 

As it happens this debate reminds me of the poster in our reprographics room... if we get 2 out of the 3 services here then we can't really complain. 

good-fast-or-cheap.jpg

Edited by Ever the pessimist
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23 hours ago, punkskaphil said:

 

Presumably, most people don’t think that any potential fans will be put off being fans because of this issue, so it’s a risk the club is prepared to take.

 

We all want optimum performance from everything the club does, but in reality we’ve been a second- and third-tier club for almost twenty years. We’re a difficult club to turn around. Getting kits on sale in June isn’t going to change that, otherwise it would’ve been done already.

 

I know that there are many who disagree with me on this point (that I’ve made several times before), but from my experience of fifteen years working in the sportswear industry (creative dept), our kits from the last two seasons have been the best quality in materials and construction since we were relegated from the Prem in 2000. Like everyone I’ve been disappointed with having to wait longer than most to get my hands on a shirt, but when it’s arrived I’ve been so impressed with it that the wait has been worthwhile. Nobody else outside the Prem (and likely several in the Prem), that I know of have replica kits of anywhere near the quality of ours. In my opinion, that’s pretty optimum.

 

The kits were spot on during LS's time.

 

The bespoke Puma ones.

 

Much better than anything else we've had, including Elev8.

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26 minutes ago, The Batman said:

 

The kits were spot on during LS's time.

 

The bespoke Puma ones.

 

Much better than anything else we've had, including Elev8.

 

I think the Elev8 kits have been quite good. Have worn bettet than the Puma.

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26 minutes ago, Pulixifer said:

 

I think the Elev8 kits have been quite good. Have worn bettet than the Puma.

 

Not saying there's owt wrong with the latest kits, just that to make out they're superior is nonsense imo.

 

It's just exaggeration to counter those that criticise them.

 

I've got Lotto and Diadora shirts that are as good as new still.

 

I think the only bad one's we've had were the Sondico ones, where one batch were basically factory seconds at best. Upsidedown logos etc :duntmatter:

 

Ps, the Puma ones post LS were more basic. That was the Club's choice.

 

The Children's Hospital ones were great. Still have the home and away and the quality is excellent.

 

Edited by The Batman
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Maybe the reason for the delay every year is more financial than anything else? There has to be an initial outlay to the manufacturer, where does that money come from? Might be paid for in next years accounts. 

 

If that's the case and I'm only guessing, maybe the answer is to buy a shirt up front slightly cheaper with your season ticket package. Guarantee to have it early and before non-season ticket holders. Another incentive to get a season ticket.

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3 minutes ago, bradowl said:

I've heard new home shirts have thin stripes looking similar to these. 

 

Image result for old swfc shirts Image result for old swfc shirts

 

That '80's shirt, which I hated with a passion, but have warmed to recently, would only work with blue shorts and white socks.

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Guest The Horse

Just give us normal sized blue and white stripes front and back. Is it really that difficult to design?

I reckon that's what most people want and like.

Instantly recognizable as Sheffield Wednesday.

Looks great on Subbuteo or on attacking players bombing down towards the kop.

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8 minutes ago, HOOTIE AND THE poo TU said:

Similar to these two different shirts?

 

Only 2 kits I recall us having thin stripes so probably something like one of these, they will look a bit different with a different sponsor. 

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10 hours ago, OWLERTON GHOST said:

This last season's training gear is of excellent quality ..

It looks good too 

And sizing is typical of most sports gear on the market ..

 

 

The best gear we've had during DC's reign so far, has in my opinion been some of the walk out jackets/track suit tops. Some of them have looked class. The kits and shirts have been hit or miss, quite varied and poor in design but inventive. Inventive isn't necessary a bad thing, some of our best kits in the 90s were inventive. But recent kits in my opinion have lacked something and not had the same quality as some of the jackets, track suit tops and training gear.

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