Hampster Gull
Well-known member
- Dec 22, 2010
- 13,465
Why not?
Because Frankie Says
Why not?
Havent been available for ages, hold up Nike's end apparently.
P!ss poor from the club.
I must have tweeted the club about 20 times in August and September asking when the home shirt would be avaliable to purchase - not one response back from the club.
Instead, I went on Ebay and brought a fake (excellant replica) home shirt for £20. Shipped from China in about 12-14 days.
Yes, I should be spending money in the club shop, but I was not waiting four months for a shirt to come avaliable!
A lot of lost revenue for the club.
Maybe that's why your user name is Blind Pugh? If someone has a PL Brighton shirt made in China, it's a fake. Ours are made in Bangladesh.
To be fair they should only stock kids sizes. Adults should not wear football shirts.
Because Frankie Says
I came back with the intention of buying one as a Christmas present and one for myself. I left with nothing but £90 in my pocket. The club's loss.
I'm sure Barber said fairly recently that the order coming in wasn't huge as they didn't want surplus (not that they wouldn't have needed to worry about that if it had arrived 3 months ago) so I'd get in quick when and if it finally arrives. Whoever is at fault it does seem a huge own goal.
Why not?
I've had an email exchange with Paul Barber about this subject today. Pertinent points:
- the current lack of availability of shirts is due to exceptional demand (not our retail team making any errors or cock-ups)
- we have sold more shirts in the past 5 months than at any time in the club’s entire history (as has been the case with each of our Nike shirt launches so far)
- of course, for our first season in the Premier League, even greater demand for replica shirts was entirely anticipated (and it was catered for)
- however, in the event, sales volumes were much, much higher - and much, much earlier - than anyone could have reasonably predicted
- in fact, we have beaten all previous industry benchmarking records for the Premier League impact of a % increase in replica shirt sales
- shirt sales are usually spread over the entire summer period from launch, and then build up again in the weeks leading up to Christmas (there are few sales after Christmas for obvious reasons)
- we have more than doubled our best ever previous sales in July and August alone (and way before the summer was out or people even thought of Christmas – this was impossible to predict)
- as an important point of reference, our retail team had to place our initial shirt order while we were a Championship club with a reasonable, but not guaranteed, expectation of promotion
- our second replica shirt order was placed on the day we were promoted. And, reacting to the initial huge demand, we placed a third order after analysing the success of the initial launch
- as a consequence, we brought forward all available stock to the earliest possible point (instead of phasing in) - and sold it immediately, hence the shirt shortages in September and October
- those people that pre-ordered shirts in the summer, and the majority of those that normally buy their shirts in the summer, were able to buy them as normal
- those people that didn’t pre-order or who delayed buying when initial stocks arrived have unfortunately had a long wait for new stock which is very frustrating for them – and also for us
- we are expecting a further supply of shirts imminently (again, we expect these shirts to sell out very quickly – ands, so, we will have another batch of additional shirts to follow before Christmas)
- unfortunately, replica shirt manufacture has a long order to delivery lead time (this is the same for all manufacturers, not just Nike, as factory capacity is booked many months in advance)
- Nike have been as helpful and supportive as possible (it is after all in their interests to get stock to us as well)
The club's previous replica shirt sales were very low (by our standards now) - and were more predictable. The opening of the Amex created an initial step change in demand for replica shirts but was still low by Premier League (and even some Championship) club standards. We have now entered a very different era for the club, and we are still learning about new levels of demand.
The club’s replica shirt deal with Nike provides us with exclusive distribution rights. This is hugely valuable to the club, not least because it means the club benefits from all sales of its official replica products, rather than losing important revenues with other retailers that are entirely independent of the club.
The club’s merchandise sales are at all-time record levels. Unfortunately, it is simply not possible to precisely estimate demand when it is this exceptional. And it simply doesn’t work to order infinite numbers of shirts as any financial benefit to the club is wiped away if the additional shirts are not sold by Christmas.
Additionally, our home and away shirts are bespoke – they are not "catalogue shirts” (not to be confused with templates). ALL major manufacturers work to a series of design templates each season. Bespoke shirts, like ours (and England’s for example), are created within the templates.
This means the shirts are manufactured to our specification and to our required numbers. Nike will not over-produce a shirt they can’t then sell to anyone else so the risk is all ours if we get the numbers wrong! Fans want us to deliver bespoke shirts. Catalogue shirts, on the other hand, are re–stocked very quickly because only a club badge needs applying.
On holibobs this year, one shop on the seafront in playa Blanca owned by an oriental gentleman was selling replica shirts and there was a brighton one in there...shame it was only in large and medium or I would gave bought one...only €20 ...the Real Madrid ones were €45 .....genuine fakes!
flew in for the Man City game certain to get the promised son his birthday present which was in May ... before the kick off just one medium shirt left... wow i felt lucky ... got to the till and the sales assistant asked me if i really wanted one with "Mummy" printed on the back [emoji23][emoji23]He did say that, which makes you wonder why they did not set up a pre-order to gage volume of interest.
The club website said next delivery was "early" November but that has now changed to "late" November.
You would have thought the club would have realised this issue could occur based on the level of interest in the initial pre-order.