2015/16 Home Kit

[ninjamonkey]

Which would be fine of those cost savings were passed on. However, since Nike came along with their shite shield, the cost of the shirt has gone up, not down.

100% agree. However, You can't blame Nike for that. That's the whole replica market. They're never going to cut shirt prices as there's no competition and no alternative. They make a ridiculous amount from them and whilst people complain about the prices they still buy them, myself included. I'm in my 20's and i can remember when a new shirt was £30 brand new and it lasted for 2 seasons.

 

[kenzie115]

100% agree. However, You can't blame Nike for that. That's the whole replica market. They're never going to cut shirt prices as there's no competition and no alternative. They make a ridiculous amount from them and whilst people complain about the prices they still buy them, myself included. I'm in my 20's and i can remember when a new shirt was £30 brand new and it lasted for 2 seasons.

I can't blame Nike for charging more for a poorer quality shirt? How about blaming the club for allowing Nike to rip off fans?

 

[ninjamonkey]

I can't blame Nike for charging more for a poorer quality shirt? How about blaming the club for allowing Nike to rip off fans?

What i meant was, you can't blame Nike solely for the increase in shirt prices. This isn't a specific thing related to City. All the other clubs shirts cost the same and It would be no cheaper if we were still with Umbro or had Adidas etc. In reality, the replica market is a duopoly between Nike and Adidas, so maybe they are mostly to blame but can you really blame a business for maximising profit? The replica market is a unique thing, like i said, there's no competition, no choice and no alternative. But if you want to blame anybody then blame the consumer.

 

[Corky]

The Le Coq Sportif ons were £30 and you could get 20% discount on them the day before official sale so they were £24 up to 2008. Then they doubled in price pretty quickly. Even the 2013/14 shirts were £50 on the last day of the season . Even the FA has been fined for anti-competitive agreements for football shirts, as well as shops and Man Utd.

If there is no competition as Ninja Monkey suggests, isn't it a matter for the OFT?

 

[ninjamonkey]

The Le Coq Sportif ons were £30 and you could get 20% discount on them the day before official sale so they were £24 up to 2008. Then they doubled in price pretty quickly. Even the 2013/14 shirts were £50 on the last day of the season . Even the FA has been fined for anti-competitive agreements for football shirts, as well as shops and Man Utd.

If there is no competition as Ninja Monkey suggests, isn't it a matter for the OFT?

In theory You could create competition through retailers under-cutting each other but you're still getting an ever increasing RRP from the kit manufacturers. and that is where the real problem is as they don't have to compete with anybody else because each product for each team is unique to them so they can get away with slapping whatever RRP they like on to them. And they're backed up by the fans buying them every single year.

Going back to the retail bit, You're right about the OFT stepping in regarding price fixing, that was a retailer issue and saw many of them fined and warned against future conduct. They still basically do this now but do you know how they get away with it? Sports direct generally knock a penny off the price so they can legitimately claim they are under cutting their rivals. Not that there's many rival retailers around anymore to create a price drop though, and that's thanks to Mike Ashley too. So I suppose what i'm seeing is, it's all Mike Ashleys fault!

 

[Corky]

For a few years it was just MCFC/Kitbag, Sports Direct were a lot cheaper when allowed to sell, but since JJB went out of business things seem to have changed a bit.

Sports Direct is still very good value for most things, so I wouldn't blame Ashley who keeps margins down. We need the likes of ASDA and Tesco in on the sales.

 

[ninjamonkey]

For a few years it was just MCFC/Kitbag, Sports Direct were a lot cheaper when allowed to sell, but since JJB went out of business things seem to have changed a bit.

Sports Direct is still very good value for most things, so I wouldn't blame Ashley who keeps margins down. We need the likes of ASDA and Tesco in on the sales.

Was more a light-hearted comment about blaming Ashley for everything. Although there's truth in what i said. Ashley was heavily involved in causing JJB to go into administration, i think the matter is still in court but lets just say the guy who came on board at JJB when it started to decline was extremely friendly with Ashley.Allegedly! it was always his plan to under-cut, use every tactic in the book to drive out rivals and then eventually raise prices back up when nobody remained. Can't really blame the guy himself for that, he's making money at the end of the day, you blame the authorities that allowed that to happen. The exclusivity thing is interesting as i'm told the new Home shirt is planned to be exclusive to the City store for a week before it's available in retailers.

 

[Dunne's own goal]

I like the home kit. It's traditional and fully represent the club colors.
I like the awayshirt and the laserblue. Hopefully the short is as well.
I like the laseryellow 3rd kit. Very modern and will sell well.
And ... I don't care about the shield.

So Nike looks to have done a great job. My compliments. Amen.

how dare you admit you like the new Nike kits or even worse that you don't mind the shield?

personally I fully agree with you about the home & 3rd kits. away kit is ok too.

I didn't really mind the shield ten years ago when we had it and not now either.

 

[Dunne's own goal]

Was more a light-hearted comment about blaming Ashley for everything. Although there's truth in what i said. Ashley was heavily involved in causing JJB to go into administration, i think the matter is still in court but lets just say the guy who came on board at JJB when it started to decline was extremely friendly with Ashley.Allegedly! it was always his plan to under-cut, use every tactic in the book to drive out rivals and then eventually raise prices back up when nobody remained. Can't really blame the guy himself for that, he's making money at the end of the day, you blame the authorities that allowed that to happen. The exclusivity thing is interesting as i'm told the new Home shirt is planned to be exclusive to the City store for a week before it's available in retailers.

How does that work then if it's on sale in NYC already? or did you mean UK only?

 

[Danny Hoekman]

For a few years it was just MCFC/Kitbag, Sports Direct were a lot cheaper when allowed to sell, but since JJB went out of business things seem to have changed a bit.

Sports Direct is still very good value for most things, so I wouldn't blame Ashley who keeps margins down. We need the likes of ASDA and Tesco in on the sales.

With his dubiuos employment practices.