Regarding Errea kits not being available this season and specifically about a woman's cut shirt Jo-Ann Swinnerton answered last month - look for JS in the answers
Below are some of the answers but there was more detail from Jo-Ann you might like to read through.
JS – Advised that for next season the club will be doing a women’s cut shirt. We have tried this in the past and it hasn’t really worked, but the beauty of Errea is that I can order 10 shirts or 50 shirts for example, so gives us the opportunity to bring in small quantity to test the waters, something we could not do with other kit providers of recent years.
RN – Asked about this season’s kit shortages, not being able to buy them early on and then running out.
JS – Advised that the club had placed orders with Errea nearly 15 months before stock was due to come in. Several things happened such as Brexit, customs and duties all put a bit of a curveball into the deliveries, we then had a major delay from Errea. The first half of stock came in, then the 2nd delivery which should have come 6-8 weeks later didn’t happen. Errea put out an apology to our supporters if you recall.
JS – When the 2nd batch of stock did eventually arrive, it was so late that for us to then place a top up order it would not have come in time, we probably would not have got that until Feb / March this year, this left us with a huge gap.
JS – We rely on the first order coming in to see what sales are like and then place a top up order from that immediately. That should normally come within 60-90 days, it just didn’t.
JS – My main role at the football club is to provide revenue from the retail department, if I don’t do that, then we don’t hit our objectives, so the last thing I wanted was for that kit not to arrive. It was the first season back with Errea, so we will always have some challenges, but hopefully this year everything will be on time.
JD was the supply issue with Errea just a Middlesbrough issue or was it also other clubs that they supply?
JS – it was all the clubs.
JD – would the club consider using a British manufacturer due to all the problems you mentioned with customs and Brexit etc? as it seems like ongoing issues with the supply of our kit.
JS – We have looked at every single type of manufacturers and kit suppliers, at one point we travelled from country to country to look at this. Nobody stands out better than the next.