Q and A With Boro Shop - Thread - ANSWERS

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Adding my voice to a couple of the posters above - I find the cut and sizing of the latest shirts to be totally ridiculous and unrealistic.

Admittedly I'm carrying a little bit of timber, but I'm not massive. But I've given up buying Boro shirts in recent years, because I have to go up at least two sizes from my usual size, and even then, the material clings tightly to every curve, making it look like I'm squeezed into a wetsuit, instead of hanging freely like my older Adidas shirts do. So it's not just the sizing, but the cut too. It's deeply unflattering and uncomfortable.

Justice for fatties - bring back Adidas!

I can't even imagine who'd wear Medium or Small in the current sizing. I think even a Kenyan long-distance runner would need XL.
 
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Robbieboro said:
One thing I will say is it's important that we don't get given the answer to supply issues that it is the manufacturers fault. Because other clubs with errea have had consistent supply of stock over the season an example being QPR.
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And we've had the same issues with other suppliers in the past and the other non-Errea stock in the store so it is almost definitely an us problem.
 
If you look at fashion in Middlesbrough (historically), we have had shed loads of designer shops - for a town centre of that size, it must have been right up there per m2. It proves that there is a fashion conscious outlook not seen in every town. This has been the case for a long time.
Yet the club shop range is absolutely dire. Half-arsed polo shirts with the daft badge plastered on etc, everything seems pretty old- fashioned.
Maybe hook up with a designer, someone like Kate Fearnley may know a likely lad/lass.

I know we're not Man Utd, but their shop has a range of Paul Smith clobber and the logo is a small red devil. All of our gear has that monstrosity of a badge slammed on.

Don't advertise scarves for sale on 'bring a scarf night' then tell customers an hour before the match "we did order enough but it's been mental". On scarves, there seems to be a bit of momentum with this and as someone has already said, stock the plain red and white bar scarf - fans are buying loads of those...and the shop doesn't stock them so the cash goes elsewhere.

As for kit stock, how will the shop ever understand potential volume demand when the away top was out of stock for months?
They probably assume the tops sold once back in stock (December) is the actual demand - honestly, that would not surprise me.
 
Why do we get the stock of kits so wrong each season? Last year the season started and you couldn't even buy the away shirt. Then for months throughout the season they is not stock in the size I want Small.

Also it's probaly not your decision but can we have a none betting shirt SPONSOR? Additionally are we looking to change kit supplier as Errera is the worst quality we've ever had. Would like a durable kit I can put in the washing machine.

Can the club work with fashion designers to create an actual fashion range people would like to buy.
 
Leeds/Bradford has a dirty shop full of merch, Teesside Airport could follow suit.

The Club wonders why people go down the dodgy shirt route as the prices are more realistic there.
 
Stock is consistently a massive issue. Customers should be able to get the shirt they want in-store throughout the season, or wait no more than 10 days for anything. Replica kits are an important (and exclusive, because we don’t sell our kits in regular sports shops) revenue stream for the club which is not being maximised.

My question is: what’s the reason for shirts being out of stock and what’s being done to improve it? Say the club runs out of away kits in small and medium, how long is the run time between an order to the manufacturer and delivery? Is there perhaps a minimum order amount which the club is reluctant to make, or does the manufacturer take a long time to complete orders? If so, can you give us some perspective on why the club went with this manufacturer? In simple terms a lot of us struggle to understand why, if you’re running low, you don’t order more and have them back in stock before they run out - seems like a very basic element of retail, Tesco seem to manage it with milk.
 
18MFC76 said:
My question is... How can it cost so much to stick a Boro badge on a coat? The price is nearly double.
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Does anyone know how the Errea deal works? Do they charge the club their full price for each item other than the kit itself and the club adds a profit margin on top for their share? They surely can’t be getting it at discount rates if they’re charging those prices.
 
SilentProf said:
Does anyone know how the Errea deal works? Do they charge the club their full price for each item other than the kit itself and the club adds a profit margin on top for their share? They surely can’t be getting it at discount rates if they’re charging those prices.
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Football kits can work in several ways. The big clubs like Utd have a kit deal with Adidas where Adidas pay Utd £100m per year up front. Adidas then sell the kit as many times as they can and make a profit by selling enough shirts to cover their initial investment. Utd get a fixed income and there's probably a small variable amount in there per shirt, especially when bought via the club shop. When they signed Ronaldo and the media was saying they've made that money back in shirt sales they hadn't. Adidas made all that money. The fact that they sign players like Ronaldo is why Adidas will give them so much up front.

We will pay Errea either a fixed amount to deliver a set number of shirts which we then sell for whatever we want or they pay us a fixed fee and then they sell the shirts via our retail. It's almost certainly the former because no manufacturer in their right mind would choose a volume based contract via that channel.

The method we choose almost certainly means that we are at the back of the queue for re-supply and the volume needed to make our margin means we rarely re-supply.

It very much indicates that we aim for the lowest price option which comes with the lowest level of service because it is cheapest. The club seems obsessed with maximising margin and completely ignores volume. The club will be making massive margins on each kit sold but isn't selling anywhere near as many as it could.

The worrying thing is that they appear to consider selling all their stock as a success instead of realising that means there is a lot of money they are missing out on from people that want to buy but can't.
 
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