 Thursday, 16th Jun 2011 09:18 Are Saints now going to change their kit every year ? In modern times Saints have usually stuck to a two year cycle in replacing their kit, there has been the odd exception, for instance just after we left the Premier it was necessary to change kit after one season in the Championship because of the departing shirt sponsor whose deal was up, but that apart up until ths last season it had always been that two year cycle although sometimes the away kit would only be for one year. When it was announced that Saints would play in the sash kit for one year Saints fans accepted that as it was a special 125th anniversary kit, however it now seems judging by the wording on the official site, that our new strip is here just for a year, phrases like " to be worn for the 2011/12 season"intimate that. On the face of it this is nothing different than most Premier league clubs who themselves have started to bring out a strip yearly rather than bi annual as used to be the case, for many fans who can afford it it isnt a problem and those with the money are happy to pay out every year, however the people who have children might feel a bit differently given the peer pressure kids are under now to have the latest gear be it football kit or otherwise and when you take into account away strips as well those with more than one kid can feel the pinch. Personally I dont really buy replic shirts and havent done so for a long time since i stopped needing them for playing five a side in etc so it doesnt affect me, but being a keen scholar of the football industry I have seen prices start to creep up again and Clubs start to exploit the replica kit market, perhaps unfairly. In the late 90's early 00's shirt prices were creeping up as they are now, but then the rise of the internet aligned with sports superstores who were able to buy large amounts and discount heavily meant that prices weere forced down, half a dozen years ago a new Man Utd shirt could be got sometimes for as low as £25 a big discount on the £40 previously, now prices are back up to the £40 mark and starting to creep northwards of that. Those supermarkets that budgetted found themselves either having to tow the line and not discount heavily or face not recieving supplies of shirts. The profit margin in a replica shrt is big, roughly speaking it would cost £5 to manufacture, £5 profit to the supplier ie Umbro, a £10 royalty to the club in question and the remaining £20 is the retialiers profit, in our case we dont need to have our shirts nationwide and when we manufactured our own kit for a while it instigated a period when we really started to make profit from our kit by only selling it in the club shops and on line, in short a great business move as we kept the bulk of the profit rather than see the sports shops in town make more than us, although we have moved to Umbro and given up some of that profit, we have still kept it exclusive to our own shops. So given the big business that is replica shirts its in the interest of clubs to get a shirt out as oftenas possible and often three inclusing a third kit and keep prices artificially high in comparison to the manufacturing costs, a good comparison would be training kit, a close look at a training shirt would reveal its usually made of identical material to the replica shirt, will often carry the club badge and sponsor and be in similar colours to the club kit, for instance our away shirt in 10/11 was plain black and £40, the almost identical training top was nearer £20, why the price differential ? Of course I can see the commercial benefit and why clubs do it, but there has to be and Im talking about all clubs and not just Saints, a fine balance between profit and fleecing your fans, that one year kit a few years back was retailed at £30 as the club did not want to penalise its fans too much in having to buy a kit for only a year. Having accepted the financial reasons why Saints may bring out a kit every year , I do find it hard to fathom why they are taking so long to announce what it is and get it in the shops, Chelsea and Man Utd for instance had their new shirts in the shops within a week or so of the season ending, the reason for that is pure business, supporters are off on holiday and want to show their colours, even a supporter who would not dream of buying a replica shirt and wearing it to the game can often be seen sporting one on the beaches of spain or in Florida, its about telling people who you support. Assuming that the kit is made and ready to be put in the stores and there is absolutely no reason why it shouldnt be if things have been planned properly, holding the kit back to the end of July serves no purpose whatsoever, in fact it merely costs you a few sales from those who would have bought it for holidays in June and early July, actually mainly your target market, the younger 20 something fans without kids. I can accept Saints wanting to exploit the lucrative market, what i find strange is the way they haave gone about it, with season ticket renewals looming, those who go to the ground in person often pop in the Saints megastore as well, of course I am often told that we now do things differently so that is obviously the reason.
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