The new training kit (Merged again)

[SARJ]

Why is our Training Gear range so horrifically awful?

Our new polos/t-shirts are covered in dreadful childlike text whereas our 'anthem jackets' are perhaps the most tasteless piece of clothing I've ever seen in a football store.

Recently got back from Portugal where they have 'Forca Portugal' shops everywhere stocking apparrell from the 3 big clubs: Sporting, Benfica and Porto. All of the clothes in there was flying off the shelves. It was simple, classy, you could even get away with actually wearing it for meals/drinks out, as many locals and tourists did. Our stuff isn't fit for a tough mudder run.

Such a shame as it could be an excellent source of revenue for the club. I never buy kits but am partial to the odd training polo, but we plaster so much stuff over it, and with terrible colour co-ordination all of our training and casual stuff just looks dreadfully tacky. Such a waste of an opportunity.

[The Gasbuster]

Just now, SARJ said:

Why is our Training Gear range so horrifically awful?

Our new polos/t-shirts are covered in dreadful childlike text whereas our 'anthem jackets' are perhaps the most tasteless piece of clothing I've ever seen in a football store.

Recently got back from Portugal where they have 'Forca Portugal' shops everywhere stocking apparrell from the 3 big clubs: Sporting, Benfica and Porto. All of the clothes in there was flying off the shelves. It was simple, classy, you could even get away with actually wearing it for meals/drinks out, as many locals and tourists did. Our stuff isn't fit for a tough mudder run.

Such a shame as it could be an excellent source of revenue for the club. I never buy kits but am partial to the odd training polo, but we plaster so much stuff over it, and with terrible colour co-ordination all of our training and casual stuff just looks dreadfully tacky. Such a waste of an opportunity.

Whoever "designed" that awful training top will have to answer for it, at the end of the season.

Cannot see more than a handful being sold.

[1960maaan]

It's not just the people/person that designed the bloody things, someone looked at it and said lovely we'll take it. The man in change needs to have a word with himself !

 

That child's scrawl is awful !

[EmersonsRed]

This will be merged soon

[UREDS_91]

56 minutes ago, streety_bcfc said:

It is very similar to be fair......

 

See, spitting image. 

 

 

 

Hmmm, someone said The Simspons... Banksy did a Simpsons episode... I feel like this may have been the inspiration... 

 

[nickolas]

Popped into the shop yesterday. Away shirt is of nice quality. All the training gear is horrendous! Dodgy thick material, cant be comfortable to wear!! Full of static, not great!

It cant be that hard can it?!

[phantom]

1 hour ago, 1960maaan said:

It's not just the people/person that designed the bloody things, someone looked at it and said lovely we'll take it. The man in change needs to have a word with himself !

 

That child's scrawl is awful !

add that to the odd placing of the club badge too

[Bristol Rob]

9 minutes ago, phantom said:

add that to the odd placing of the club badge too

That odd placing can be easily explained.

It's a shoulder pad; so that when you aims yet shotgun at a pheasant in the hay, you have protection.

It reflects our agricultural heritage.

They just haven't found a player to tell us they were consulted on this bit of the design yet.

[CyderInACan]

It's less Banksy, more Lewis da Baron 

[AdamB]

23 hours ago, ChippenhamRed said:

So @AdamB I see you have released the training gear today. A few questions....

1. How does such a blatantly terrible design make it onto the shelves?

2. When fan feedback is so obviously terrible, why not have a rethink before releasing a design that is clearly not going to sell well - surely the whole point of the exercise from a commercial point of view at least?

3. In anticipation to the answer to the second question, why not canvass fan opinion before committing to a large order that might actually end up costing the club money?

4. Will the club at least acknowledge the poor feedback and endeavour to ensure something more sensible is released in future?

5. Do fan opinions actually matter when it comes to merchandise that you expect and want fans to buy?

I realise this might be somewhat of an overreaction to a training kit, but it does seem to be symptomatic of some horrendously amateur decision making from the club - a broader issue perhaps.

Look forward to your answers.

Reaction on here and also on Twitter acknowledged and will be fed back to the relevant people. 

I would caveat that if you had read this forum and social media 12 months ago, it would have lead us to believe that the home shirt would not sell, due to the hashtags, and that no one would ever dare buy the kit. However, on the contrary it went on to be the biggest selling shirt in all my years at the club (16 and counting). 

That's not to say feedback shouldn't be listened to, and - as I say - will be fed back. 

We have in the past engaged with FAN about replica kit. I'll see if this can extend to training wear in the future. (FWIW - We did work with the players re: trainingwear - mainly due to the fact the players have to wear it day in, day out). 

With your passion for said garments, it would be good if you got involved in FAN Meetings. They are shortly moving to home matchdays to make it easier for supporters to attend. Let me know if you want to get involved and I can put you in touch with the chair, Jeremy. 

Regards

Adam

[AdamB]

10 hours ago, Sixtyseconds said:

Forget about that your an interesting chap selling clobber to many a Bristol City fan.

When you run that professional eye across the pictures what do they tell you about those training tops?

My good eye tuned to "bullshit detector" is telling me BS have two bad ones.

 

@AdamB

6. With this training top recognising Bristol’s internationally-renowned urban heritage and Upfest Europe’s largest street art and graffiti festival coming to Ashton Gate at the end of July.

Will artists again at Ashton Gate be painting lots of diamonds on walls depicting only the Lord knew what and the wrong formation date for the FC?

I would certainly hope not! (Re: formation date). 

Fortunately that wall got knocked down long ago. 

Regards

Adam

[Trueredsupporter]

1 hour ago, AdamB said:

I would certainly hope not! (Re: formation date). 

Fortunately that wall got knocked down long ago. 

Regards

Adam

Who is providing guidance instead of hope?

[Sixtyseconds]

1 hour ago, AdamB said:

I would certainly hope not! (Re: formation date). 

Fortunately that wall got knocked down long ago. 

Regards

Adam

You have not ruled out another painted homage to channel fours countdown.

[Meh]

14 minutes ago, cynic said:

And that says it all.

Much ado about nothing.

If people buy it, fine, if not, fine.

 

It's not fine though really.

I want to see adults and kids of all ages walking around our fair city wearing the colours.  

This will only happen if the product is something people want to be seen in and in the case of the training wear - many sensible people on all social media have give it a big thumbs down.

I think sells will be poor and the club could well lose money and it is such an opportunity lost.

Cease orders with the suppliers, change the font to something more professional and profits are still there for the taking particularly at Christmas period which could put us back in the black in terms of offsetting the scrapping losses.

The hashtag shirts was a few vocal people sounding off and proven as sells were good - this seems much more considered and sensible people are totally against it - club needs to suck it up whilst there is time to recoup losses !!

[Bristol Rob]

3 minutes ago, Sixtyseconds said:

You have not ruled out another painted homage to channel fours countdown.

I'd rather we finished the season two from the top than three from the bottom.

[Cowshed]

2 hours ago, AdamB said:

Reaction on here and also on Twitter acknowledged and will be fed back to the relevant people. 

I would caveat that if you had read this forum and social media 12 months ago, it would have lead us to believe that the home shirt would not sell, due to the hashtags, and that no one would ever dare buy the kit. However, on the contrary it went on to be the biggest selling shirt in all my years at the club (16 and counting). 

That's not to say feedback shouldn't be listened to, and - as I say - will be fed back. 

We have in the past engaged with FAN about replica kit. I'll see if this can extend to training wear in the future. (FWIW - We did work with the players re: trainingwear - mainly due to the fact the players have to wear it day in, day out). 

With your passion for said garments, it would be good if you got involved in FAN Meetings. They are shortly moving to home matchdays to make it easier for supporters to attend. Let me know if you want to get involved and I can put you in touch with the chair, Jeremy. 

Regards

Adam

My Son had a shirt with your  hashtags on it bought for him by a relative. I obviously could not throw it in the bin. People will buy things regardless because it is Bristol City. It is a captive market that does not buy these products from another because we cannot - You are Bristol City and there it is. 

There is an arrogance within your post. We were right you are wrong which does not consider the alternatives. If there is any point in these fans groups you should be consulting fans before the event not after you have made your decision for the next season. That is consultation.

 

 

 

 

[Meh]

8 hours ago, Cowshed said:

 If there is any point in these fans groups you should be consulting fans before the event not after you have made your decision for the next season. That is consultation.

Sort of like liaising with fans then? Good idea - we could have somebody where part of their role is a sort of Fans Liaison Officer but we can work on the actual title later 

[ChippenhamRed]

10 hours ago, AdamB said:

Reaction on here and also on Twitter acknowledged and will be fed back to the relevant people. 

I would caveat that if you had read this forum and social media 12 months ago, it would have lead us to believe that the home shirt would not sell, due to the hashtags, and that no one would ever dare buy the kit. However, on the contrary it went on to be the biggest selling shirt in all my years at the club (16 and counting). 

That's not to say feedback shouldn't be listened to, and - as I say - will be fed back. 

We have in the past engaged with FAN about replica kit. I'll see if this can extend to training wear in the future. (FWIW - We did work with the players re: trainingwear - mainly due to the fact the players have to wear it day in, day out). 

With your passion for said garments, it would be good if you got involved in FAN Meetings. They are shortly moving to home matchdays to make it easier for supporters to attend. Let me know if you want to get involved and I can put you in touch with the chair, Jeremy. 

Regards

Adam

Wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this but I'll give it a go. I don't particularly like the tone, it doesn't address all of my questions head on, and I didn't like the comment "passion for said garments", which sounds like a thinly-veiled p*ss take to me.

It is not really about the training tops per-se. It's about having good decision makers employed at the club that make sensible choices to enable to club to be presented in the best possible light. From a marketing point of view, we are up against Premier League clubs and if we want to attract new support - particularly young support - we need to get these things right. Can you imagine Chelsea or Man Utd launching a training wear range like that? No, you don't have to buy it, but whenever you see our players on Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere on a non-match day, this is what they will be wearing.

There are two issues here:-

1. Why did the club get this so blatantly wrong in the first place, and how did it make it all the way through consultation without someone pointing out what was obvious to pretty much every single fan?

2. Why, having seen the reaction, did the club plough on regardless?

Adam has suggested fan engagement on training wear design in future. I don't actually think that should be necessary and that would appear OTT. If you put sensible people in place to make sensible decisions, we should be able to trust the club to produce good quality merchandise (not only clothing) that looks good, makes the club look good, and people want to buy. That said, when the reaction is so clearly bad, the club should listen. But it should be possible to avoid such negative reaction in the first place.

I do not have a "passion for garments". I have a passion for Bristol City and want to see it represented in the best possible way, not in a way that makes us look childish and amateur - which is quite literally what we look like in this instance.

As a side note, I fully support FAN meetings but I am unlikely to be able to commit further time to the club for this. I'm not even a season ticket holder because I can't commit the time. Fan consultation is clearly a good thing, but as I said above it should be possible to get some decisions right without it.

[Cowshed]

21 minutes ago, Neo said:

Sort of like liaising with fans then?

No. Bristol City and Bristol Sport have a supporter group to use for advice and consultation. What is the point of it if it is not used before a decision is made?

Including these fans groups in what are peripheral decision (a training kit) making that will hardly affect the FC's ability to comply with FFP is an area where this FAN grouping can contribute. A mock up would have taken seconds to run past fans on this group, seconds to identify a dodgy font.

[Monkeh]

its a bit shit, won't be buying any this year, I normally get a training top,

I'll have a look at the polo shirts though

[Benjam!n Ultra]

FAKE NEWS

Last years home was the best selling shirt in our history, despite being the worst since a TFG attempt, because you literally gave them away for free with children's season tickets. 

[Phileas Fogg]

9 hours ago, cynic said:

Buy the excellent football shirts then.

Silly, obviously it makes commercial sense to have as broad a range of products that people will buy as possible. Not all adults for example want to wear football shirts and prefer something that's a little more subtle. This isn't and I really don't think it'll sell.

Last years 'best selling' shirt was stat-padded by the free shirts given away with season tickets anyway.

 

[nickolas]

The one thing i dont get is the wording on training gear. I dont see why its needed!

Last year it was the horrendous 'bristol' ( which surely anyone knows most of us hate because we are bristol CITY. )  

Now weve added the CITY bit this year!   Good effort but still not required.

its not like we are going to rock up at away games this year and home fans have to read our bristol city wording on the tops to work out who they are playing!!

dont see why if the club want wording on training gear just put Lancer Scott on there like the home and away shirts.

 

[Monkeh]

Just now, nickolas said:

The one thing i dont get is the wording on training gear. I dont see why its needed!

Last year it was the horrendous 'bristol' ( which surely anyone knows most of us hate because we are bristol CITY. )  

Now weve added the CITY bit this year!   Good effort but still not required.

its not like we are going to rock up at away games this year and home fans have to read our bristol city wording on the tops to work out who they are playing!!

dont see why if the club want wording on training gear just put Lancer Scott on there like the home and away shirts.

 

just the badge will do

[phantom]

1 hour ago, Benjam!n Ultra said:

FAKE NEWS

Last years home was the best selling shirt in our history, despite being the worst since a TFG attempt, because you literally gave them away for free with children's season tickets. 

@Benjam!n Ultra I wonder if that includes the free shirts given to kids?

Not hard to see why it was the best year

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

Not been in the club shop for yonks, but do we sell vintage reproductions? If not, why not?

I am pretty sure that they would be more popular than those idiotic training tops (are these things decided upon by 17 year old work experience kids? That inane script and that chuffing hashtag!)

[Phileas Fogg]

2 minutes ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Not been in the club shop for yonks, but do we sell vintage reproductions? If not, why not?

I am pretty sure that they would be more popular than those idiotic training tops (are these things decided upon by 17 year old work experience kids? That inane script and that chuffing hashtag!)

Very good idea. A range of bespoke vintage shirts of days gone by would sell well I think. Maybe even made with heavier material like those on Toffs.

https://www.toffs.com/shop-by-team/football

[RedM]

19 minutes ago, nickolas said:

The one thing i dont get is the wording on training gear. I dont see why its needed!

Last year it was the horrendous 'bristol' ( which surely anyone knows most of us hate because we are bristol CITY. )  

Now weve added the CITY bit this year!   Good effort but still not required.

its not like we are going to rock up at away games this year and home fans have to read our bristol city wording on the tops to work out who they are playing!!

dont see why if the club want wording on training gear just put Lancer Scott on there like the home and away shirts.

 

Agreed. It's overdone (sorry @Woodsy) Just keep the range plain and simple, I'd even remove the armbands as well.

[Monkeh]

2 minutes ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Not been in the club shop for yonks, but do we sell vintage reproductions? If not, why not?

I am pretty sure that they would be more popular than those idiotic training tops (are these things decided upon by 17 year old work experience kids? That inane script and that chuffing hashtag!)

we did it with the old hire-rite shirts, I remember them being on sale at Gow's testimonial, I guess if there was a demand for it they would do it, but its how you judge the kind of demand, 

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

Just now, Phileas Fogg said:

Very good idea. A range of bespoke vintage shirts of days gone by would sell well I think. Maybe even made with heavier material like those on Toffs.

I think a lot of people shrink from the idea of wearing a current top, as it conjures up a certain "image". An old Atyeo-era cotton jersey is timeless and retro cool (and 1970s, even 80s)