[Archived] Umbro Shirt Designs 2009-10

[RevidgeBlue]

personally, ###### to nike, put kids into schools, and not sweatshops

Ok - as long as you don't mind paying 70 or 80 quid for a shirt.

[Paul]

Ok - as long as you don't mind paying 70 or 80 quid for a shirt.

Crikey Rev what are you saying? That's an enormous can of worms.

[Tris]

so in a nutshell the working man gets shafted by what was his own game, again. lets not get too rose-tinted aout the state of affairs.

If the working man only wants a new shirt every two years then he can simply chose only to buy one every two years - or not at all if he's that bloody miserable about the whole thing!

Perhaps he could use the £100+ quid saved due to the cheaper season tickets to fund the shirt.

Or perhaps he just needs to moan about every single thing to do with Blackburn Rovers?

[Sandiway Blue]

If the working man only wants a new shirt every two years then he can simply chose only to buy one every two years - or not at all if he's that bloody miserable about the whole thing!

Perhaps he could use the £100+ quid saved due to the cheaper season tickets to fund the shirt.

Or perhaps he just needs to moan about every single thing to do with Blackburn Rovers?

What about the poor bugger who has 2 or 3 kids (or more!) who want new shirts home and away every time they are released? They might be able to afford one every 2 years,but i doubt very much they would be able to buy them every single year.

I think it is safe to say that replica shirts are way over-priced,especially for children.

The reason Rovers dropped the price of season tickets was to make supporting Rovers more affordable.Yes we get a great deal out of the club but it is only to stop the rapidly dwindling numbers of fans going to the game,and for that reason only.

When all said and done it boils down to supply and demand.

[roversmum]

Our kids were/are more than happy to get shirts for Christmas/Birthday presents. Given the amount of money most folks seem to spend on their kids these days for these events it's not a huge amount.

[tony gale's mic]

Ok - as long as you don't mind paying 70 or 80 quid for a shirt.

Jesus.

[Flopsy]

What about the poor bugger who has 2 or 3 kids (or more!) who want new shirts home and away every time they are released?

theres a wordyou might want to try.

NO

[only2garners]

Crikey Rev what are you saying? That's an enormous can of worms.

I think it was a quote from Simon Marsh at the meeting. We were discussing Umbro's ethical policy and he said that if fans wished, they could manufacture the shirts in the UK, as long as they were prepared to pay the £70-80 they would then cost.

[tony gale's mic]

I think it was a quote from Simon Marsh at the meeting. We were discussing Umbro's ethical policy and he said that if fans wished, they could manufacture the shirts in the UK, as long as they were prepared to pay the £70-80 they would then cost.

There's nothing wrong with manufacturing abroad, but mattyboy was talking specifically about sweatshops which are very, very different from people working for a fair wage in a factory in India/Pakistan/China etc.

[Paul]

I think it was a quote from Simon Marsh at the meeting. We were discussing Umbro's ethical policy and he said that if fans wished, they could manufacture the shirts in the UK, as long as they were prepared to pay the £70-80 they would then cost.

Ah that will be the Fair Trade shirts then

[only2garners]

There's nothing wrong with manufacturing abroad, but mattyboy was talking specifically about sweatshops which are very, very different from people working for a fair wage in a factory in India/Pakistan/China etc.

This is probably not the place for this discussion but, whilst Umbro have what sounds to be a decent policy, they are almost certainly using factories that pay what we would regard as outrageous wages - every other major western clothing company is. For example, there was an article in the Independent yesterday where a journalist had gone to Bangladesh to see where his £9 M&S jeans had come from. The women working in the factory he saw (an average one in the market) earned £12.30 a month for an official 50 hour week, although in practice an 11 hour day, usually 7 days a week. Places like this are supplying such as H&M, M&S, Gap and Asda. There are places worse than this using child labour etc. which is probably what is meant by sweatshops. The article made it clear that despite these numbers campaigners in Bangladesh did not want westerners to stop buying the clothes as the work was better than what had gone on before particularly for women but don't delude yourself that these are "fair" wages in enlightened factory conditions.

[Hughesy]

I think we should stick with the halved away kit, changed the colours each year if necessary but stick with the halved style. I wouldn’t mind seeing a collar on the away shirt either.

Maybe also we could re-design our badge?! Ha ha only joking!

[Cheshireblue]

I happen the know a bit about sourcing products from China and the whole supply chain process.

Umbro are members of the Fair Labour association and have all of their manufacturers audited by an independant company to ensure they are compliant with LOCAL laws and regulations. Quite a few of the sports brands are doing this now (although not SWI).

I believe that Umbro use the same factory for all of their shirt manufacturing including the England shirt. By chinese standards it is an extremely good factory. I'm not saying that you would want to work there but it is clean, safe and has a very good reputation. They definitely don't use any forms of unacceptable labour.

[only2garners]

I happen the know a bit about sourcing products from China and the whole supply chain process.

Umbro are members of the Fair Labour association and have all of their manufacturers audited by an independant company to ensure they are compliant with LOCAL laws and regulations. Quite a few of the sports brands are doing this now (although not SWI).

I believe that Umbro use the same factory for all of their shirt manufacturing including the England shirt. By chinese standards it is an extremely good factory. I'm not saying that you would want to work there but it is clean, safe and has a very good reputation. They definitely don't use any forms of unacceptable labour.

I don't doubt that Umbro do - it would be commercially stupid for such a company not to. That was certainly the impression that Simon Marsh gave at the Forum. It's just that doing that does not stop the factory being what we would definitely call a sweatshop were it over here i.e. awful working conditions, long hours and crap pay. It's probably a lot better than others in the area and may well be compliant with local labour laws but it won't be good by western standards.

[mattyboy6000]

I prefer the embroidered badge, I suppose having small hands makes it easier to stitch

[bluebruce]

If you bother to read back, you'll find that Simon Marsh works for Umbro not Rovers - so the rest of your rant looks very stupid.

In fact the first line of the first post of the whole thread reveals that simple fact.

There is a lot more that can be said about the quality of contributions on this whole forum. People who are banned are capable of reading, understanding and debating, people who are left can't even read.

Very well, he works for Umbro. Who are even bigger than Rovers. As for not being able to read, how snide and pathetic are you? I'm perfectly literate, and have a far better grasp of the English language than the vast majority of the country. So what if I missed a minor piece of information? As for not being able to debate, I won't even get into how wrong you are there. Anyway, I hardly think Umbro are going to go out of business by not changing our shirt design. 'Yes but they're a business' I expect you'll reply. Sure. My point is one very simple thing- it is not commercial suicide for Rovers, or for Umbro. Merely, it is potentially a bit unwise commercially.

You made your own point, about it being an Umbro spokesman rather than Rovers. I imagine your friends who got banned are like you. Ie, they resort to petty implied personal insults when just making your point will suffice. Hardly the sign of a good logical debater, eh? Or possibly, they are amongst the hordes of closet racists that abound here. Who knows.

Thanks Tris, you saved me a job.

Firstly, I am only reporting back what was said at the forum, don't shoot the messenger.

Secondly, Simon Marsh was talking about it being commercial suicide for Umbro, not Rovers, to produce a red and black halved away kit two years running. I don't think you can realistically argue against the view that a very similar away strip probably wouldn't sell as well as a completely new version, much as we'd like to see it.

Thirdly it became very apparent at the Forum that these guys at Umbro know a lot more about shifting shirts in large quantities than me, you, or anyone at Rovers - they really know their stuff.

I think it's also fair to say that whilst the relationship with SWI leaves a lot to be desired, the Club are extremely happy with Umbro, and rightly so imo on the basis of this year's kits and what I heard the other night.

This is much more like the appropriate response. But Rev, I wasn't shooting the messenger, and you've slightly misunderstood my point. Just saying I don't believe it to be commercial suicide, merely greed. I don't see anything you've said which counters that. I'm sure they are excellent at shifting shirts, yes. And making money. But I'm also sure they won't go under, or fail to benefit from their relationship with Rovers, by not changing the kit. I also agree they will probably profit from changing it more regularly (although I would expect it isn't AS GREAT a difference as they make out, for the reasons I stated earlier).

In fact, it being Umbro rather than Rovers using the phrase merely strengthens my conviction that the motive is greed and the phrase commercial suicide is dramatism employed for PR purposes. Mind, I'm not outraged, if that's how you've read me, just disappointed. Sadly, it is the reality of the world that companies will make the most cash they can get away with, and use PR to get away with as much as possible. Moreover, it's entirely up to us whether we buy two kits a season. I expect I'll be just buying the home kit personally, and the away every two years, depending how good they make it. And they have made some very good kits for us.

[stuwilky]

There is nothing suidical for Umbro in producing a kit that we want.