Villa Kit 2018-19

[mikeyp102]

It’s a very random deal, but fair play for trying something new.

If its claret and blue, the majority of us won’t care, unless it looks cheap and tacky

If the team do well next season then few will care about the shirt, if however we are doing badly it’ll be another stick to beat the board with.

[PompeyVillan]

Has there ever been a 'kit' topic on a football internet forum where everybody has gone "Yes, that's really good"? 

Personally, I applaud Villa for trying something different. Honestly I wouldn't wear Luke1977 clothes, they're too expensive, £60 for a polo shirt. Give over. 

But if the Villa kits looks the part, I'll buy it. 

[villa89]

At least with a villa fan doing the design it shouldn't be purple. The logo doesn't look great though but all in all its nice to see the club trying something innovative.

[Brumstopdogs]

At least the club are trying something different. What's the worst that can happen...

[sidcow]

7 hours ago, villa4europe said:

I dont see how personally, we know very very little about it

The home shirt will be claret and blue and cost £60, it will be a bespoke design from a company who will be putting a lot of time and effort in to this, its more of a gamble for them than it is us, again not knowing anything about them but i instantly thought they will go with a classic design which would be great 

Hopefully fanatics will bring a huge product range with them, not just overpriced mint green and grey stuff but a proper range like they do for teams in the states, id be amazed if luke dont bring out a polo shirt range for us

I was starting to think we would end up with a deal like baggies and blues where we pay adidas for something out of a catelogue 

That is the question isn't it. 

Are we moving from something where we earn about a fiver per kit sold to £25 per kit sold or summat. 

Are Luke 1977 designing it for almost free for the exposure it brings them, are Fanatics going to produce something which is better quality than something a small Phillipino boy has produced in a sweatshop which a big brand supply to us at a ludicrous price, and supply that better product at a reasonable price. 

In short, will the club be making tons more money from us parting with out hard earned cash instead of a small amount with Nike or Adidas pocketing (literally) the lions share?

If the club gets more money to get better players I'm all for it. 

Then again I haven't bought a replica kit since the first Acorns one so my opinion is invalid as I probably won't buy one regardless. 

[Chewie]

41 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Are Luke 1977 designing it for almost free for the exposure it brings them, are Fanatics going to produce something which is better quality than something a small Phillipino boy has produced in a sweatshop which a big brand supply to us at a ludicrous price, and supply that better product at a reasonable price. 

Filipino. I should know, got a bunch of them in the basement 

[sidcow]

8 minutes ago, Chewie said:

Filipino. I should know, got a bunch of them in the basement 

I wondered why it didn't come up on predictive text. 

Thanks for your grammar policing though. 

I can only assume you have a bunch small Filipino boys in the basement because you have won the deal to supply the new England kit. 

[NurembergVillan]

26 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Are Luke 1977 designing it for almost free for the exposure it brings them, are Fanatics going to produce something which is better quality than something a small Phillipino boy has produced in a sweatshop which a big brand supply to us at a ludicrous price, and supply that better product at a reasonable price. 

In short, will the club be making tons more money from us parting with out hard earned cash instead of a small amount with Nike or Adidas pocketing (literally) the lions share?

I'll answer this to the best of my ability.

All brands design it essentially "for free".  A typical kit deal sees the brand pay cash to design, develop, produce and distribute the kit and other items.  They also include a certain amount of that product for free that the club will use.  If the club requires more than the amount offered for free they would have to pay for it.  If we've paid anyone to design the kit for us, something has gone very wrong.

I don't know about the quality of Fanatics, but you'd be hard-pressed to find any of the main kit brands - Nike, adidas, Puma, Umbro - producing product in sweatshops using children.  It's an outdated stereotype.  It does still happen occasionally, but usually will be the factory subcontracting and not telling the brand.  If they're using a reputable factory and making a high quality product the price won't change much unless they're taking a hit on their profit margin.  They're a $4bn company so I'd expect they operate at a healthy margin.

I can't imagine the upfront value of this deal will be worth a huge amount.  We're not that kind of attraction any more - at least not at the moment.  We might make more from kit sales but given how few shirts we sell compared to the big 6 in the PL, and the limited amount of extra profit to be made, don't expect any new signings on the back of a deal like this.

As I say every year, if your main concern is the club making more profit, buy your kit directly from the club.  That way they get their normal cut AND the retailer cut.  Buy it from somewhere else and, for example, Sports Direct will get the lion's share of the profit.

[alreadyexists]

Is this the kind of deal where instead of one supplier fee getting paid to us, we have two instead? That’s pretty clever, and hopefully the sum of the two is a good amount. I do now trust the business side of things, we’re not being operated by daddy’s favourite rich son anymore. We seem to be making good business decisions. 

[Villarocker]

2 hours ago, PompeyVillan said:

Has there ever been a 'kit' topic on a football internet forum where everybody has gone "Yes, that's really good"? 

Personally, I applaud Villa for trying something different. Honestly I wouldn't wear Luke1977 clothes, they're too expensive, £60 for a polo shirt. Give over. 

But if the Villa kits looks the part, I'll buy it. 

£48 with the exclusive Villa 20% discount code 

[dounavilla]

So Luke1977, surly a Star Wars fan.

So........

 

 

 

 

[Villarocker]

Sounds like the kit will be available earlier this year. That would be a good start!

[rubberman]

NurembergVillan is spot on. I work in another sport and we took over the kit supply for the top team in our world on those lines. 

As is evidenced from the number of people just on this thread who didn't know of Luke but now do, the marketing exposure is worth many times the cost of the deal. They will hope that much of that interest tums into sales of their main range as well but is certainly going to expand their reach outside of the Midlands. 

[dn1982]

7 minutes ago, rubberman said:

NurembergVillan is spot on. I work in another sport and we took over the kit supply for the top team in our world on those lines. 

As is evidenced from the number of people just on this thread who didn't know of Luke but now do, the marketing exposure is worth many times the cost of the deal. They will hope that much of that interest tums into sales of their main range as well but is certainly going to expand their reach outside of the Midlands. 

What sport involves rubber kits? 

[rubberman]

9 minutes ago, dn1982 said:

What sport involves rubber kits? 

Watersports?

 

(not actually watersports)

[alreadyexists]

23 minutes ago, rubberman said:

Watersports?

 

(not actually watersports)

[NurembergVillan]

57 minutes ago, rubberman said:

NurembergVillan is spot on. I work in another sport and we took over the kit supply for the top team in our world on those lines. 

As is evidenced from the number of people just on this thread who didn't know of Luke but now do, the marketing exposure is worth many times the cost of the deal. They will hope that much of that interest tums into sales of their main range as well but is certainly going to expand their reach outside of the Midlands. 

If ever you're looking for design support, you know where I am...!

[DaveAV1]

I’ve just had a look on the Luke 1977 website and there is no mention of the mighty Villa. I’m not sure how the marketing boys work, so possibly they are waiting until they have a product to show off and make a splash before they have any fanfare.

I’m also aware that they possibly have one eye on how football fans of other clubs may react if they start coming over as a Villa brand, instead of Villa just being another customer. At 55 I’m still sufficiently “childish” about brands that identify strongly with other football clubs. Although to be fair that’s generally only when I can be bothered and when there’s an equal choice. But still it’s surely a factor that a fashion brand in particular, will be aware of. Or am I just 55 going on 15 still?

[Unused Sub]

I assume the shirts would be on sale in the Luke's shop in the Bull Ring, meaning we'll have a place to buy them in the city centre but without the having a shop overhead on our books.

Not quite a replacement club shop, but some kind of physical representation in town would be good.

[Paddywhack]

5 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I’ve just had a look on the Luke 1977 website and there is no mention of the mighty Villa. I’m not sure how the marketing boys work, so possibly they are waiting until they have a product to show off and make a splash before they have any fanfare.

I think we're all over their twitter and instagram now though.