Thetownend.com

Has anyone mentioned the new kit yet?

What a load of rubbish. Hardly different to the old one.

http://www.stfconlineshop.co.uk/shop/prodtype.asp?strParents=91&CAT_ID=184&numRecordPosition=1

I personally prefer it to last seasons and will probably get both the home and away shirt when next in town.

So there.

Yeah, I can't believe they've gone for red and white again. It makes us looks sooooo much like Bristol City ::)

Won't get it myself but it is much better than the shite we have had down the years (pre adidas).

£49.99, fucking hell.

That's for the long sleeve one. Short sleeve is £45.

still alot for a shirt, especially like little'un who wants a name, number and Npower champions badges. £62 and that as just the away shirt!

Just get it without the name and badges then.

Adidas put the prices up and unfortunately the club didn't have much option but to pass that on to fans.

When you compare it to some of the shirts even in the championship it's pretty good, especially with it being Adidas and the sponsors name make it better than a lot of other clubs. I don't go for replica shirts myself but I haven't minded buying my son one for the last few seasons as I think they have made improvements once again.

I like it.

That is quite frankly the best shirt I've seen since Adidas kit in the 1980's and probably the nicest home shirt in all four league's at present (especially when the look at the stinkers the bigger clubs are coming out with this year like United and Arsenal)

Anyone who's complaining about it, I'd really like to know if you would prefer we had a kit made by some Diamond Mike-esque knock off company made from shite material sponsored by the local kebab shop like a lot of teams in League's 1&2?

Appreciate what we've got.

I'll wait for the tank top ...

Got to remember there are two profit margins as well. Adidas and the club shop. Hence the price.

You best hope troy doesnt become his favourite player

But if you are going to change the shirt, at least make it different than last year.

It is.

Not your average Daily Mail reader, it isnt. ;)

I think you are missing my point. £45 for a subtle change isn't right in my opinion. It's the same at other clubs. People just can't afford it. Kids will want it as it's the latest kit, so the parents have to fork out for it.

Maybe I'm just being picky and a cunt about it.

There's a limit to how different it can be though whilst still being red and white. Perhaps you'd be in favour of a spot of 're-branding' as the 'Cardiff Red Dragons' have done  :hmmm:

Home kit is decent but it's the away one which gets my pecker twitching, thing of beauty.

I was playing Devil's Advocate a bit there (damned fine pin ball game)

I do agree that £45 for a replica shirt is extortionate. You can buy current England shirts for £20/£25 (I can't remember exactly how much) and they're still making plenty of money out of that. I also think that bringing out a new kit every year is decidedly naff. When the Club first started doing that, they justified it by saying that the shirts would be cheaper, which they were initially but that's obviously gone out the window now.

On the subject of parents having to fork out to buy the new shirt for their kids, I'm not sure that is such a big factor. I remember reading somewhere that the main market for replica shirts was the 15-50 age bracket (or something like that - I just made those numbers up) These are people who can make their own decisions as to whether they buy the shirt or not. I personally don't think that young kids are that bothered about having the very latest shirt (I could be wrong of course). Either way though, no one is being forced to buy them.  The last time I bought one was '03 (just around the time they started bringing a new one out every year funnily enough).

With regards to this year's kit, I have to say, I like it. Looking at the kit as a whole, I am glad we have gone back to the (for me) traditional red/white/red. Also like the away effort. It's just a shame it will be changing again next season.

People can always decide not to buy..... and my daughter is taught that she can't always have everything she wants in life.

I was going to buy one myself as a friend of mine went back home for a while so I was hoping he could bring one back for me, the home shirt wasn't ready at the time though (wasn't sure about buying the away kit)

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Lee Cox - please stay.

It is different and it looks better IMO. Get out the wrong side of the bed this morning Sippo?

Having just read your second point though i do agree £45 is too much when your changing the damn thing every season.

England alternate and change home one year and away the next. Means there's only one kit to buy a year. Probably still wrong but a lot better.

They'll keep changing it as long as there are people daft enough to keep buying them.

I'd be less bothered about the changing every season and the eye-watering prices on the adult kits if they made the kids' shirts just expensive instead of extortionate. Say around 25 quid instead of 35 quid - still ridiculously expensive so more than enough margin even for adidas surely. And include the damn shorts like they used to. 20 quid for kids' shorts - WTF?

Or until someone forces them to change. Pretty sure this was why England implemented their policy. They also have the dates on their's of when it runs from and too. i.e. 2012-14 for the new home kit.

Why do people always have to find something to moan about? Fuck me a few seasons ago we were nearly going out of business ffs. We had a tin pot shirt with a tin pot sponser who's letters fell off after a few washes. A few years later we have a much better ran club, if you told me a few years ago we'd have an Addidas shirt with the likes of Samsung, Fifa and FourFourTwo i would have laughed you down. If its £45 then so be it, buy it or don't. And you can say NO to your kids, i often do if its too expensive.

The kit looks very classy.  A different level to the shirts that were produced years ago...but I agree the cost is getting a bit silly now.  You are going to see even more unofficial merchandise being worn to games, I would imagine.  The new shirts from the Washbag, for example, are very good.

TheWashbag Online Shop (http://thewashbag.spreadshirt.co.uk/)

yeah, perfectly valid points GR. And esp regarding the adult kit, I'm inclined to agree that you either buy it or don't. I think the kids' kit is a bit different because it's part of getting the kids into supporting their local club. I know last season one of my lad's mates who is a Town fan and so's his Dad, but Mum and Dad got him a Liverpool kit for his birthday because they could get him a full kit for around 30-odd quid, whereas a Town kit was going to cost them 60 quid. This season that will be 65 quid. So, yes, people can always say no to their kids. And at those prices they quite often do. Which is then another opportunity missed to have a kid going round in a Town shirt and taking pride in it and thinking of themselves as a Town fan rather than as a Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Whatever fan.

I hope that's not moaning, more pointing out that adidas' short-term profit (because I think the very steep price hikes of recent years are down to adidas) is to the club's long-term detriment in this one particular area. Overall, I really like the adidas gear, just wish the kids' stuff was cheaper.

Some nice looking kit on there Ardiles. Bit expensive though. :-)

Yeah looks good. I'm thinking that bib for me Paolo, what thinks you? Handy for pre game pub.

Best hope nev doesn't see how they've spelt khaki. Or "hoddies". Blimey.

I see no reason why the kids gear can't be made cheaper, even subsidised by a few more quid on an adult shirt

An absolute bargain at nearly a tenner. Do you think you'll be ok with the Fitz Hall size though Sutton? I'd go for the apron if i were you. Will catch more of my dribble when i'm spitting over you after a pint too many.

Those washbag prices are just as bad as the official ones. £36 for an off brand hoody?!

Oi I haven't got kids and £45 is too bloody steep as it is.

I haven't got kids either, would rather pay an extra couple of quid than have some poor parents having to get their kids a scouser kit because it's miles cheaper

Agreed, but my 12 yr old is in small adult shirt. So to be in a genuine kids shirt you'd have to be 8-9 of age!

I'd agree I like getting my nephew a stfc shirt as I bring him to quite a few games during the season and have got him into supporting swindon rather than liverpool and man u that his parents support, but now when he asks about getting the new kit I'm going to have to decline due to cost and I'm not even sure that I will get a new one for myself, unfortunetly I think if stfc & adidas carry on getting away with these prices then it wont be long before we start seeing the £50 (or £55 for long sleeve) football shirt at stfc.

When I was younger my parents didn't get me every new kit that came out. If I got one at all, it was usually as a Christmas present. And I lived to tell the tale.

They should have spoke to the flash he would have done them cheaper for them.

I didn't get as far as their hoodies.  But the T-shirts look good and are reasonably priced.  Just making the point that DIY merchandise - like you have seen for old style scarves in the last couple of seasons - is definitely going to be more prevalent/visible this year as the official stuff becomes more expensive.

Thanks for the tip Ards. I often used to go into the club shop wanting to spend some money and come out again without finding anything I liked. Some of that washbag stuff is much trendier, less generic/corporate. Just ordered a khaki polaroid t-shirt and a retro track-top. Hope they turn out as nice as they look on the site... Pity they don't have kids sizes.

Fair enough. I'd agree with that to a point, but people will still buy the official stuff because people are stupid.

95% of football merchandise is shite anyway.

Moan, moan fucking moan.

It's not a moan. It is a factual statement.

You'd be surprised.  One child gets it and they all want it. Kids can be quite cruel at pointing out to others that what they're wearing is now out of date.

Last season I spent the best part of £130 on an away kit for my two boys by the time a number and their surname had gone on the back.  My youngest hasn't worn his enough to warrant the cost, but aside from his school uniform, it's probably my oldest's most worn outfit. He has already asked for the new home and away kit this season, but been told he can have one and will possibly get the other for his birthday or Christmas.

  The price is extorniate when you consider a whole Premier team's kit can be bought for around £20 less.  I don't think it's necessary to change both kits each season either, especially when the changes are minimal as Sippo mentioned.  Why not alternately like they used to?  However that probably won't change until there was a significant drop in sales.

It's criminal what they are charging and blaming it on Adidas is lame. I won't be getting any shirts this season, partly due to the price but also as they hit perfection with the home and black away shirts last season. Pity they can't pick a classic Adidas design and stick to it, would be a good way to reward fans rather than screwing them over each season.

The shirt looks good - but I really dont like the fact its another off the line mass produced design just with our club badge and sponsor.

I know, I know - thats pretty much how they are all done these days but I miss the originality. The Premier League kit with its swirl design, the potato print, the 96 mint green Castrol GTX kit with 96 champions on it, the white with thin red pin stripes, the 95/96 Mizuno round neck and awesome half blue half black away kit - and bloody collars to!

I'm sure the quality of the kit is fine and all that but too generic for my liking. I know OST! makes the joke that we look like Bristol City - but we do look like every team who plays in red and white and have a kit made by adidas. They couldnt even put a bit of green trim on it just to make it different.

Money, no object to me personally to be honest....

Seriously DV, those strips were tat.  Need to take off those rose-tinted specs!  I have a few of those kits still at the back of the drawer and they were cheap.  There's a reason no other club decided to copy them!

whether they were cheap or even tat was completely not the point.

So you don't mind having a tatty cheap shit-looking shirt, as long as it's original?

Those kits from the mid 90's were like every other club's from that era.

I still have the blue and black halfs one and the green one with Division 2 Champions on it.

I think it all boils down to supply and demand. STFC has a hardcore support of around 8,000 so the club (and addidas) have to stike the right balance to maximise profit. Unfair to compare to say Liverpool who have gates over 40,000 each time and a global fan base to market too.

I will get an away shirt in XL just to get my money's worth at some point

Fat bastard.

Well said !

Thanks Ralphy

Wouldn't worry about Ralphy, he only likes kits that make his nipples bleed

[url width=150 height=200]http://i1169.photobucket.com/albums/r520/bummy28/1169.jpg[/url]

Bought this. My mates all want one. Is good price I think at £46, much more value than a shirt. Loving the adidas range, framed my signed Paolo black away shirt. So good to have a decent kit sponsor.

Hope you got the hair with it

lets get our lotto kit sponsored by kingswood back and pay 35 quid...........

You have to pay for quality

the sponsors logo on the shirts lasted almost as long as the company

:D