it is one thing to tell teh club to purchase loads of merchandising but we live hand to mouth.

Look at the games, Bradford, Leeds, Wigan fans all buy shirts in huge numbers as well as season tickets. We traditionally aren't great at buying in to the club image.

How many people on here regularily buy club branded stuff?

Maybe if the club was given a list of orders for items they might be more willing to splash the cash.

Ask Rob how hard was it to sell T shirts for Forever Reds.

I think the hats Shirl and Alan did were the easiest to shift. And the club then lifted the design

If Wigan make more money on coasters than we do on replica shirts, I wouldn't be a fat lot surprised but let's not pretend it's because of the shop layout.


The online shop is bobbins and I agree with others - a holding page would be a classier solution to what's there.
I'd imagine the limited quantity of shirts is an insight into how precious every penny is at the club at the moment. Without knowing what a fresh batch costs, we've no idea if re-stocking is a good idea or not.


Aggressive, cost-heavy, loss-making marketing. We've got so much to learn.

Really heavy, I heard.

I think some people are missing the point. The shop currently appears to have a range of shirts, t-shirts, polo shirts, etc in adult sizes. All well and good.

But I'm talking about selling cheap alternatives to a £20plus item of clothing. I appreciate the club may not have loads of money to splash about, but how expensive would, say, an order for 1000 items to retail at less than £5 cost the club? Common sense says it costs less than £5k! It is a business they are trying to run here. You have to speculate to accumulate. Simple. If it doesn't work then fine - but they've never tried it!!

(And they have obviously found the money to fill the shop out with more expensive clothing items, so money has been spent somewhere along the line...)

Just for info my wife took the shirt back which we paid £33 for! We told the assistant we were prepared to wait for a new batch or asked could it be ordered, they already had my money, guess what they told my wife the season was halfway through & they would not be ordering any more. Very sad how do we expect to market our product to families when we cannot even have the basics in the shop.

I have also received a full refund, wasted!

Be fair though, the club will only order what it thinks it can sell in the space of this season. It's damned what ever it does in this case as the product has a short life span. Order too few and people complain when they are sold out, order too many and people complain the club has no money because they've just written off stock they can't sell.

Maybe the answer is to launch next seasons shirt mid way through this season, invite pre-orders from fans then buy to order, with a small percentage on top. make a big event of it at christmas and have some of the players hand deliver the shirts.

The focus of the club shop should primarily be on timeless, classic items that won't date after a season. Simple polo shirts and t-shirts with the classic devil on and such like. The reality is we don't sell a lot of merchandise and wouldn't even if we had a well stocked shop.

Arrrggh. I am sorry to keep going on about this (as I know there are undoubtedly more important things to focus on) but why are people under the illusion that all we should sell in the shop is clothing, especially as much of it has a limited shelf life?

i don't think anyone is, but they are the items that people predominately purchase. The rest are items, which as mentioned on here, people tend to pick up as an additional item or when giving their kids a couple of quid at each game. the club has to ensure that any item it invests in can be sold and make a decent return. Given the tight budget, the club is right to limit its range, focus on items with the greatest profit margin and suppliment these with a limited but varied range of items which fit lower price brackets

when money is tight the club are not going to buy stock they cant guarantee they wont sell, been a huge own goal with the away shirts needed more or a balance when it comes to picking sizes to sell, there is some good stuff in the shop but its a bit expensive but the club need to make sure they dont lose on items so i guess it has a high mark up price

The online shop needs fixing badly, we do some good stuff online with the social media but website and online shop is reaily bad at times, cant understand what the big problem is unless we have subcontraced the running of it out (to keep our costs down) and the company isnt up to it.

Hopefully the club will realise that merchandise is a big money maker if you get the right stuff in at the right price and it might fullfill the demands us fans require when it comes to official merchandise

I must disagree about the devil.This now has a global market lost to Man.U.where people who never attend Old Trafford get their hands on their branding.[url=http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&sugexp=llsin&pq=salford+city+reds+++wikipedia&cp=28&gs_id=51&xhr=t&q=manchester+united+club+crest&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.rHere[/url.Our club crest is the ball with Salford City Reds.This is the logo which should be attached to everything.Apart from the replica home shorts,the only things red are a few polos shirts.The club needs to push on or the other lot will take advantage !
I would like track suits,(with club logo)sweatshirts,etc.For the elderly who sit in the seats,how about red blankets,with club logo on,and [url=http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/110360458623?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=plahip flasks[/url,for motorists,stickers and flags,and all manner of car accessories.For youngsters,bed covers,lunch boxes,flasks,pencil cases etc.and involve the council/university crime prevention departments and do what Leeds did in the 80's,have local police handing out cards with players photos on one side and health/drugs/anti-crime advice on the other.(page 46 May RLW.)
Umbrellas and golf accessories with club logos on sell well at other clubs.
Lower league clubs and lower league soccer clubs all do better than Salford - as do those Super League clubs that most supporters would like us to finish higher in the league ladder come the end of the season.
Those items which don't sell can be sold at an end of season sale or at a lesser price when next seasons items are sold.
Diaries and calendars may also sell well as they make useful presents.

Isn't merchandise to some degre a loss leader?
You need to get the clubs name and image out there and cheaper t shirts and the like are a way to do that. Often thought that the club should sell t shirts more focusing on Salford as a city rather than Salford the club (but obviously with the clubs name/branding on it somewhere), maybe something to do with Lowry ( a spoof picture of the new stadium with Lowryesque figures), the contrast of the new buildings at say Media City but then put the lyrics to Dirty Old Town on the back. Pretty certain the club could get a small local manufacturor involved who would be more willing to produce the shirts in the numbers and sizes we require rather than running out midseason and not being able to get any more.

I have some promotional product mag in front of me www4imprint.co.uk

They have promotional golf umbrellas 2 panel with 1 printed

£6.49 each with a minimum of 24 per order. (+£40 for the screen print)

The club could sell them for £10+ easily.

Messanger bags 2.59 for minimum 50 (plus £40 for screen print)

Cool bags 2.09 (minimum 50) (£40 screen print)

No idea if the screen print would be payable on each category or not.

Using social media they could ask fans to vote or pre order items.

Anything has to be better than what we have.

it is when we do it ..ie don't get your design / order into place to overseas source and ' sweat your assets' :- bring in in time for xmas pre season , buy cheaper sell high to the hardcore , mid way through the season then be discounting the stock strip to get cash out of the stock whilst there is still enough interest .

they had to pay through the nose to a UK supplier , probably can't afford to discount strip as easily and still return a reasonable margin , and that spells trouble .

I'm guessing there deal with Kooga clothing means they can't just bring in supplementary tee's or polo shirts ,

they need to be sitting down with potential new Shirt suppliers and agreeing designs for 2013 NOW, orders need to be placed in July/Aug to allow for extended lead time and/or rejections of initial samples.


Liked the Forever reds Tee's , when they were done , also the calenders .

Merchandising is so important Man City have a shop at The Arndale Centre and in Abu Dhabi !
For people who cannot afford player sponsorship it makes them feel as though they are not only contributing to assist the club,but also to be part of the club.
Should the players reach Wembley would the club still have the same attitude to merchandise in the club shop ?

Getting the clubs name and image out there is hugely important.

[url=http://www.officialfootballmerchandise.com/manchester-city-fc-gifts-shop-m-1052.htmlSome ideas from the noisy neighbours[/url

Maybe we should put 3 gold stars on our club badge?

Yeah and just like their stadium there always empty! We might as well have Gary Cook as our chief exec as well dunno who'd be worse, him or Tarry!

Sorry, but I don't agree with you there.

Our devil is something to be heralded. We are the original red devils, our devil ( if they use the old style stick devil, not the McRae one) is our heritage. It's nothing like the unied one and the stuff that the club shop has in with it looks uber cool IMO. The city reds logo is ok to use, but we should be using a combination of the 2 with mabe the devil to appeal to the older demographic who the heritage part of the club appeals to.


Now if they sold items like those on red willows post I'd buy much more bits from the club shop such as car accessories etc.....

Yeah, which is seemingly always empty.

You comments on the red devil are also a bit silly. The badge is ours and should be something we're proud of, rather than hiding it away just because United have been using a devil for years.

Simple and effective merchandising is not hard to pull off. Salford could manage it easily.

I don't really have an issue with the devil - but why didn't the club go with that instead of the 'City Reds' for the branding.It should have been one or the other;or both,as you suggest.
Leeds went from Loiners to Rhinos.Warrrington from Wire to Wolves.Widnes from Chemics to Vikings.
Presumably to capture the interest/imagination of children,and thereafter the family market.It must have worked as they draw larger attendances and their club badges/logos/crests are easily recognised.
There is not a red devil on the shirts.I cannot be a walking advertising board when wearing a track suit with a small red devil on it.
Perhaps the club should make the decision now as to how it wants to go - with or without the red devil or with or without the 'Salford City Reds' logo.No other club seems to be holding onto it's history but have moved forward under one umbrella/all rowing in the same direction.
When that happens we may get some items in the shop we would all like to purchase at a price which will make the shop have more custom than the expensive Man City shops.
( I should point out that FCUM,Man City,and Lancs.Cricket Club all have one crest that supporters can relate to.)

The club missed the perfect oppertunity to rebrand before we moved to Barton. Had a new mascot in place, maybe a revamped badge all to coincide with a new stadium to play in. Easily could have made a big thing about new image and new stadium going hand in hand.

Lancs have two crests, the traditional red rose and the 'Lightning' logo for one day games. city sell a retro range with their old club crest on, and FC Utd have alternative merchandise with the more discreet 'FCUM' lettering for those who prefer that to the club crest. No harm in Salford giving people a choice between the devil and club crest.

Valid point - well presented.I have checked and,of course,you are correct.


Now if the new track suits had some lettering around the devil...