Castore Deal

I believe that both parties have a break clause they can exercise at the end of this season. Friend of mine mentioned it anyway, but could be nonsense of course. The old version of a “I got a WhatsApp message”… as in he told me in person. Whether there’s anything in it who knows. Bisgrove’s confirmation that our retail is £6-£7 million though (pretty hefty chunk of that will be profit given lack of ‘operational’ costs). As already posted that provides us with a much better level to tender for bids whenever Castore deal finishes.
 
I believe that both parties have a break clause they can exercise at the end of this season. Friend of mine mentioned it anyway, but could be nonsense of course. The old version of a “I got a WhatsApp message”… as in he told me in person. Whether there’s anything in it who knows. Bisgrove’s confirmation that our retail is £6-£7 million though (pretty hefty chunk of that will be profit given lack of ‘operational’ costs). As already posted that provides us with a much better level to tender for bids whenever Castore deal finishes.
You believe because a friend told you?
KDS, eat your heart out!
 
I think he mentioned we were in the £6-8m per annum bracket.

So, need adidas or Nike to step up come tender time.
 
When are we finally free of these amatuers? Have a read of this from an AFL club in Australia cutting ties with them after a series of blunders


Classic case of sales outstripping supply chain.

The brothers can clearly spin a good story.

The back office supply chain is woefully short, as we’ve seen first hand.

Product, quality, timings, partners - miles short.
 
When are we finally free of these amatuers? Have a read of this from an AFL club in Australia cutting ties with them after a series of blunders

Untill this board can get a better deal with a better manufacturer than we are stuck with these chancers
 
Hopefully we go with someone else, was in the Buchanan Street shop on Saturday and it’s extortionate for any of our gear.

Are other clubs charging £50 for a training top? Thought it seemed very expensive.
 
Hopefully we go with someone else, was in the Buchanan Street shop on Saturday and it’s extortionate for any of our gear.

Are other clubs charging £50 for a training top? Thought it seemed very expensive.
I think the pricing is in line with bigger clubs.
My issue with paying it is, you can get some of Castore’s own brand stuff that’s miles better quality for similar pricing
 
Unfortunately, the Club seem to be all in with Castore.
Is Castore branding not featuring heavily on Edmiston House?

Sadly, I think it's a certainty that we'll renew with them.
 
Hopefully we go with someone else, was in the Buchanan Street shop on Saturday and it’s extortionate for any of our gear.

Are other clubs charging £50 for a training top? Thought it seemed very expensive.

Won't be long until it's all on sale mate, not ideal but you can get normalish prices as the season goes on. The shop in Belfast seems to have flash deals on certain items almost every week.
 
Unfortunately, the Club seem to be all in with Castore.
Is Castore branding not featuring heavily on Edmiston House?

Sadly, I think it's a certainty that we'll renew with them.

I’ve asked this before, but not sure anyone knows - I worry Castore have invested in Edmiston House and we’ll be locked into another shitshow
 
Hopefully we go with someone else, was in the Buchanan Street shop on Saturday and it’s extortionate for any of our gear.

Are other clubs charging £50 for a training top? Thought it seemed very expensive.

That’s the standard price for most clubs stuff
 
I’ve asked this before, but not sure anyone knows - I worry Castore have invested in Edmiston House and we’ll be locked into another shitshow

Why is that a worry? Is it really something to worry about?

The deal with Castore looks to be lucrative to the club
 
I blame the club for the lazy designs. Especially when you see the black Genoa kit made by Castore in the other strip thread.
The designs are a reflection on the talent at Castore in relation to creativity.They are putting their reputation into it and its falling.
The club have accepted the designs and not been either clear enough or focused enough as clients.
I suspect that Castore have spent minimal time and resources into the design and the club have accepted it.
It's almost as if no one is really that bothered on both sides .
Some of the fan concept designs are far better than the so called proffesionals.
 
Why is that a worry? Is it really something to worry about?

The deal with Castore looks to be lucrative to the club

of course it’s a worry - we’d end up in another legal battle and no doubt scupper any positivity about going out to tender. knowing us, we’d end up in an even worse position by the end of it
 
of course it’s a worry - we’d end up in another legal battle and no doubt scupper any positivity about going out to tender. knowing us, we’d end up in an even worse position by the end of it
Why would the club be in any legal battles. We are in a very lucrative contract that is great financially for the club. So why would the club want to be out of the contract.

Take Castore away and who then distributes our merchandise. Adidas or Nike would be making the strips only with their badge attached. We cannot afford the outlay to actually make supply and distribute in the scale that Castore or God say it Sports Direct do. JD will be a no no after the recent court case.
 
The designs are a reflection on the talent at Castore in relation to creativity.They are putting their reputation into it and its falling.
The club have accepted the designs and not been either clear enough or focused enough as clients.
I suspect that Castore have spent minimal time and resources into the design and the club have accepted it.
It's almost as if no one is really that bothered on both sides .
Some of the fan concept designs are far better than the so called proffesionals.
Yet it’s not reflected in sales …..
 
I like Castore, sorry if that breaks the momentum of misery on here!

I genuinely love their stuff. My missus made a comment the other day that not a single washing is done in here without a piece of Castore clothing being amongst it.

In my defence though, and since I'm such a tremendous husband, to get the free delivery I do include joggies or a top for her as well when ordering something B-D. I'm so romantic.
 
As I post every time this comes up. It’s not quite as straightforward as switching to Adidas, Nike or anybody else. Neither of them are ‘retail partners’. We’d need to take over our shops, pay the leases where necessary, employ and pay the staff, pay their pension contributions, National Insurance and other costs and engage someone to take care of distribution. One factor that helped Castore get the contract, and that SDI wouldn’t match for example, was a commitment to spend £750k on the Ibrox shop.

Its not impossible to have a different model, the Dhims do it and also have their arrangement with JDSports. Is it ‘better’ though and is it worth more money? I’ve no idea and it’s impossible to fathom from their Accounts as the costs, as opposed to the top line ‘income’ figure, are impossible to find.

One things for sure, whoever designs our kits folk in here will slaughter them. That’s life. The few bits of Castore stuff I’ve bough have been absolutely fine, with no peeling or any other issues. I did avoid the fiasco of the first few months right enough and it’s clear distribution is still an issue.

I think it almost certain we will extend with Castore.
 
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Bisgrove will renew with Castore.
Wonder if we could take his job for what will probably be a very good salary, as for retail to Supporters, it seems to consist of, Castore, Castore, Castore, Castore. Gone are the good old days when nearly everyone was catered for in our stores.
 
As I post every time this comes up. It’s not quite as straightforward as switching to Adidas, Nike or anybody else. Neither of them are ‘retail partners’. We’d need to take over our shops, pay the leases where necessary, employ the staff, pay their pension contributions and other costs and engage someone to take care of distribution. One factor that helped Castore get the contract, and that SDI wouldn’t match for example, was a commitment to spend £750k on the Ibrox shop.

Its not impossible to have a different model, the Dhims do it and also have their arrangement with JDSports. Is it ‘better’ though and is it worth more money? I’ve no idea and it’s impossible to fathom from their Accounts as the costs, as opposed to the top line ‘income’ figure, are impossible to find. One things for sure, whoever designs our kits folk in here will slaughter them. That’s life.

I think it almost certain we will extend with Castore.
I’d be fine with that.

Genuinely have bought upwards of 40 pieces of clothing off them, including all the strips and the only issue I’ve had is a bit of the inside falling off - which isn’t the end of the world. Barring the first home kit (I pre ordered) all the quality has been very good, better than some strips I’ve bought off ‘bigger’ companies in recent years.

The success of our partnership with them will stand us in good stead for negotiating with them, and other companies, so long as we avoid Umbro and Puma, I’m fine with whoever is paying us the most.

Folk tend to have this idea that Nike and Adidas are plain sailing, think they’d be in for a bit of a surprise if we were to go back to them.
 
As an aside - releasing a kit in the week the club have been found to have bumped us on a previous kit and not acknowledging that is incredible comms and commercial savvy. From bean to cup, they %^*& up.
 
I’d selfishly like Nike or adidas just for the nostalgia of the kits I grew up with. I know I’d buy a lot more items outside kits as well if that were the case. Caps, Jackets, Hoodies etc.

Guess the club needs to weigh up the quality issues of Castore with the money they’d pay compared to maybe a lesser deal with one of the big guys who bring quality assurance and what will likely be more sales.
 
of course it’s a worry - we’d end up in another legal battle and no doubt scupper any positivity about going out to tender. knowing us, we’d end up in an even worse position by the end of it

Why would we end up in another legal battle?
 
Wonder if we could take his job for what will probably be a very good salary, as for retail to Supporters, it seems to consist of, Castore, Castore, Castore, Castore. Gone are the good old days when nearly everyone was catered for in our stores.

His numbers, which I assume are true, would suggest he’s doing a very good job!!
 
Unfortunately as is seen by some of our sponsor deals our club is only interested in how much it gets paid rather than quality of product or who they are associated with.
 
Won't be long until it's all on sale mate, not ideal but you can get normalish prices as the season goes on. The shop in Belfast seems to have flash deals on certain items almost every week.
Spot on mate...loads of folk complain about Castore prices yet there's hardly a month goes by when there's not a sale or a discount code. We're not out of September yet I've had emails for 25% off training, pro kits etc . In a month or so it'll be Black Friday week and there'll be some cracking deals. We never had this level of discount/sales with Hummel, Puma,Umbro, Nike or Adidas , and some of their pricing was heavy ( Nike ) .
 
I’d be fine with that.

Genuinely have bought upwards of 40 pieces of clothing off them, including all the strips and the only issue I’ve had is a bit of the inside falling off - which isn’t the end of the world. Barring the first home kit (I pre ordered) all the quality has been very good, better than some strips I’ve bought off ‘bigger’ companies in recent years.

The success of our partnership with them will stand us in good stead for negotiating with them, and other companies, so long as we avoid Umbro and Puma, I’m fine with whoever is paying us the most.

Folk tend to have this idea that Nike and Adidas are plain sailing, think they’d be in for a bit of a surprise if we were to go back to them.
Mate, I've said on previous threads I work at both Sunderland and Newcastle United and can honestly say the Newcastle Castore gear is much better than the Sunderland Nike gear. Too many people think if we end up with Nike we'll get the premium range like Liverpool, Spurs, Inter, Barca, yet there's a possibility we'll get the same sub standard kit which the likes of Sunderland have ..it basically has the Nike tick on it ..
 
Spot on mate...loads of folk complain about Castore prices yet there's hardly a month goes by when there's not a sale or a discount code. We're not out of September yet I've had emails for 25% off training, pro kits etc . In a month or so it'll be Black Friday week and there'll be some cracking deals. We never had this level of discount/sales with Hummel, Puma,Umbro, Nike or Adidas , and some of their pricing was heavy ( Nike ) .
Don't think I've paid full price for any Castore item yet. Black Friday, or Blue Week as they tend to label it, is especially rewarding. Just need to be a little more savvy - and a lot more patient.
 
Unfortunately, the Club seem to be all in with Castore.
Is Castore branding not featuring heavily on Edmiston House?

Sadly, I think it's a certainty that we'll renew with them.
Christ. Makes me wonder how long it'll be before I buy another Rangers top. Only purchase since the 55 Champions top was a white and blue training top from last season cos it was down to a tenner, for something to wear to 5s. And I don't even like it.
 
Has anyone seen how awful Nike and Puma Kits have been recently? Only Brand that seems to make Nike Kits is Macron but we would moan if we got them
 
For me our gear is not to the Castore own brand quality and is too expensive. I must say though castore own gear is top quality
Not in my experience it's not. The Garcia hoody is the only exception which is top quality. I've bought a running jacket which is literally like running in a boiler suit. After 1k, the inside of the jacket is soaked. I've bought 4 t-shirts and only one of the t-shirts doesn't have an issues with the Castore logo cracking and the writing peeling after only a few washes.
 
We have had our kits with nike and Adidas. Great memories. Would not have them back. Their kits now are the same for a few teams. Someone different, Kappa maybe ?.
 
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