House of Fraser (Fat Mike Ashley) now taking Pre-Orders for Castore Kits - Do not buy from there

Funny we weren't so keen to deal with the 'UKs biggest sports retailer' in recent years when he had 'bought some football kits to sell'

And would you rather we were still dealing with them that way as our retail partner? Because that was the alternative.
 
Nope. I'd rather we gave them %^*& all and the club were upfront about things with us.

Well giving them f*ck all wasn't an option and it's been explained why.

Bottom line is you buy direct and Rangers benefit.
 
We are free at the cost of fat boy's retailer buying stock knowing we will all not buy from them?
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People who are saying it was worth it to be ‘free’ from the fat mans clutches are missing one important thing - by having to deal with him in any shape or form we are not ‘free’ from him.

And we all know how he works, contracts a Philadelphia lawyer would be proud of.

That’s is what is making some bears a bit concerned, what has been slipped in and when is the head shot coming?
 
you would need to be mad to buy anything from fat mike
Or ignorant of the facts - and many people are.

Those who use football forums are aware of his track record, but to the average mum or dad who simply wants to buy their kid a football shirt, they'll go where they can get it cheapest, fastest.

These latest developments do nothing to help break the link between Rangers and SportsDirect.
 
People who are saying it was worth it to be ‘free’ from the fat mans clutches are missing one important thing - by having to deal with him in any shape or form we are not ‘free’ from him.

And we all know how he works, contracts a Philadelphia lawyer would be proud of.

That’s is what is making some bears a bit concerned, what has been slipped in and when is the head shot coming?
So to get out of the Ashley contract Saga thats fucked us over for the last couple of years we need to allow him to be able to say "Exclusive" for a few weeks when it comes to preorders (after we've been able to sell 50,000 strips.

I'm in.

He'll sell some strips of that there is no doubt, we'll get the same money from the purchases as we would have if Castore sold them - I'm happy enough.
 
Well giving them f*ck all wasn't an option and it's been explained why.

Bottom line is you buy direct and Rangers benefit.

The problem for a lot of us is this is the third deal now that’s been presented this way. Go back to the Hummel/Elite thread and the same line was repeated over and over, we were definitely free of Ashley as long as we buy direct. I think we’re still waiting on payment from them and shouldn’t use that ‘buy direct’ site or the shops anymore. People should be weary of any involvement from SD, especially with such a small partner in Castore.

Do you actually think Ashley is paying for stock, which due to Rangers and Castore selling at the same time and the clear message by Rangers supporters to only buy direct, is unlikely to sell? What if the new deal allows him to return any unused stock at anytime, at no cost? Enabling him to order thousands and return them very late in the season, eventually forcing Rangers/Castore to back buying from him. People really don’t give him and his team the credit they deserve when it comes to screwing companies over with contracts.
 
Thinking it over the club prob had to demonstrate to the court that we wanted a normal retail/provider relationship, one that Ashley was dead set against. Had we tried to shut him out completely the court may have viewed our case as more of a spat than a strong case against a one sided contract in Ashleys favour. Its a small concession but one that likely pointed to normality and would favour us in the eyes of the Judge. Ashley would have known this too and prob cut the only deal he could.

So Its back in our hands now to buy direct or from greaves etc to stop the fat man making a penny :)
 
The problem for a lot of us is this is the third deal now that’s been presented this way. Go back to the Hummel/Elite thread and the same line was repeated over and over, we were definitely free of Ashley as long as we buy direct. I think we’re still waiting on payment from them and shouldn’t use that ‘buy direct’ site or the shops anymore. People should be weary of any involvement from SD, especially with such a small partner in Castore.

Do you actually think Ashley is paying for stock, which due to Rangers and Castore selling at the same time and the clear message by Rangers supporters to only buy direct, is unlikely to sell? What if the new deal allows him to return any unused stock at anytime, at no cost? Enabling him to order thousands and return them very late in the season, eventually forcing Rangers/Castore to back buying from him. People really don’t give him and his team the credit they deserve when it comes to screwing companies over with contracts.
I agree with where you are coming from, but this new deal has us in a far stronger position. Its not the clean break we all wanted and needs vigilance, but we are defo in a more "normal" retail set up. From the 4 lads blog it read to me that SD are somewhat limited in what they can order from castore ie no bulk buying. Least I hope thats the case
 
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From the 4 lads blog

"What Sports Direct looked for in order not to exercise their legal right to match was an ability to sell a limited number of Rangers product, as occurs commonly with club kit partners and high street retailers, again that is not in any way strange of different and would be the case in other deals."
 
The problem for a lot of us is this is the third deal now that’s been presented this way. Go back to the Hummel/Elite thread and the same line was repeated over and over, we were definitely free of Ashley as long as we buy direct. I think we’re still waiting on payment from them and shouldn’t use that ‘buy direct’ site or the shops anymore. People should be weary of any involvement from SD, especially with such a small partner in Castore.

Do you actually think Ashley is paying for stock, which due to Rangers and Castore selling at the same time and the clear message by Rangers supporters to only buy direct, is unlikely to sell? What if the new deal allows him to return any unused stock at anytime, at no cost? Enabling him to order thousands and return them very late in the season, eventually forcing Rangers/Castore to back buying from him. People really don’t give him and his team the credit they deserve when it comes to screwing companies over with contracts.
Yio. Castore will probably end up in court with the fat bastard as that is how he operates.
 
The problem with this is that, if they are indeed the only place that you can currently pre-order the kit, you will get Bears who aren’t up to speed or as savvy to the situation as the majority of posters on this forum and who will buy the kit from the Fat Prick.
 
From the 4 lads blog

"What Sports Direct looked for in order not to exercise their legal right to match was an ability to sell a limited number of Rangers product, as occurs commonly with club kit partners and high street retailers, again that is not in any way strange of different and would be the case in other deals."

The club and fan media can spin this if they wish but the reality is that we were told that Rangers were done with SD and that is simply not the case.

I’m not saying the current arrangement is a disaster, it certainly isn’t compared to where we were, but we should’ve been told to expect this and we weren’t.

The club set these expectations for the support, not the other way round.
 
I struggle to get up or down about this.

The main question anyone should ask themselves is whether Rangers are making more money than we previously could, the answer is yes.

If fans who are uninformed or don’t care about the previous actions of Ashley decide to buy though Frasers or wherever do Rangers still make money, the answer is yes.

Beyond that theres not much to care about.
 
Not ideal giving the shit he has caused and money still owed via elite, but a price worth paying imo. Its a clean break from the previous SD contract to a new one where SD are now a very limited player paying the full rate. As a condition the board will likely have had to bite the bullet regards how it was worded, but Its now back within the control of our support to ditch SD/HoF

Overall we have a normal retail setup again and im very happy with this.
 
I never cease to be amazed how quickly people on here roll over and accept the party line.
The last ten years should tell you to question everything and always treat people trying to make money off the support with a healthy dose of scepticism.

It must be about 4 separate occasions now when the support has been told we’re free of Ashley only for his greasy fingers to appear on us yet again.
 
From the 4 lads blog

"What Sports Direct looked for in order not to exercise their legal right to match was an ability to sell a limited number of Rangers product, as occurs commonly with club kit partners and high street retailers, again that is not in any way strange of different and would be the case in other deals."

So Mike Ashley gave up the stranglehold he had on us just to be able to sell a limited number of our strips? As always with Ashley the devil will be in the detail.
 
So Mike Ashley gave up the stranglehold he had on us just to be able to sell a limited number of our strips? As always with Ashley the devil will be in the detail.

I honestly dont think he had much choice, even Ashley mustve known theres only so far you can push this Judge before he rips the whole thing up. We have demonstrated that we only want a reasonably fair contract, that stood in our favour and it exposed Ashley as well. Ultimately we want shot of the bawbag and the judge prob suspected that too, but his job was to see that that an amicable contract was established and scolded both parties for failing to sort it out. So looking at the bigger picture I think we have moved forward. Only other option I see was to call his bluff on the matching clause, but like I said the judge sounded like he was getting cheesed off with the whole thing. Couldve backfired on us as well.
 
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The club and fan media can spin this if they wish but the reality is that we were told that Rangers were done with SD and that is simply not the case.

I’m not saying the current arrangement is a disaster, it certainly isn’t compared to where we were, but we should’ve been told to expect this and we weren’t.

The club set these expectations for the support, not the other way round.
Maybe they cant tell us explicitly for legal reasons. Let's be honest, Sports Direct have done us a massive favour by not matching the deal. I'm not saying thanks to Ashley or whatever, but so thankful they didnt match it for whatever reason. It would be a nightmare to have matched the deal again.

Ashley has silenced the club and its directors using injunctions, so I am not surprised they have made no explicit comment on SDI.

It took hours for a statement to come out the other day, longer than usual, and it made no mention of them. Reading between the lines I think we have been gagged or there is a reason why we might not want to risk a backlash (I.e. can they still match it or intervene before the deal officially starts?)
 
The problem with this is that, if they are indeed the only place that you can currently pre-order the kit, you will get Bears who aren’t up to speed or as savvy to the situation as the majority of posters on this forum and who will buy the kit from the Fat Prick.
I was saying this yesterday aswell mate, I dont like the only place you can pre order is through Fat Mike, could castore not put more up for sale even with a later delivery date at least then people have another option to buy it
 
I was saying this yesterday aswell mate, I dont like the only place you can pre order is through Fat Mike, could castore not put more up for sale even with a later delivery date at least then people have another option to buy it

As per posts above there doesn't seem to be any mention of Rangers kit on the website. Is there still a link where you can pre order via Ashley's store because I can't find one?
 
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As per posts above there doesn't seem to be any mention of Rangers kit on the website. Is there still a link where you can pre order via Ashley's store because I can't find one?
Looks like they’ve been pulled, either sold out or do other reasons.
 
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