Castore Announced As Rangers Official Kit and Retail Partner

[ian1964 10,724]

Castore launched Rangers' home kit for the new season yesterday and almost immediately sold out their stock.

An initial 50,000 strips were manufactured to provide supporters with merchandise they've been craving since the £25million deal with the Liverpool-based sportswear brand was announced. Supply and demand, and all that.

Co-founder Tom Beahon has had to deal with leaked images of the new jerseys appearing on social media in recent weeks as the anticipation became too much for some. But he's not too bothered. He understood the interest in the gear would be immeasurable. He knew launch day would be manic. Ultimately, though, Beahon is delighted with the initial figures right off the bat.

The slick design has played a part, he believes. Subtle details referencing Ibrox history and Rangers culture have made it into the fabric of the shirts and some eagle-eyed fans caught them. And Beahon praised supporters for literally buying into the partnership and plans moving forward. "It's been fantastic to see the feedback," Beahon said.

 

"Our job as a new kit partner was always to tap into that positivity and passion and get these people excited. That's very much what we've tried to do, we wanted to link to the history to the club as well as highlight a new era with Castore and a very exciting season ahead.

"A couple of the design features have been picked up by the fans like the wave pattern on the front that was to represent the blue sea of Ibrox. That's not something done previously on Rangers jerseys, but we wanted to link to the fantastic heritage of this football club.

"Based on the very early sales figures I saw, it looks like we'll sell out within 24 hours, the initial 50,000 units. That's a very positive response and another demonstration of the fantastic support Rangers have. We knew there was always a chance it would go that well so we've got plans in place to get additional stock ready very soon and as we look to August and the season starting, we're now very close to announcing a final date to the reopening of the megastore, which we're excited about."

The thing about Scottish football is that, when something happens for one side of the Old Firm, the other half are never too far away. From giving their opinion, that is. The minute Castore were announced as Gers' newest manufacturers, Celtic supporters questioned their credentials.

Beahon has expected the scrutiny and was ready for it. He knows all about the rivalry between Glasgow's big two and is okay with his brand being in the middle of it all. All it has done, in his mind, is serve to reinforce his desire to help Rangers win trophies in the Premiership ahead of Celtic.

"Everybody knows it," he added. "It's one of the greatest rivalries in football so I'm not hugely surprised that Celtic fans have been looking and commenting. I don't think it's a huge surprise. But our job is to get the Rangers fans excited about the season to come. That's the only focus at the moment.

 

"I like to think of myself as a young man at 30-years-old but I'm probably the least digitally advanced 30-year-old, if I'm honest. I don't keep up with social media which, all things considered, is a good thing." On photo leaks, he went on: "You can't get overly frustrated, we know there's a huge amount of interest in Rangers. I've been told a lot of the pictures that were leaked beforehand were not legitimate, maybe people being a bit cheeky here and there. We could only really control the controllable.

"We were very aware when we entered the partnership with Rangers that they were one of the biggest football clubs on the planet and there would be a huge amount of scrutiny. You're never going to keep everyone happy 100 percent of the time but the deal we have means the club benefits from every single sale we make. My main priority was always to make a contribution to Rangers being successful on the pitch.

"There was two ways to do that. Firstly by creating great products for the players to wear on the pitch, football is a sport of very fine margins and having the highest quality kit in the league could potentially be the difference, so that was very important. Then, secondly, the deal is structured that the club benefits directly. The more kits we sell, the more the club is financially going to benefit. That means more money can be invested back into the club. There will be a significant amount of money flowing directly back into the club.

"A lot of hard work from the team goes into getting the kit to players and it's great to see world class athletes like the Rangers team wearing our products on a global platform. Now we're excited about seeing the team in competition for the first time. We're excited about seeing the team lift trophies, that's what we're here for. We want to make a contribution to that."

 

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18555221.castore-co-founder-near-sell-out-rangers-kit-launch-day-leaked-images-off-field-old-firm-scrutiny/

[Tannochsidebear 2,420]

If we have managed to sell out the initial stock with 24 hours, even though it won’t be available for a month, and it doesn’t go live in the shops until August, then Castore have seriously underestimated the job in hand, which just goes to show their inexperience in this market.

 

Why not have 250,000 units available? They have a month to sell them using this online portal, which is more profitable for both Castore and our club than selling through third party retailers so this should have been well in hand.

 

Looks completely amateurish to me. For all the bluster about knowing our history and how big a support we have worldwide, why on earth did they limit themselves to 50K units to last a month? 
 

Am I missing something here? I see nothing but praise for Castore but as far as I can see they have just completely messed this opportunity up and it will cost the club a huge amount of money.

[Gonzo79 15,294]

22 minutes ago, Tannochsidebear said:

Am I missing something here?

Aye.  The strip went on preorder sale on 1st July.  The strip won't actually be physically released until 1st August.

 

In short, you've missed the month of July (which is a bit odd for a Bear).  

[BB_89 11]

Aye it's just presale just now. 50,000 is a decent enough presale and makes it seem more exclusive and appealing to people who may not buy one usually.

 

Leicester between 2011-16 sold on average 50,000 shirts world wide per year. Everton 80,000 during the same period. 

 

We could easily sell another 100,000 home tops when they go on sale. Then atleast 50,000 away and third kit tops then all the castore training gear / hoodies ect. This is going to be a very lucrative deal for all invovled. 

[JohnMc 2,763]

I can't speak for Castore but I suspect they've experienced a significant number of production challenges during the last few months. Covid 19 has led to a number of clothing production plants closing completely and on reopening not only have they huge back-logs to clear but doing so with fewer staff due to shielding and social distancing issues as well as supply chain disruption. Again, I don't know for sure if this applies to Castore, but most clothing manufacturing for the UK market is done in Bangladesh. Not only are their issues in transport and import currently but the supply chain into clothing manufacturing has been badly hit too. A lot of fabric, thread, elastic etc is manufactured in China, their lockdown has badly hit the entire garment industry. If Castore are struggling to meet demand it's not a huge surprise and they should probably be cut some slack under the circumstances. 

 

With second, third and goalkeeper kits still to be launched far less leisure wear, tracksuits etc I suspect they'll do well to have product ready for the Christmas market, probably still the most important time of the year for retail. 

[Bill 13,717]

It does seem unnecessarily harsh to be criticising Castore on the second day of presale in the middle of a global pandemic. I’m actually quite impressed they’ve achieved what they have and suggest it confirms the good decision made when Castore was chosen as a partner. 

[compo 7,051]

19 minutes ago, Bill said:

It does seem unnecessarily harsh to be criticising Castore on the second day of presale in the middle of a global pandemic. I’m actually quite impressed they’ve achieved what they have and suggest it confirms the good decision made when Castore was chosen as a partner. 

Think of all the football shirts we see and probably most are manufactured in some sweatshops in Asia or the far east it's a wonder that these BLM idiots haven't targeted football clubs for supporting modern day slavery, then again these tosses clothing is probably made in the same sweatshops  .

[rbr 1,256]

We have sold more strips in a day than the majority of EPL and EFL clubs will sell in a year , and that's before the away and 3rd strips are released .

[Tannochsidebear 2,420]

Sorry, a pre-sale? They are either on sale or they are not. WTF is a pre-sale? Some marketing pish by the sounds of it!

 

I assume Castore were taking money off bears as part of this "pre-sale"? Which then means it was actually "on sale", just with a 31 day delivery time. So when they dont/cant issue the tops for a month, why restrict themselves to 50K is what I wanted to know? Why not just have an unlimited "pre-sale".  If it is because they have only managed to produce 50K, then they deserve some criticism for being so small-minded, surely?

 

It's not that difficult to see 50K was never going to satisfy our demand. We have sold over 40,000 season tickets at about £500 a go for games that we wont be able to attend. With that lunacy, (sorry I mean loyalty!) then a new top that is not controlled by Ashley was always going to be of huge interest to Rangers fans across the globe.

[Gonzo79 15,294]

I think you need to calm down and have a deep breath before continuing to rant away, TB.

 

More kits will be manufactured before they're physically available.