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The new FAI/Umbro shop will open at Carroll's on Westmoreland Street for the first time today:). Mostly clothing at this stage, but a new range of about 20 giftware lines has been ordered & will be available in a few months. The idea of the store is to have all Ireland FAI product available in one place, as none of the sports stores carry the full range. The store will also include League of Ireland shirts supplied by Umbro & Retro shirts .
thats neat, any website?
Ringo
I had a nice hearthy chuckle at your news - you know why, and great that six years of banging on the door has worked. ;)
for those of us abroad - we dont have to fill out a form and mail it to an address in bundoran to buy the 97 home shirt anymore?? - Forgive the cynicism, but this is good news. Could never undersand why they made it so fcuking difficult to buy irish gear, considering we are amongst probably the top 10 nations to purchase replica gear (per capita) in the entire world!!!! - will be interested to see how this one progresses.
Yes things moved fast lol:D. discussions on going about a website.Quote:
Originally Posted by soccerc
That's great news Ringo. I really hope that it works well and that the shop do their best (ie put pressure on Umbro) to supply as varied a LOI stock from the various clubs that they manufacture as they can. Plan to pop in tomorrow before heading on to Tolka. Well done again.
I paid a visit after work and I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a dark, small, pokey area down the back but it's anything but. The FAI shop takes up the bottom part of the store and is bright and well laid out. There's a good selection of tops, including t'shirts, hoodies and rain tops etc. They even have some clothing for the larger gent so I bought myself a nice tracksuit top. I reckon it would be a good addition if they had some retro Ireland tops, like the ones available from Toffs who make very good quality jersies. The playing of old ireland games on the TVs is a nice touch as well but personally I could do without the "give it a lash Jack" and the "ole ole" kind of music that I assume is on a loop there. Anyway that's my only criticism. It's good to finally have one place that stocks all the available Ireland gear instead of going to various shops when a game is coming up on the basis that you might happen across something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulie
The area is about 1200 square feet so its a good size.
Retro t-shirts willl be available in about two weeks, The section already has the banner over it.:) New away gear launching after Paddy's day, huge range not just the jersey. About twelve weeks for the new giftware range. The music Cd is an old one. A new is being worked on at the moment By Dolphin Records. The prices are competative with any other retailer.
Any idea Ringo what kind of LOI gear you're going to be looking at? Are we talking a tokenistic Rovers/Bohs home jersey here or there, or a proper selection of all the Umbro LOI stuff?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ringo
Don't get me wrong, I think the idea of a designated FAI/Umbro shop is a great idea in itself, just wondering if there's any real LOI interest in it. It's ok, you can level with me;)
We're basically stocking what is available to us. Were not cherry picking, just home jerseys. Having said that there isn't a huge range available at the moment. Shamrock Rovers would appear to have the largest range available. At the moment i think theres about 5 or six LOI teams represented, mostly the Dublin ones (Like Bray:p, had to say that) Were restricted to Umbro stock. It wasn't supposed to open for about a month. i will check out what will be available in LOI gear going forward.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maynard
I'll check it out when I'm over for the Bulgaria game!
Good luck with the venture. It IS sorely needed and I think will do well.
I coach football here in Sydney and was in Dublin over Christmas. I went out of my way to try and buy some Ireland 'merchandise' - personally I don't wear replica shirts but like the cotton t-shirts, shorts, jackets, sweatshirts.
I searched the 'official sponsor' elverys, which was terrible - they, like Champion have a full range of Arsenal, Chelsea, ManUtd, Lpool and Celtic but very little Ireland. The FAI should shoot them.
Arnotts in Henry St was interesting, they had the most stuff, and the only people, aside from me, looking at the Ireland stuff, were, you've guessed it Italian and Spanish tourists.
There IS a market there. Just sorry I've missed it until the next trip.
Just one more thing Ringo, it appeared that the only changing room is 2 floors up from the FAI shop. Even if it was just a single cubicle it would be good to have one in the FAI section itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ringo
Thats a good point. We did look at that and decided to wait and see. I'll pass on the comment. Any more constructive comments a very welcome.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulie
Can fans have any input into the design, or at least colour of merchandise do you know?
As there's an awful lot of Blue(navy) & white stuff out there, from the FAI, only one of which is an 'official' colour of the main kit, flag etc?
Ironically, the only place you could buy Green 'official' FAI polo shirts was on E-bay for instance, based, in Britain;so once again the FAI are missing a trick.......
Fair play. As I said, all in all, my impression of the place was very positive.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ringo
Ya mean ya don't have to draw a curtain and give a knowing wink and be ushered through a small draw in the curtain :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Paulie
Well done.It can only grow. I think you will get much international interest in this. There are no shortage of football nuts out there and while the League of Ireland isn't well recognised across the globe there are always the football heads who know the clubs and would love to pick up something on a trip here.
Good luck with it. I'll look forward to the website at some stage.
Good man Ringo. At Tolka last night Shels were just after getting their new lot of gear in - New home shirts, rain-jackets, tracksuits, polo-shirts etcQuote:
Originally Posted by Ringo
They were literally taking them out of the boxes as people were walking in the gate, so that new Shels range should be available to you from Mal at Umbro now. Looks nice too:cool:
What sort of retro shirts will they have?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maynard
Most of the gear is ordered direct from Umbro & they only bring in what the club wants. There may also be a case where the club will want to keep certain things exclusive to their own shops, which is fair enough, it a good sourse of revenue for the clubs.AS i said if Umbro have it in their warehouse , then its available to us.