New Kits, Merchandise And How Modern Day Football Is Spoiling It All

[JayLee 0]

Hello, I''ve been a long time reader on here but I''ve never contributed, maybe that has been for the best as I can be an opinionated old sod but when I took my son in the Chapelfield store today to look at the new kit I was stunned at what I saw.

My dad took me to my first game in 1984 and I''ll never forget it, we won 3-2 and my favourite ever player, John Deehan, scored a hat-trick in 24 mins, I thought it was always going to be that way!!! I''m kind of glad it wasn''t but nearly 31 years on since that match I long for a return to us having a kit that lasted for two seasons at least, and a nice one at that!!!!

I don''t quite know how we''ve got away with having three kits that are all essentially the same colour in some way shape or form, I take it McNally or the retail man, Balmer-Walters, don''t think we''ll get drawn away to Yoevil or Plymouth in the League Cup, the last trophy I saw us win (I wasn''t there but my uncle was!) or anyone else in green in the FA Cup. It is arguably the most laughable thing the club has ever done, well it would be if it didn''t cost so much to buy them and if kids these days, whatever we''re wearing, didn''t want them!!!! That said even my son said that the third shirt looks stupid, he''s only 8 but at least the kid has taste!!!

It''s funny when you read all the comments about our shirts as it''s almost inexcusable what they''ve done, they''ve messed with tradition, we never had a huge square on the front of our shirt during our first season at Carrow Road, we''ve never had yellow pinstripes on a green shirt and we''ve never played in a shirt that looks like the Celtic kit designer had a few too many vodka and Irn Bru''s!!!! It''s the comments from the retail man that make me laugh and cry with equal measure

“History will be made on Tuesday as it will be the first time that the Club has launched a kit at a game. It is something that we are really excited about and we want everyone attending the game to take lots of pictures and to tell us what they think.”

I take it he never went to any of the number of last home games of the season where we unveiled our kit for the following season or two (those were the days!!!)

His comments on the home shirt were classic amateur marketing man rubbish, saying that the fans will get what the club have done, or tried to do, as far as I''m concerned the main people get is that our Sponsor has totally ruined the shirt and that is something they must have realised when they drew the ideas up, whoever the clowns involved with that were. It get''s worse though, Mr Balmer-Walters seems to have become a worm squirming on a hook when quizzed about the monstrosity that is our third shirt

''The hoops represent connecting with the community, and the shirt is all about having fun in the community.

''This is going to be like marmite; you''ll either love it or hate it and that''s the fun of it. We encourage fans to let us know what they think by expressing their views via social media.''

I wonder what that he puts on is cornflakes, it certainly can''t be sugar, they are the words of either an idiot of a madman!!!! The hoops represent connecting with the community?!!! No, they represent a terribly thought out design, taking the mickey out of the fans and the shirt itself represents not taking things seriously at all, as do his comments. There are people that work very hard to provide for their families, to give their kids things, to make sure they can watch overpriced matches, we don''t want to see NCFC ketchup bottles in the windows of the stores (I don''t know what else that little green ball is in the Chapelfield store window, next to the Johnson shirt wearing dummy with a missing right hand!!!!!) a ridiculous amout of balls, bags, stationary, t-shirts etc. I feel like we''re trying to be Barcelona or something!!!! Incidentally last season I went to the Nou Camp with my brother and we had a look in their shop, they haven''t got half the rubbish we sell, and they''re the biggest team in the world, we wer playing the likes of Brentford and Millwall at the time, they were on their way to wining the Champions League!!!! As for our blue merchandise, what idiot thought of that? Since when would any Norwch fan want a blue pen, a blue pencil, a blue bouncy ball? It''s all just baffling.

I know I sound like an old fool but for me NCFC has always been a community club, we get the kids in to watch, they bring their kids and it goes on. Everybody can go to a game and feel part of something, my grandad always told me we were the most wonderful club in the world, and you want to believe it but when you see us becoming this big money sucking, fan robbing corporate machine it makes you wonder, it really does.

I blame the Premier League, Sky, The Champions League, all the money making ideas that have ruined the game, but I also blame people like McNally, who said that relegation was worse than death. I''ve gotten over our relegation in 2013 but the death of my grandad in the same year has been a harder one to swallow so there''s your answer to that Mr McMoney. And as for this Balmer-Walters, I don''t know of any other retail man at a football club that gets his face and name about so much, he''s everywhere, craving attention, I can''t think of another club that has ever had someone like that involved, he''s certainly the first retail man I''ve known of involved with our club, it''s embarrassing!!!!

Like I said I''m sorry if I come across like an opinionated old fool but I wish we were involved in a simpler time where we play in nice simple crisp yellow and green shirts, Steve Bruce is getting his head on everything and Deehan can''t stop scoring hat-tricks against Watford!!!!!

Jay Lee

[lake district canary 4,531]

[:D]  Great op.  Agree with every word.

[KoromaCrab 0]

Interesting post!

Personally I like the Away shirt with the yellow pinstripes on a green shirt and feel that it looks very classy. The question is whether it should have green shorts or the yellow it currently has.

Regarding shirts every season rather than two, possibly this season I''d rather have seen the 2014-15 home kit kept for a 2nd season as it was a great design and instead released a new away kit being the green one this year as I was not keen on the black version.

''The hoops represent connecting with the community, and the shirt is all about having fun in the community.''

Sounds like an afterthought that roughly makes sense with the design. It would be interesting to know what the theme was for the 3rd kit originally.

It would be nicer if everything was yellow and green in the canary store as I agree that the other colour pens are not quite appropriate to sell. On this matter it would be interesting to know what is selling in the NCFC stores as I guess they must be selling otherwise why re-stock such items!

I guess store profits go to the club as a whole to improve upon?