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To be honest; I find the notion that a shirt for a club with just 1,888 fans be 'bespoke' and at the same time supplied by one of the 'iconic' name brands quite ridiculous.

I mean; get real ~ you either go down the 'Barrow road' (which the club did during my time prior to being the Business Manager) and have it produced by some 'cottage industry' company and therefore limiting your sales pitch to the ludicrously ridiculous confines of a small, provincial town or you forgo the 'exclusivity' and seek to make some real money utilising the services of one of the big hitters.

I will tell you for nothing how much the commercial potential of changing kit supplier from Pilgrim (for that was who it was in the 1970s) was raised by going in with Bukta and the massive improvement in both 'street cred' and garment quality made it a 'no brainer' at the time. If you want to reduce the amount of local kids walking around town in Man Utd, Chelsea and other iconic tops then you need to dump the unfashionable marques like Joma and Player Layer and get on board the Nike/Adidas train.

No doubt whilst Paul Casson underwrites the financial basket case that is Barrow AFC (who have a third less fans than Torquay United) as a vanity project, Clarke Osborne wants to run Torquay United as a business. Having seen what happened to Torquay United being run so inefficiently as the former thanks to the Bristow family; I am much more comfortable seeing it now run as the latter.

Personally, I am sceptical that Torquay fans will be rushing out to buy a £17 piece of Nike teamwear, let alone three of them, just because it has a Nike tick on it. If they can get them flying off the shelves, then fair enough, but with our level of sales then even a popular kit won't be much of an increase on an average selling kit.

Much was made of having a new deal with a successful local company, but what we actually have is a kit that literally any side in the world could pay £17 for and wear. We didn't need a new deal, just an internet connection and a credit card. We haven't got anything out of this that all the other sides have got, and realistically when you peel back the emperor's new kit, we have a plain kit in the closest 2 colours to yellow that Nike allow that all the villagers know costs £17 before a Torquay badge is added.

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑13 Jul 2017, 22:44 What the hell is wrong with a Barrow fan posting on what is a public forum?
Even one of the administrators on this forum is an Aston villa fan.

Who is also a Torquay United fan since Rochdale at home in 2002, travels home and away and plays the drum. Sadly away from Torquay at the moment, but what's your point? Can't have a Premier League/Championship team if you support a lower league side as well? Pretty common, actually.

Up the Villa.

merse btpir wrote: ↑13 Jul 2017, 23:32 To be honest; I find the notion that a shirt for a club with just 1,888 fans be 'bespoke' and at the same time supplied by one of the 'iconic' name brands quite ridiculous.

I mean; get real ~ you either go down the 'Barrow road' (which the club did during my time prior to being the Business Manager) and have it produced by some 'cottage industry' company and therefore limiting your sales pitch to the ludicrously ridiculous confines of a small, provincial town or you forgo the 'exclusivity' and seek to make some real money utilising the services of one of the big hitters.

I will tell you for nothing how much the commercial potential of changing kit supplier from Pilgrim (for that was who it was in the 1970s) was raised by going in with Bukta and the massive improvement in both 'street cred' and garment quality made it a 'no brainer' at the time. If you want to reduce the amount of local kids walking around town in Man Utd, Chelsea and other iconic tops then you need to dump the unfashionable marques like Joma and Player Layer and get on board the Nike/Adidas train.

No doubt whilst Paul Casson underwrites the financial basket case that is Barrow AFC (who have a third less fans than Torquay United) as a vanity project, Clarke Osborne wants to run Torquay United as a business. Having seen what happened to Torquay United being run so inefficiently as the former thanks to the Bristow family; I am much more comfortable seeing it now run as the latter.

Alan, while I am in agreement with most of what you write this sticks with me a bit. I find no reason to blame someone for being generous to a club they love, it was the fault of others like Baker and Bill Phillips that their investment was so ridiculously wasted. It isn't a crime to be trusting of others, no matter how badly they treat you. Naive maybe, but not how you portray events.

But at the end of the day Dave; if it means the club is scandalously run to the extent that it's very future is threatened then give me businesslike anytime!

Not worded in the best manner by me; I didn't mean to imply that the Bristows insisted it was run that way; rather that those responsible ran it that way..........

.....and I'm sure Paul Casson is more businesslike in his approach to Barrow AFC than anything like the Torquay United module of benevolence under the Bristows looked like; but what we're talking about here is kit and the rapidly emerging fact that not a lot of contributors to this site have an inkling of just what a big operation kit is for a professional football club ~ even one so limited in it's infrastructure as Torquay United ~ what with training equipment requirements and kits for development and ladies teams when the parent club takes on that responsibility before any replica market is addressed.

To have a professional set-up like Pro-Direct as stockholders and provision of the top of the range professionalism as regards publicity and promotion at a club like Torquay United playing in non league in a small provincial town is very rare, and a valuable addition to the burgeoning structure of the club.

No disagreement from me. GI have done most of the business that was required but as we all know, their real intentions are well hidden by these very actions that have half the fanbase falling over themselves to tell us we're wrong to be suspicious of them.

No I agree; we need to remain vigilant and maintain the pressure that no movement be made on the freehold of Plainmoor unless a new stadium is built, complete and ready for business.

Contrary to almost all of your posts........

Don't worry about the kit just get the players to go in it .
I've never seen so many shades of yellow wish it was grey!

Oh dear not sure if I'm usual or not or emerse in a pint of beer.

threelittlepiglets wrote: ↑15 Jul 2017, 15:08 Wow! Must have taken you a while to come back with that one!

Not that long, less than 2 hours.....

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑14 Jul 2017, 10:12 No disagreement from me. GI have done most of the business that was required but as we all know, their real intentions are well hidden by these very actions that have half the fanbase falling over themselves to tell us we're wrong to be suspicious of them.

somewhat hidden in the AGM report (http://torquayunited.com/2017/07/17/tuf ... year-plan/) was the suggestion that GI want to move to purpose built new stadium 'by 2020'. That seems wildly optimistic to me....right?!

Not sure if this has been raised already; will the team be wearing white or yellow socks at home? I know it's been white for PSF matches. In my humble opinion this makes it look less like a kit.

SatNav wrote: ↑19 Jul 2017, 19:39 Not sure if this has been raised already; will the team be wearing white or yellow socks at home? I know it's been white for PSF matches. In my humble opinion this makes it look less like a kit.

As far as I am aware, white socks it is. Although, I always have preferred yellow socks with a yellow and blue strip.