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Interesting video on DH Gate, Ali Express football shirts and forged tops in general


Tin hat on, but are our adult shirts actually reasonably priced?

£55 then 10% extra off for SCH in store takes it to £49.50

For comparison the mags are at £70 or £115 for the “pro” version.
 
Arfa Sleep said:
I'm sure I've read recently clubs don't make much profit on shirts, just can't remember where.

Edit: This was in The Sun but I've read it elsewhere too:

'Their report claims that from an £80 shirt, clubs receive a £4.80 licensing fee.

The retailer then gets £26.40 - meaning if the shirt is bought directly from the club, this money goes to them.

Manufacturers, Adidas in Man United and Arsenal's case, then get £23.47.

Of the rest, £13.33 goes toward VAT, while £1.60 goes to local distribution and £2.40 on marketing.

Each shirt is claimed to cost £8 to make.

Clubs say that it is the manufacturer that sets the exorbitant prices.'

I'm not agreeing with the pricing by the way.
Click to expand...

decent breakdown here

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DHGate tops are terrible, can spot them a mile off at the match. I’ve even seen some with stitched on badge patches that are out of proportion and the wrong colours. I’d rather go without than embarrass myself.
 
Jelly Belly said:
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For what it's worth, I'm massively on the fence when it comes to the fake shirt argument.
I personally always buy myself one of the official shirts from the club shop, I rarely wear them but I don't have a season card due to the distance I'd travel for a home game so I see it as my way of putting a bit back into the club.

I do, however buy my kids (4 &7) their SAFC kits off DH Gate, the reasons for that are firstly the cost, £14 for a shirt and shorts with their names printed on the back, compared to the £65 for shirt and shorts in the official store, and that's before printing which is another £12 on top. Secondly, especially where Sunderland are concerned, the quality and standard of the shirts for young kids are horrendous. To stick a Sunderland badge on an Avec branded kit is an embarrassment. The kits I've purchased for them in the past are still going strong and look more authentic than what Avec produce.

I do know though that the fella in this video was and probably still is looking to catch out RTG favourite Gunn Retro, another area where the club let themselves down. The 'retro' options in the club shop are very, very bad whereas Gunn Retro clearly put a lot of effort into what he produces.
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Tbf to the club when it comes to the retro stuff their hands are probably tied by licences. Just look at the Avec stuff they produced last year. Gun obviously don't need to bother with that.
 
Rottie said:
decent breakdown here

You must be logged on to see external links
Click to expand...
That confirms what he said. And confirms my suspicion that this is why you don't see our kit in shops, as almost all the profit is in the retailing.


Funny enough, I wonder why the club don't just fuck the brands off entirely and get dhgate to make their replicas! Then knock £25 off the price!
 
The letters on the back of my son’s shirt started peeling off after 2 wears for last season’s away kit

This season, he’s prob worn it about 20 times and I’ve just noticed one of the letters slightly peeling away

Both bought from club shop

To be fair to the club they replaced last seasons when I complained about the peeling letters
 
gramw said:
Tin hat on, but are our adult shirts actually reasonably priced?

£55 then 10% extra off for SCH in store takes it to £49.50

For comparison the mags are at £70 or £115 for the “pro” version.
Click to expand...
£50 might seem reasonably priced compared to £70, but even the Nike training gear has tops for about £25-£30. Double the price for changing some colours and sticking the badges on?
 
PTR said:
That confirms what he said. And confirms my suspicion that this is why you don't see our kit in shops, as almost all the profit is in the retailing.


Funny enough, I wonder why the club don't just fuck the brands off entirely and get dhgate to make their replicas! Then knock £25 off the price!
Click to expand...

not sure if it's in that article but it said somewhere Southampton and Palace have both had a go at bringing the process 'in house'.

A lot to take on i would think and not worth their while in the end. DHgate might have to improve the quality a bit :)
 
The Situation said:
Hilarious how the lads in the video try to give the impression that what are essentially sweat shops producing shirts for Nike etc are the pinnacle of workplace environments.

You'd think the employees there were working for Google or similar the way they are going on.

Ironically, some of the same factories that these lads are talking about, are used by big brands to produce their items also!

Not a like-for-like comparison obviously, but it's somewhat similar to how people say "I'd never eat Tesco branded cereal" when the items for Tesco and a well known brand are often produced in the same factory by the exact same producer, the only difference is the box!
Click to expand...
Whiskey is also one of those items where there is a snobbery, not talking about high end malt here, but some of the cheaper brands are the same as the more expensive
 
SR7 said:
DHGate tops are terrible, can spot them a mile off at the match. I’ve even seen some with stitched on badge patches that are out of proportion and the wrong colours. I’d rather go without than embarrass myself.
Click to expand...
To be fair there’s a huge variation in the quality between sellers and I’ve seen some shockers. However some sellers are spot on and once I found one like that I used them all the time. Great communication with the seller for specific requirements and shipped and received within 2 weeks. The only flaw is the yellow badge.
 
PTR said:
Pretending otherwise undermines any moral high ground that the clubs have. Especially when they are buying the shirts for the same price from the same factories and then whacking a £50 margin on top to literally rip people off.
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It's worse than that, though. If you can buy a replica for £20, you can probably buy 10,000 of them for significantly less than half of that price so they're most likely whacking even more than that on them.
 
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The Black Sock said:
To be fair there’s a huge variation in the quality between sellers and I’ve seen some shockers. However some sellers are spot on and once I found one like that I used them all the time. Great communication with the seller for specific requirements and shipped and received within 2 weeks. The only flaw is the yellow badge.
Click to expand...
I used to use Ali express for the bairn all the time except for his SAFC strips
I’m talking 2015-2021 some of the strips were amazing quality it was only the odd strip that was poor
The SAFC strips weren’t bad then and easier to get but I remember baying £95 for his keeper kit & £75 for an away kit one season
Then getting him 10 full random kits for Xmas for less than the 2 SAFC kits
 
Arfa Sleep said:
I'm sure I've read recently clubs don't make much profit on shirts, just can't remember where.

Edit: This was in The Sun but I've read it elsewhere too:

'Their report claims that from an £80 shirt, clubs receive a £4.80 licensing fee.

The retailer then gets £26.40 - meaning if the shirt is bought directly from the club, this money goes to them.

Manufacturers, Adidas in Man United and Arsenal's case, then get £23.47.

Of the rest, £13.33 goes toward VAT, while £1.60 goes to local distribution and £2.40 on marketing.

Each shirt is claimed to cost £8 to make.

Clubs say that it is the manufacturer that sets the exorbitant prices.'

I'm not agreeing with the pricing by the way.
Click to expand...
That may be the breakdown for the sale of one shirt. There’ll likely be a whole lot of other payments wrapped up in the contract though.
gramw said:
Tin hat on, but are our adult shirts actually reasonably priced?

£55 then 10% extra off for SCH in store takes it to £49.50

For comparison the mags are at £70 or £115 for the “pro” version.
Click to expand...
Still a 5x markup on the cost of manufacture. Comparing it to other shirt costs just shows how all football fans have been conditioned to accept being ripped off.
 
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Ordered 2 shirts from DH gate in August. Only 1 arrived, the other one has never turned up. Its impossible to get in touch with them.
 
The Situation said:
Hilarious how the lads in the video try to give the impression that what are essentially sweat shops producing shirts for Nike etc are the pinnacle of workplace environments.

You'd think the employees there were working for Google or similar the way they are going on.

Ironically, some of the same factories that these lads are talking about, are used by big brands to produce their items also!

Not a like-for-like comparison obviously, but it's somewhat similar to how people say "I'd never eat Tesco branded cereal" when the items for Tesco and a well known brand are often produced in the same factory by the exact same producer, the only difference is the box!
Click to expand...
Whilst I agree to some extent, i think it was one of the top execs at Hummel was on Price of Football and he mentioned that they do regularly go to the factory to check on the conditions of the workers. Id bet my last penny that even a 'good' Factory is shocking compared to UK standards but the ones where the cheapest shorts get made will be some of the worst.

With regards the the branding of food, it's usually not the same food in the packets, might come from the same farm but the better quality grains will be in kellogs and the less quality will be in the own brand. To your average person on the street they'd not know the difference but in a lab there is a difference.

After all of that though as people have said, the shocking decisions made by the club have basically forced customers to go there.
 
INigle said:
I wish the club would think outside the box and sack off the likes of Nike etc. The designs are templated crap, quality is suspect and the costs are exorbitant. The club should find a UK manufacturer, design in-house ,sell online or authorised sports shops large and small.
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Get Sunderland headquartered Berghaus to make them
 
PaddySAFC97 said:
The DH Gate kits are shocking quality.
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I’ve got the “real” version of last season’s shirt (which I’ve barely worn because the L is small fitting but was unable to return it because of the stock issues), and bought this season and the promotion season’s kits from DHGate.

The one that feels the best quality materials-wise etc out of the 3 is the promotion kit (not a genuine one). Worst one is this season’s, but TBH between them there’s very little difference.

If the difference in price was a tenner or so I’d probably never by DHGate, but there’s no way the official ones are worth £40 more than the knock offs.
 
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