Iconic 78 shirt for pre order

[DVB]

32 minutes ago, Jamhammer said:

I will always associate that silver strip with Dens so it's a definite no from me. Flashbacks and all that.

Funny I bought one recently as it reminded me of a glorious season that ended in failure. My pain from 86 ended when we beat a very strong Rangers team in 98.

 

I am though reluctant to wear the strip in case it upsets fellow fans.

[Beast Boy]

On 23/11/2017 at 10:14, Sarah O said:

 

Pretty shan to announce it with no notice that it was going to be a limited edition. 

 

Not everyone has a spare £50 to squander at such short notice either. 

 

 

 

 

Stuck it straight on the credit card. You don’t let something that beautiful pass you by, even at this time of year.

[WorldChampions1902]

Well at least the club has tried to put things right by making a further 200 shirts available.

 

Hopefully they will learn lessons from this and think long and hard about how they launch future retro shirts - especially with regard to gauging demand to reasonable figures. At the end of the day, we all want our club to maximise revenues for obvious reasons and even an increase to 700 of these gorgeous shirts is a missed opportunity IMHO.

[Craigieboy]

56 minutes ago, socrates82 said:

I wanted a shirt and missed out but this "Shirt-gate" thread is the Hearts support in microcosm right now. Hearts try to do something nice for their fans and they get accused of own goals and all sorts. Like with everything, including the stand, these days it seems they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

 

Not really reflective of the situations you refer to though, is it?

 

Shove up a million grey panels on an otherwise outstanding project and you’re leaving yourself open to criticism. 

 

Produce an amazing retro replica kit that fans have talked about for years and limit it to 700 sales at a time we could really do with added revenue. 

 

Absolute ****ing madness and the club are rightly called out for being daft. 

[Hearts_fan]

I can understand the basis of the problem some have with making more than the original "Limited Edition" quantity. However, it's a fairly precious and borderline pedantic issue to have.

 

Given the apparent huge demand for this, I'd say the Club could arrange to make vastly more early next year, using a similar pre-order system to get the number right, but doing so in a well-advertised and lengthy window period.

 

If any of the original 500 are peeved at the greater number (each to their own), they should receive a full refund and then shut the hell up.

[Maroon Sailor]

1 hour ago, Jamhammer said:

I will always associate that silver strip with Dens so it's a definite no from me. Flashbacks and all that.

 

5 hours ago, Hearts lad said:

Tennants Soccer Sixes winners in the silver kit?

 

[Five to One]

Club have played a blinder here. Make something that’s exclusive and limited in availability. Enhance the brand. 

 

Basic marketing.

 

Be great to see the team wear it as a one off (NFL teams are doing this). 

[Bull's-eye]

Nicely done by the club once again.

A decent treat for the supporters getting one under the Xmas tree.

 

As usual JKB will have its grizzlers, I doubt the club care anymore and rightly so because they never get anything right according to the usual suspects. In fact, you get to the point where their seethe becomes quite amusing.

[Maroon Sailor]

2 minutes ago, Five to One said:

Club have played a blinder here. Make something that’s exclusive and limited in availability. Enhance the brand. 

 

Basic marketing.

 

 

Should have went the whole hog with the slogan " For the few,  Not the many "

[Mollo]

The club should have known from the off that this shirt would sell like hot cakes. It’s a certain money maker. So they shouldn’t have limited it if they didn’t need to... ie for costs etc. 

 

Why they did so i have no idea. Madness. But what it does leave is a situation where they have attracted some to the ‘limited edition’ marketing and like it or not they have now annoyed some folk off by selling under one banner and then back tracking AFTER orders have been placed. 

 

They’ve gotten something, related to merchandise, wrong once again and it’s crazy.. why can’t we just get it right from the off!

[Craigieboy]

13 minutes ago, Five to One said:

Club have played a blinder here. Make something that’s exclusive and limited in availability. Enhance the brand. 

 

Basic marketing.

 

Be great to see the team wear it as a one off (NFL teams are doing this). 

 

Yea, totally. 

 

Make at least half the amount you could’ve achieved. 

 

Total blinder. 

 

 

 

[Sarah O]

18 minutes ago, Five to One said:

Club have played a blinder here. Make something that’s exclusive and limited in availability. Enhance the brand. 

 

Basic marketing.

 

Be great to see the team wear it as a one off (NFL teams are doing this). 

[WorldChampions1902]

15 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Should have went the whole hog with the slogan " For the few,  Not the many "

Indeed.  With the addition of, "for minimal profit, not maximum gain".

[Five to One]

3 minutes ago, Craigieboy said:

 

Yea, totally. 

 

Make at least half the amount you could’ve achieved. 

 

Total blinder. 

 

 

 

The club won’t be making a significant margin on these. You have to sell a high volume of football shirts just to break even. It’s an exclusive item for passionate fans that will stand out. Would like to see us do a ‘one off’ like this every season.

 

Certainly got us talking about it? 

 

[Goldstone Wonder]

1 hour ago, socrates82 said:

I wanted a shirt and missed out but this "Shirt-gate" thread is the Hearts support in microcosm right now. Hearts try to do something nice for their fans and they get accused of own goals and all sorts. Like with everything, including the stand, these days it seems they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

This 

[Five to One]

4 minutes ago, Sarah O said:

Ok. But everyone thought squad numbers were a joke and now every team wears them and kids pay to have the number of their favourite player printed on their shirt. Nothing wrong with moving with the times as Hearts are. 

[Sarah O]

5 minutes ago, Five to One said:

Ok. But everyone thought squad numbers were a joke and now every team wears them and kids pay to have the number of their favourite player printed on their shirt. Nothing wrong with moving with the times as Hearts are. 

Limiting profit is absolutely mental. 

 

It’s not revolutionary, it’s daft. 

[Craigieboy]

2 minutes ago, Sarah O said:

Limiting profit is absolutely mental. 

 

It’s not revolutionary, it’s daft. 

 

Yip. 

 

I can’t see the logic in it. 

 

Raises questions about the brains behind Hearts commercial. 

 

They all seem half daft in there. 

 

[Five to One]

2 minutes ago, Sarah O said:

Limiting profit is absolutely mental. 

 

It’s not revolutionary, it’s daft. 

It’s a loss leader. You seem to think we would sell thousands when the reality is a few hundred more. The margin after design, manufacture, Umbro’s cut, will be paltry. 

[Craigieboy]

18 minutes ago, Five to One said:

The club won’t be making a significant margin on these. You have to sell a high volume of football shirts just to break even. It’s an exclusive item for passionate fans that will stand out. Would like to see us do a ‘one off’ like this every season.

 

Certainly got us talking about it? 

 

 

And if they released 1000 more tonight then they’d make even more money on their ‘excluisive’ item. 

 

Even given my limited experience in business tells me that you release a teaser midweek then go for the big sell on a Fri/Sat when people are more inclined to part with cash. 

 

How the **** can Hearts commercial not just get these things right?

[Sarah O]

4 minutes ago, Five to One said:

It’s a loss leader. You seem to think we would sell thousands when the reality is a few hundred more. The margin after design, manufacture, Umbro’s cut, will be paltry. 

Football clubs aren't like supermarkets. 

 

They already have a captive audience who are unlikely to want a bath towel with another club's crest adorned onto it.  There is no need to stimulate sales of other items with sales techniques like having loss leaders.

 

How many people who bought the retro shirt also then placed orders for other items?

 

 

[Maroon Sailor]

5 minutes ago, Five to One said:

It’s a loss leader. You seem to think we would sell thousands when the reality is a few hundred more. The margin after design, manufacture, Umbro’s cut, will be paltry. 

 

Can you send the candidates in please 

 

 

You're fired !

[Taffin]

I think it's pretty cool to realise something really limited and create a buzz.

 

They should do it more often to make a clamour for things as people who miss out will know there's always next time.

 

What's annoying is the halfway house, make it up as the go along approach. They've made them less special by releasing 200 more whilst also still leaving folk without.

[Five to One]

5 minutes ago, Sarah O said:

Football clubs aren't like supermarkets. 

 

They already have a captive audience who are unlikely to want a bath towel with another club's crest adorned onto it.  There is no need to stimulate sales of other items with sales techniques like having loss leaders.

 

How many people who bought the retro shirt also then placed orders for other items?

 

 

I think you’ll find they will. Especially in the run up to Christmas. The club have gauged this well. Make enough to drive traffic to the website and ensure the shirt remains exclusive, not common. Anyone that receives the shirt for Xmas is going to be pretty chuffed. 

[Five to One]

4 minutes ago, Taffin said:

I think it's pretty cool to realise something really limited and create a buzz.

 

They should do it more often to make a clamour for things as people who miss out will know there's always next time.

 

What's annoying is the halfway house, make it up as the go along approach. They've made them less special by releasing 200 more whilst also still leaving folk without.

Nailed it!

[Five to One]

9 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Can you send the candidates in please 

 

 

You're fired !

? another with no understanding of marketing and how exclusive products work. 

[Sarah O]

1 minute ago, Five to One said:

I think you’ll find they will. Especially in the run up to Christmas. The club have gauged this well. Make enough to drive traffic to the website and ensure the shirt remains exclusive, not common. Anyone that receives the shirt for Xmas is going to be pretty chuffed. 

Are you in charge of the HMFC marketing team or something?

 

 We'll just have to agree to disagree on the marketing strategy (or lack of it) on display by Hearts.

[Maroon Sailor]

6 minutes ago, Taffin said:

I think it's pretty cool to realise something really limited and create a buzz.

 

They should do it more often to make a clamour for things as people who miss out will know there's always next time.

 

What's annoying is the halfway house, make it up as the go along approach. They've made them less special by releasing 200 more whilst also still leaving folk without.

 

The shirt creates it's own buzz - whether it was 500 or 5,000 it would have sold

[Maroon Sailor]

2 minutes ago, Five to One said:

? another with no understanding of marketing and how exclusive products work. 

 

So exclusive they have seen sense and fired another 200 out !

[Bull's-eye]

This is JKB though.

 

Club announces new 70s shirt unlimited supply, the same posters on here "£50, this close to Xmas, no paying that".

 

It's called crying Wolf and something the club will have recognised by now.

 

 

[Five to One]

3 minutes ago, Sarah O said:

Are you in charge of the HMFC marketing team or something?

 

 We'll just have to agree to disagree on the marketing strategy (or lack of it) on display by Hearts.

No I’m not ?, but cool we can agree to disagree.

[Five to One]

1 minute ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

So exclusive they have seen sense and fired another 200 out !

Was the plan all along mate. They’ll be snapped up like hot cakes!

[Maroon Sailor]

Just now, Five to One said:

Was the plan all along mate. They’ll be snapped up like hot cakes!

 

Said the same earlier on in this thread

[Maroon Sailor]

5 minutes ago, Oliver Twist said:

This is JKB though.

 

Club announces new 70s shirt unlimited supply, the same posters on here "£50, this close to Xmas, no paying that".

 

It's called crying Wolf and something the club will have recognised by now.

 

 

 

Unlimited supply wouldn't have had a £50 price tag

[Five to One]

3 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Said the same earlier on in this thread

Not being funny but if you’d been able to stroll into the shop and buy whatever size you want off the rack, they wouldn’t have been the same clamour to buy and we wouldn’t be discussing it. 

 

On a serious note, I haven’t seen the shirt in person but they look decent quality and pretty accurate?

[Maroon Sailor]

1 minute ago, Five to One said:

Not being funny but if you’d been able to stroll into the shop and buy whatever size you want off the rack, they wouldn’t have been the same clamour to buy and we wouldn’t be discussing it. 

 

On a serious note, I haven’t seen the shirt in person but they look decent quality and pretty accurate?

 

It's pretty accurate - centre of the badge isn't though

[Five to One]

2 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

It's pretty accurate - centre of the badge isn't though

Ah. Still an improvement on the Romanov days of tacky tshirts and scratchy beanies. 

[WorldChampions1902]

If I was able to attend this years AGM, I would be tempted to ask the following questions:-

 

1. Given that the 1978 shirt is arguably the most popular Hearts shirt in living memory (Championship shirt apart), what was the rationale behind settling on a 500 initial production run?

2. Once the first 500 had sold out within 3-4 hours, what was the rationale behind the decision to make only a further 200 available?

3. What lessons have the club learned from this experience and what would they do differently?

4. Does the club fully understand the potential value of other desirable 'retro' shirts it has at its disposal and how does it intend to maximise revenues from these valuable assets? This is important to both the clubs finances and the fans who want to own an 'original' shirt that's been sought after for many years. In other words, a win-win scenario.

 

I would be very interested in the answers to the above.

[redm]

1 hour ago, Five to One said:

It’s a loss leader. You seem to think we would sell thousands when the reality is a few hundred more. The margin after design, manufacture, Umbro’s cut, will be paltry. 

 

This is a potentially huge product though, or huge in terms of how many it might sell in comparison to our normal sales. It’s madness to choose something like this as a loss leader or as a limited edition. There was never ever any doubt it could easily sell in numbers well in excess of 700 or so. People have been going on about it for years - it was a dead cert. 

 

I’m all for the club doing some interesting products and sharp marketing but this is all just pretty baffling to me. Feels like a gilt-edged opportunity missed rather than a well executed commercial success. 

 

I’m not angry or offended or prone to criticising the club unnecessarily. I’m just really surprised by the approach they’ve taken with this. I’m also aware that we don’t know what the terms were of this jersey production agreement or other factors that might have shaped their sales strategy. Even still, it’s weird. I just wouldn’t have agreed to a limited edition in the hundreds for this design. Better off saving it for another day when they can meet the sort of demand it’ll generate. 

[Beast Boy]

2 hours ago, WorldChampions1902 said:

Well at least the club has tried to put things right by making a further 200 shirts available.

 

Hopefully they will learn lessons from this and think long and hard about how they launch future retro shirts - especially with regard to gauging demand to reasonable figures. At the end of the day, we all want our club to maximise revenues for obvious reasons and even an increase to 700 of these gorgeous shirts is a missed opportunity IMHO.

 

Folk are getting awfy wound up about a retro strip tbh. Few of my mates never got one and they are pretty cool about it all. 

[Maroon Sailor]

4 minutes ago, Ryder said:

 

Folk are getting awfy wound up about a retro strip tbh. Few of my mates never got one and they are pretty cool about it all. 

 

This is no ordinary retro shirt. All time classic

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

Hearts don't make the ****ing things. Umbro do. I'm pretty sure production will be in line with their policies

[WorldChampions1902]

Just now, Ryder said:

 

Folk are getting awfy wound up about a retro strip tbh. Few of my mates never got one and they are pretty cool about it all. 

I got two.

 

With respect, you (like many others) are missing the point. Our precious club is not making the most of opportunities to maximise revenues. That money could be spent on buying better players, paying off the wonderful new stand etc....etc...

 

So the questions in my post above are perfectly legitimate and IMHO warrant a response. At the end of the day, we are all Hearts fans and we all want the best for our club. Sadly, on this occasion, the club has let a wonderful opportunity slip through its hands. My only plea is that the club learns from this experience and ensures that future 'retro' shirt initiatives don't suffer a similar fate.

[Beast Boy]

1 minute ago, WorldChampions1902 said:

I got two.

 

With respect, you (like many others) are missing the point. Our precious club is not making the most of opportunities to maximise revenues. That money could be spent on buying better players, paying off the wonderful new stand etc....etc...

 

So the questions in my post above are perfectly legitimate and IMHO warrant a response. At the end of the day, we are all Hearts fans and we all want the best for our club. Sadly, on this occasion, the club has let a wonderful opportunity slip through its hands. My only plea is that the club learns from this experience and ensures that future 'retro' shirt initiatives don't suffer a similar fate.

 

Fair enough mate. I understand where you are coming from. I think this limited edition strip is going to end up a real collector item n the future though, and I like that it will be rare and collectible. 

[queensferryjambo]

7 minutes ago, Ryder said:

 

Fair enough mate. I understand where you are coming from. I think this limited edition strip is going to end up a real collector item n the future though, and I like that it will be rare and collectible. 

 

 

I think most people who buy them will wear them so from a collectors point of view there will be much less than 700 up for grabs in years to come.

 

However unless it is worn in a game at some point (even though it is quite a nice replica) I still think it will be seen on the same level as training tops, T Shirts and Toffs replicas. That is just my opinion from a shirt collectors point of view. One of my hobbies is collecting Hearts shirts and even though I like the shirt and like the fact fans can get a cool item I have no inclination to get one or add to my shirt collection.

Oh and personally think this is a strip that should be worn and enjoyed by all who buy one.  

[DVB]

2 hours ago, Five to One said:

Club have played a blinder here. Make something that’s exclusive and limited in availability. Enhance the brand. 

 

Basic marketing.

 

Be great to see the team wear it as a one off (NFL teams are doing this). 

Amazing that people think this is a good thing:

 

To me it’s a complete mess up and a disgrace that Hearts are selling strips using  misleading advertising.

[Beast Boy]

10 minutes ago, queensferryjambo said:

 

 

I think most people who buy them will wear them so from a collectors point of view there will be much less than 700 up for grabs in years to come.

 

However unless it is worn in a game at some point (even though it is quite a nice replica) I still think it will be seen on the same level as training tops, T Shirts and Toffs replicas. That is just my opinion from a shirt collectors point of view. One of my hobbies is collecting Hearts shirts and even though I like the shirt and like the fact fans can get a cool item I have no inclination to get one or add to my shirt collection.

Oh and personally think this is a strip that should be worn and enjoyed by all who buy one.  

 

Fair enough chief. It’s something you would obviously know a lot more about than I do. I 100% think you will see these tops for £100 - £150 in a couple of months time though.

[Beast Boy]

9 minutes ago, DVB said:

Amazing that people think this is a good thing:

 

To me it’s a complete mess up and a disgrace that Hearts are selling strips using  misleading advertising.

 

A disgrace?

[WorldChampions1902]

12 minutes ago, DVB said:

Amazing that people think this is a good thing:

 

To me it’s a complete mess up and a disgrace that Hearts are selling strips using  misleading advertising.

No doubt, Vermin interlopers have launched a case with Trading Standards the moment Hearts announced a further 200 shirts were being made available.

 

Why not do me a favour? Break with tradition and suggest they withdraw their complaint? (If......indeed......you have any sway in such matters).

 

Cheers.

 

;-(

[queensferryjambo]

7 minutes ago, Ryder said:

 

I 100% think you will see these tops for £100 - £150 in a couple of months time though.

 

 

With them scheduled to come out before Christmas I would expect a few nutty Ebay sales in December.

 

Can you imagine the seethe when it happens