United have sold out of the blue Euro away kit and have been unable to source further supplies from elsewhere. The last delivery to the Megastore arrived on the Friday before the West Ham game and sold out within hours. Frantic phone calls from M16 to sports stores across the country have proved unsuccessful as parents chased ahead and snatched up the remaining supply.
One entreprising parent headed off to Liverpool in the belief that Merseyside would be the one place where supply was bound to exceed supply – he returned empty-handed.
The blue kit is due to be withdrawn at the end of this season as Nike and United’s merchandising department bring the kit production into ‘its natural cycle’ (sic), with shirts being replaced every two years. Whilst the media have been chasing the usual tired old story that parents face ‘another United kit rip off’ the irony is that some noggin at Nike has seriously underestimated the desire to be ‘ripped off’.
Christmas wish lists have been renegotiated as parents attempt to switch their little darling’s attention to alternatives and as a consequence the supply of United goalkeeper kits are almost exhausted.
The new merchandising deal with Nike was hailed as the great saviour of flagging merchandise sales and it seems that some nugget at Nike head office has got his supply and demand graph misaligned.
This isn’t the first cock up from Nike neither, the full range of kit was not available for sale at the start of the season as Nike struggled to get up to speed with the demand.
Long sleeved shirts were not available until October and insufficient training gear was available at the Cliff and Carrington training grounds at the start of the season.
Maybe them pesky kids in Malaysia haven’t been working hard enough.