Hoops

Wildcats finally selling black jerseys

Likewise, people determining the pricing is wrong doesn't have any justification either.

I am extremely confident that the Cats have a better idea what people will and won't buy, and at what prices, and in what quantities, than your claims based on your personal brattish demands.

The reasons behind their decision(s) have been explained, multiple times, in this and previous threads. Just because those reasons run contrary to your personal desires doesn't make them wrong.

Personally, I look like a giant tomato in my red-shirt. I would much rather a nice dark Navy Blue, and you won't find me wearing red anywhere but the game. But I am proud to be part of the "Red Army," and besides "please wear black to the game" doesn't really have the same impact.

There was also a Silver "Diet Coke" alternative strip.

Pointing out that they're making $650,000 on merch doesn't justify the pricing unless the alternative number is lower.

I would've bought a decently-priced, name-and-number black jersey this year. Instead, I bought nothing. I'm probably not the only one.

Not to mention the particularly obsessive collector types, who might pick up home and away every year if they were available.

So TL;DR - Red was introduced because of Coke sponsorship.

Later when the Coke sponsorship ended, Red was still used as a trim, before black/silver became the predominant colours, which is before red was re-introduced as the main colour.

Also, Emu export was orange. Not red.

KobeRulz is a sucker for details.

No sponsor was responsible for it coming in, the Wildcats started in WA's state colours of black and gold.

1994 was the last year it was part of the colour scheme, and it was replaced with red when Coke came on board in 95.

Its very amusing watching this thread evolve :P

Yes, that was the point I was making. I was providing those images to back up the 'no' in response to paul's question (although there doesn't appear to be an Emu logo or anything anywhere on the 89 ones?).

But given it's so minor and disappeared for a few years, it's pretty fair to say Coke introduced red into the colour scheme.

"That's red and yellow stripes either side of the number."

Red/Yellow was nothing to do with Coke though. That was Emu Export colours.

(Irrelevant and picky as this particular argument is, it's definitely worth it to have found that Paul Kuiper GIF.)

No.

The Ennis jerseys were the nicest the Cats have had in a long time.

Wildcats went white/gold/black for Swan Gold and Emu Export in the early 90s.

Then they went red for Coke in 95.

Once the coke sponsorship ended the Wildcats went to
a predominantly black jersey with the new cat logo.

Around this time BankWest came on board and the jersey's became black/silver and were manufactured by Champion.

A few seasons with random naming rights sponsors like Oriant saw the cats jerseys re-introduce Red as a trim.

The predominantly Red look came about in the Scott Fisher/Post Rashad Tucker, Pre-Redhage era I believe.

The Ennis jerseys were the nicest the Cats have had in a long time.

Wildcats went white/gold/black for Swan Gold and Emu Export in the early 90s.

Then they went red for Coke in 95.

Once the coke sponsorship ended the Wildcats went to
a predominantly black jersey with the new cat logo.

Around this time BankWest came on board and the jersey's became black/silver and were manufactured by Champion.

A few seasons with random naming rights sponsors like Oriant saw the cats jerseys re-introduce Red as a trim.

The predominantly Red look came about in the Scott Fisher/Post Rashad Tucker, Pre-Redhage era I believe.


As for Marvin not likeing fastfood...

The reason the Wildcats do not want to associate with fastfood is because the only sponsor throwing money at the Cats during the "dark times" was Health way. This set a new precedence.

Fast Food companies and the big brands throw their money at AFL/Cricket/Rugby. That's the only reason why the Wildcats are sponsored by Alcohol Think Againnow.

As brand identity changes, we may see more AFL/Cricket/Rubgy clubs chase more "healthy' sponsors. And inveitably see sponsors move from the NBL to other codes with more money and brand recognition.

And so then will continue the great circle of life and The Carls Jnr Wildcats will be giving away free burgers at games! YUM!

Depends which colour system you're using.

http://david.carybros.com/html/primary_colors.html

The 1995 Coke sponsorship resulted in red coming into the colour scheme, but that was 12 years before red became a primary colour.

I don't recall Coke being involved? Marvin's also been pretty against alcohol/fast food/soft drink sponsorships, and the change happened when he was in charge IIRC.

Ahh ok, I stand corrected on the IP thing.

Coca-cola.

Yeah I'll ignore the Dazz-troll from now on.

IIRC clubs signing over IP was one of the requirements of the BA takeover back in 2010, which the Wildcats were not happy with. No idea if it was removed or not.

Which sponsor threw money at the Wildcats to go red? I don't recall any sponsorship tie-in.

Sorry Dazz but your logic is faulty and skewed.

The Wildcats spent 15-20 years playing in White/Black and Gold.

They changed colours for a Sponsor, chasing money.

The only reason they are Red now is due to a sponsor a few years ago throwing money at them. That's NOT building a Brand, that's chasing money, pure and simple.

I take offence when you continually say my or any retail Store is a random. You really have no idea how retail works if you see it that way.

Please show me another Professional League in the western world where a Club only allows itself to sell gear. You want the NBL to thrive? Then it needs to get Clubs like Perth into the 21st Century and allow gear to be sold 7 days a week in venues willing to do so.

Oh and I was told a couple years ago that the NBL actually holds the rights to all Clubs Names and logos. Thats why the threats of Perth leaving were always hollow ones, they couldn't take the name with them.

If a heap of extra people magically started wearing Wildcats gear while they were out & about, would that be of any benefit to the Wildcats?
I think it would. It's great for brand awareness. Even if the Wildcats don't directly profit from that gear magically appearing on those people.

The argument about the Wildcats building their brand and nobody else deserving a cut would actually make sense if they only ever played intra-club scrimmages.

A threat of legal action was thrown at us when we did those Heritage jerseys.

They did the same thing to And1 when they were offering custom heritage jerseys back in 2012.

We've encountered issues with them for the past 2 years with regards to merchandise Paul. It's not a one-off.

Pretty good guess I think.

So if promoting red is what they want to do, why even sell the Heritage and Away jerseys?

Why jack the price up to an extreme level?

"The "Absurdity" of the Cats not dealing with other retailers comes down to this. Do they want to have other retailers selling all sort of non-red merchandise, or do they want to continue to promote the "red army" brand recognition, getting free publicity by people in the city noticing thousands of people flocking to the arena in uniform? They've obvious decided on the latter and while that may put a few noses out of joint, unless you've done your own evaluation on what is better for the club, you're not really in a place to comment."

Getting voluntary buy-in from fans seems like a better way. I have several non-red Wildcats jerseys, but I only wear red ones to the games. They seem to have stopped promoting "wear red" and decided it'd be easier to just not make anything else available. The percentage of people wearing red seems to have gone down over the course of their tenure at the arena.

Meanwhile, Adelaide got everyone in the venue into a blue shirt for the grand final in 2014 just by promoting it as something they wanted to do.

Sure, you're always going to get some guys who show up in whatever they want, but they can do that already (as you well know). I can't imagine that making away/alternate/heritage jerseys is going to significantly impact fans wearing red unless they completely stop pushing the concept.

I'll put my 2 cents worth in now. Hopefully it sorts out a couple misconceptions.

ISC deal with retailers, the Wildcats are expressly forbidden to do so.

We tried to stock Home, Away and Heritage jerseys this season for all regular players. These orders weren't anywhere the size of the Cats but were in the hundreds of jerseys.

ISC told us that the Wildcats "vetoed" the Away and Heritage jerseys being made. They did not want them to be made even though they were offered to us and we placed orders with ISC. Our orders for the Home jerseys, placed 2 months before the season, weren't scheduled to be delivered until late Dec/early Jan, so we cancelled them.

Retail on these jerseys is $80.

We want to stock Wildcats gear as well as all the other gear we carry.
It's very difficult to do so when we are hamstrung the way we are.

Basketball popularity is at it's highest level in retail in years, wouldn't it be wise for the NBL to capitalise on this and have product in Stores that want to support Basketball?

How is a retailer selling official merchandise "a random making money ripping off their brand"?

By your logic no retailer should be allowed to sell any merchandise for ANY team ever, it should be only at the venue.

Yeah, that's great logic there.

You really don't get how it all works do you Dazz?

ISC pay the NBL $xxx to have the rights for NBL merchandise. They are supposed to be allowed to sell that Merch to retailers so they can make a profit on their investment. They then pay the NBL royalties based on what they have sold. By not being able to sell Merchandise to retail stores they are limited to the revenue they can get for the License. The flow on effect is that the NBL gets less royalty revenue too.

If that is true RMQ and they don't see value in dealing with Kickz then that is fairly absurd.

SC, so is it 2, 3 or 4 flights of stairs? Maybe it's now 239 flights. Don't be so damn lazy and go support a local business.

Between the bobble heads tooth brushes, jerseys, hats and Xmas decorations, I think I've had my fill of Cats merch for the season :P

An issue is the Wildcats don't value Kickz101 as "Basketball" fans aren't their target demo. Their target demo is families.

So I can see why they aren't fussed about not allowing kickz101 to sell their merchandise.

These jerseys will sell, so the price point is "justified".

My issue is that they are only offering them as blank jerseys.

Traditionally the Cats don't like selling anything that isn't red, so I guess they figured they'd go the "exclusive" angle on these black ones for the collectors.
I don't begrudge them that. As SC said, if people are buying then the price is right, even if it seems wrong to many.

My issue is more with the way they price the regular jerseys combined with freezing out places like Kickz101, who are great supporters of basketball. The last 4 Cats jerseys I purchased were from Kickz. I'm not paying $100 for one. But again, if enough people are then I guess the price is "right". (Though if I'm being honest, this season's red jersey is fug IMO, so even at $60 I probably still wouldn't get one. Price isn't the only factor for me)

W/sale is not $25 for those jerseys, but it is below $40.

It's the height of arrogance from NM once again.

I was told that Kickz wanted to do both the Heritage and Away jerseys in all players and the Wildcats blocked ISC from selling to them. It sucks since they sell at the proper retail, not this bullshit mark-up.

Oh and 100 jerseys is more than enough to get the regular wholesale price.

These are limited as well - only 100 being made, so I doubt they'd be paying the same wholesale price as they would be for regular jerseys.

They look pretty good I reckon ... well, compared to the standard red ones anyway. No horrible bumper sticker appearance for the ata logo on the front, so they're cleaner.

Not that I'll be buying one. But I wouldn't be surprised if they sell out.

And the jersey's only cost $25 wholesale.

$140 for a limited edition numbered and named jersey I can understand. yes it's still very expensive, but fair enough.

$140 for a blank jerseys. GTFO.

Blank and with a price tag of $150. Bit hefty if you ask me, its not like a heritage jersey or anything.

Any SA Boys/Girls at the current camp. Think its this week??