Does anyone know when Sabres jerseys will be on the shelf?

[jad1]

I agree we're going to disagree on this, but the business point you've made makes little sense. From a business sense POV, you have a new item that has increased sales by 1,000% and you can't keep it in stock - so you limit production runs, and/or fail to/refuse to ramp up production when demand exceeds your expectations (and current availability?) Or do you wait until the rest of the league unveils their new jersey designs (essentially prototypes) and hope that the Sabres don't cool off on the ice or in the market, hoping that demand will be as high in three months as it was at the beginning of the season and in the holiday shopping season? That would seem to be the opposite of the old "strike while the iron is hot" philosophy.

 

Why do you think that the demand for Sabres jersey is going to go down? Do you really believe that a fan who can't get a jersey today, won't want one in March?

 

Reebok has the hockey jersey market cornered. It's not like a person wanting to buy a jersey has any other options. Either they buy it from Reebok, or they don't buy one at all. It really doesn't matter to Reebok if you buy it in December, March, or June.

 

And if it costs them more to produce the jersey to meet demand in December (they lose economy of scale for materials for a limited run), they're going to opt to delay production until they can meet the demand at a lower production cost.

 

And the re-design of the rest of the league's jerseys shouldn't affect the production of jerseys currently available for sale. Even if they are producing prototypes for the players to test and to market to the team & league officials, it shouldn't have that much of an impact on the production of current jerseys.

 

What I'm saying is, aside from limited production for the Sabres and Ducks, that they're NO LONGER producing the old style jerseys. The old material has been used up, the patterns have been switched out, the labor has been re-trained. Reebok has to stock the entire NHL with the new jerseys. They're not going to use up labor or resources producing the old product.

 

Aside from the Ducks and Sabres, I'll bet no new team jerseys have been produced this season. They're probably meeting this year's demand with stock left over from last year.

 

I am starting to think for some reason, be it diminished expectations, league mandate or some other reason, the team, league or Rbk capped how many of the new jerseys Rbk would produce.

 

The team or the league has no right to cap the number of new jersey Reebok produces. No doubt that the Sabres and NHL would rather that Reebok meets the current demand. That why blaming Quinn here is ridiculous.

 

On the other hand, if Reebok said that it could meet the current demand, but it would cause a 25% price increase for the jersey to cover production costs, and it could impact the production of the new jerseys for the entire league, the NHL and Quinn might choose the lesser of two evils, and wait out the production delay.

[sabresfanmiami(oh)]

That why blaming Quinn here is ridiculous.

 

 

 

I guess we know why Quinn has been silent on this whole situation. He's too busy trying to defend himself and the disgrace that the whole unform situation has become on a Sabres messageboard..... :w00t:

[jad1]

I guess we know why Quinn has been silent on this whole situation. He's too busy trying to defend himself and the disgrace that the whole unform situation has become on a Sabres messageboard..... :w00t:

 

Right, disgrace. Do you guys still take economics in college :doh:

[Bmwolf21]

jad, I'm not going to go back and debate any of your points, because I think we're just going in circles here. Like I said before, given the number of apparent mistakes, missteps and miscalculations in this new jersey rollout, I am not willing to give any of them - Rbk, the NHL or the Sabres - the benefit of the doubt. You seem to be under the impression that no mistakes were made (or ones that were made were too minor to note) and everything has been a conscious choice on the part of the entities involved. That's fine. Everything I have posited in this thread has been questioning why certain things have or have not happened, and all either of us can do is speculate as to the causes.

 

All I can say for certain is that the delays are extremely frustrating for fans, the lack of merchandise is very frustrating, and the apparent lack of communication, both from Rbk to the league & team, and from the league/team to the consumer, is disappointing at best.

[inkman]

All I can say for certain is that the delays are extremely frustrating for fans, the lack of merchandise is very frustrating, and the apparent lack of communication, both from Rbk to the league & team, and from the league/team to the consumer, is disappointing at best.

This is the most frustrating thing.