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Post by Nigel Wood on May 11, 2006 11:08:18 GMT
It's a shame the kit has not arrived - it looks as if the incognitos might out number the recognisables soon. Any news?
I'm sure David in his role as RR supremo will advise the Team Dulwich (Frant expedition division) but I know in the past he has been a bit concerned about DP riders not wearing club kit in the SERRL and annoying conspiracy theorists from other clubs. Maybe non racing members could loan some out? For my part if anybody shares my Rasmussen 59kg build they can borrow a short sleeved jersey for Sunday.
Nigel
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2006 12:47:15 GMT
I've been pushing for the new kit on an almost daily basis over the last few weeks. We'd been promised a delivery date of the first week in May which has obviosuly passed.
i'm hoping that it should only be a matter of days now but beyond travelling over to Italy in person there is little else I can do I'm afraid.
There have been a few issue sto do with VAT that needed sorting out but that has all been wrapped up.
Believe me - I'm more keen to get the kit here than anyone else.
James
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2006 14:44:18 GMT
Do you know what kit has actually been ordered? any skinsuits? or caps? for splitters like myself
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2006 17:06:56 GMT
Short sleeve jerseys, long sleeve jerseys and bibshorts. We may be able to do caps and gilets in the second order - we'll have to see. There are artwork set up costs for each item which means it gets expensive to order lots of new stuff all in one go. there are also minimum order sizes that mean unless we get lots of people wanting these items it isn't feasible. That aside, I think Bob is looking into the possibility of getting more 'fringe' items made by another manufacturer. As for splitters such as yourself I think that there's a knew policy to shoot on sight if seen wearing any Dulwich kit (maybe Bob can clarify this?) I'm off to purchase my air rifle this evening! James
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Post by Nigel Wood on May 12, 2006 8:46:04 GMT
Nice work James
Hmm ... trvael to Italy to gte it. Maybe the Giro bound Paragonistas could blockade the Sportful factory.
All together now
'What do we want'
'Dulwich club kit'
'When do we want it'
'Err - quite soon if that's all right with you chaps'.
Nigel
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2006 9:51:37 GMT
As for splitters such as yourself I think that there's a knew policy to shoot on sight if seen wearing any Dulwich kit (maybe Bob can clarify this?) I'm off to purchase my air rifle this evening! You'll have to catch me first!
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2006 17:41:42 GMT
No flirting now!
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2006 18:45:28 GMT
Not wanting to add to your stress but you have ordered women's clothing, in a variety of sizes, haven't you?
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2006 13:00:46 GMT
Karen - In a word no. Obvioulsy judging from your post not something you were expecting, therefore let me explain why.
There seems to have been some general confusion caused by my initial post and follow up email which were sent in order that we could establish the level of demand for particular items. So this wasn't an actual order list but did enable us to put together our order list with with currently impossible to speak to Sportful.
From those responses which were sent to the whole mailing list for the club we only received three requests for womens kit.
Sportful have a minimum order of 40 of any one item, so the simple economics meant that as a club we are currently unable to to place an order for so many items that we are unlikely to be able to sell, even in the medium - long term (as you may be aware we aren't a cash rich club with huge financial reserves!). The other aspect that obviously has an effect on the viability of taking such steps is that we get hit with the set up costs for switching to a new manufacturer on this first order.
As outlined in my previous post, Bob has spoken to smaller British based manufacturers for doing smaller runs of kit and this seems feasible. therefore we shall look to stock womens kit this way, along with possibly other items such as gilets, caps etc.
Clearly the downside of this is twofold, fistly that it won't be sportful kit (which despite the incredible delay promises to be of a good quality) but also that until this main order is dealt with it makes the financing of a further set of kit a bit tricky. I don't know whether Bob was planning to go ahead with this in parallel or whether we'd have to wait to sell some of the sportful stuff first.
I'm sorry that the situation is such, clearly we would love to be able to provide womens specific kit as part of this order. There seems to be more women coming out on saturday rides and maybe this will increase demand to a level where we can affard to do it. Otherwise I'm afraid that it will be down to what Bob can organise.
So, I seem to be the bearer of bad news all round at the moment. I can see now why clubs stick with the kit they have!
James
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2006 14:24:58 GMT
Very, very disappointed and I have to say its not a good way for a club to treat women members or attract new women members.
"No sorry, we don't have the lovely new kit for you. Why? Because you're not worth it."
Too late now, but one has to ask why wasn't this flagged up before, especially when we went through all the tribulations when choosing a new supplier. Certainly, if I had known this when I contributed to those discussions, I would have made my opinions known.
This makes me feel like a second class citizen and the more I think about this, the more angry I become. So I'm not going to say anymore on the matter, lest I say something I will regret
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2006 15:28:38 GMT
"Sportful have a minimum order of 40 of any one item"
Does this mean you have ordered 40 small, 40 mediums, 40 large or did you just have to order 40 jerseys of different sizes?
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2006 17:26:42 GMT
Karen
Clearly I can appreciate your point of view but we did try hard to get them to provide us with women’s kit as part of our order but they wouldn’t mix women’s jerseys / shorts as part of our order of jerseys / shorts, we would have to order a minimum of 40 of each item. Once faced with that it wasn’t a case of caring or not caring about women members, it was simply economics. To try and put it in some perspective, we only got requests for about 40 men’s jerseys from the whole club. From the little I know about the club’s financial status it just doesn’t have the funds available to carry stock of any item for any great length of time. In order to do something like that people like Bob end up having to ‘lend’ the club money which seems a bit unfair really. Basically this one order will take more than all of the funds that the club has. So it’s not a case of ‘not wanting to’ it’s a case of ‘can’t afford to’. That is why Bob has been looking into getting a manufacturer that can deal with small orders to try and overcome the problem. Everyone who has been dealing with this would prefer to be able to offer womens kit from the same manufacturer, and maybe if there are a few more women looking to buy kit, and once the club has had the chance to absorb the initial costs of artwork set up etc then it can afford to do so. I can only really speculate about that as clearly it isn’t my decision to make.
At the time that we were canvassing opinions on manufacturers we weren’t aware that we would face this problem. If you want to criticise me for that then fair enough but I’m only trying to help the club out – I don’t have some anti-women agenda. I think that this is part of the problem using a better / bigger manufacturer – as we’re also finding out with the delivery (or lack of). If people feel that this isn’t the way to go the club may decide to review it – again not really for me to decide.
Maybe you could assist Bob in sorting out short runs with an alternative manufacturer?
If you want to talk about it feel free to give me a call – 0208 516 4176.
Peter – The order was for 50 s/s jerseys and bib shorts and 40 l/s jersey. These are mixed sizes based on previous orders that the club has made. So that is a total of 50 jerseys, 50 shorts and 40 l/s jerseys.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2006 19:05:21 GMT
I do appreciate all the work you have put into this its just that I'm very disappointed, as I am sure are other women members, that we are going to be without the new kit. And I do understand the economic reasons behind it.
Perhaps it would have been better to communicate these problems with the membership and especially those who ordered the new kit, rather than drop the bombshell just before the new kit arrives.
I'll have a word with Bob about sourcing other suppliers.
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Post by daniel on May 15, 2006 20:13:17 GMT
I don't mean to cause any problems but instead of people saying how disappointed they are they could consider all the hard work that James has put in to this first. Since the end of last summer he has done extensive research, contacted manufacturers, received and sent back samples, liaised with Theo and Piers as well as being in contact (sometimes one way) with Sportful on an almost daily basis. This I know has been time consuming and frustrating. Whatever decision that has been made has been in consultation with other people and with the clubs best interest at heart. If there has been a decision that has been made that has disappointed anyone then I can assure you it was not intentional in anyway.
In regards to the arrival of the kit as soon as he hears anything I'm sure he will put a posting on the message board.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2006 21:20:17 GMT
read the first line of my last post
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