In recent years there has been a spate of reports about price fixing replica football shirts.
But now you can buy football shirts relatively cheaply if you shop around – with supermarkets and discount sportswear outlets in retail parks (As a sidenote, I was looking for a bar-bell weight at the weekend for reasons I won’t go into now! Anyway, I wandered into one of those places and it was so stuffed full of clothing rails that you could barely move around. And this was in a spacious out-of-town site, not some cramped high street store. They did have England away shirts priced £10 each though).
Anyway, with the Lions tour just getting underway, I thought that it might be nice to get a shirt. But Lions tour rugby shirts seem to be the last bastion of protectionism. Adidas make the shirts, and if you can get them for even a few pence less than the £50 RRP then you’re doing well. Lions shirts have always been expensive, but this is ridiculous. It’s not as though the quality is exceptional, and you’re effectively wearing a bid advert for Zurich insurance.
I did Froogle the shirts, and check Pricerunner, and found a shirt for £30, but it turned out to be for toddlers (sizes 18 months, 18-24 months and 24-36 months. Thirty quid!).
Someone’s having a laugh. I think I’ll wait for the new Arsenal kit instead.