GRAB A SPORTSWEAR BARGAIN (Sports and Soccer)

Member Name: snappy

Product:	Sports and Soccer
Date:	21/09/01 (3067 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good name brands at decent prices, , plenty of stock

Disadvantages: surly, disinterested staff, often long queues

Wanna bargain? Big name sports brands at knock-down prices - well head for your nearest Sports & Soccer branch and grab a handful of bargains!

OK That's maybe got your attention. Anyway, sporting goods chain 'Sport & Soccer' now seems to have branches all over the place, though I’d suspect it is still firmly centred around the Home Counties. Many of their branches that I frequent have been undergoing a refit and enlargement, so I’d have to guess the business was thriving.

So that nicely brings me to ‘the business’.

This chain of Sports stores started life as Sport & Ski. Trading in Shopping Malls and stocking winter gear for the skier, in addition to general sports gear like T-Shirts, Polos, Sweats and Jackets. Also, there were always racks of trainers, football boots etc for both Adults and Children. This brought them a niche market. It was a shop you could kit little Johnny out for his new school with some respectable labels like Umbro, Adidas and the now ubiquitous Donnay. While the teenagers and more label conscious amongst us could still get the ‘top range’ names for – we assumed – a bit less than the next store.

But often the ‘discounts’ were rather fake. Old season stock bought in at a low price and sold off to the public. Nothing wrong in that at all, especially as 10 years ago, the Leisurewear and Sportswear trend to become ‘high fashion’ for the street was beginning to boom.

A change of direct three or four years ago, saw the stores re-branded as Sports Soccer, indicating the move towards trying to capture the huge Soccer ‘fashion’ market. You can get the latest kits here, plus sportswear with your club’s badge, logo, name or what have you. Unless, that is, you are a follower of a lesser club. You’ll not find many Crewe Alexandra branded shirts here, I guess!!

I assume the Chain must have the
license for Donnay gear – or at least some kind of tie up. Donnay were the manufacturers of Bjorn Borg’s tennis gear and rackets, when he was winning his string of Wimbledon title. But that was 20 odd years ago. The name was resurrected and cheap ‘Donnay’ branded wear began to appear in Sports Soccer stores. Donnay have tried to move a touch upmarket recently with the signing of British (Canadian!) Tennis player Greg Rusedski to wear their shirts on court. I’m not sure that this has had a noticeable effect on make Donnay a more fashionable brand. Their gear is cheap in the stores and a range of shirts, shirts, tracksuits, sweatshirts, shoes, trainers...well you name it (no, not donnay condoms, yet!)

Another facet of these stores is their gradual move towards certain sports. You will be hard pressed to find any Cricket gear at Sport Soccer, but many of their stores will stock a wide range of Golf accessories, plus clubs and practice aids. Even the Donnay range has expanded to include better quality Golf Pique shirts, Inexpensive Golf Club sets and Golf Shoes.

The stores refund policy had always struck me as odd. They will only offer you an exchange, if you have the receipt/ticket. If you've lost it - tough, even if it has the original tags and shop labels. You never get a cash refund. And try asking the Staff a question. Go on I dare you. Usually youngsters of fair to middling intelligence who shrug their way around the shop, looking disinterested, till one of their mates rings them on their mobile. But back to the good points...

If you have one of these stores near you, it is quite probable that you are familiar with them. The prospect of reasonable quality across the range, plus good brand names in both Mens and Ladies sportswear (although these days it is pretty unisex don’t you think?) is a magnet. They do sell some crap too – but cheap crap that can be worn away from view – undern
eath your Reebok Hooded top for example. Their range of trainers is good with all the top names at good prices. Bigger stores may be on two levels – like two of our local ones – and they will section them off into Golf and Soccer on one level and the lower ticket goods on display as you enter the store.

By and large you can get good value here, without quite having the overall product range of a JJB Sports or the more upmarket feel of a JD Sports. Am I sounding old when I can remember the days you went into a Sports shop if you were a ‘player’ and you NEEDED new equipment? These days most of the sales come from customers looking for streetwear and trainers not to ‘train’ in but walk around more shops in. Ah well this is the 21st Century.

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