Mega Thread The Port Store Mega Thread Part 2

[Portwrld]

Port are literally last on their list .

After volleyball and random other sports.

Macron sponsored clubs | Worldwide Shipping

Find out all the clubs sponsored by Macron. Football, rugby, basket and much more. Discover the match shirts and the collections. Delivery in 48 hours.

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Exactly, we can and must do better than Macron, but unfortunately we are stuck with them for another four more years, and even if something happens that cans the deal and we go on the search for another supplier, we will end up with ISC, O’Neills, or some brand that very, very few people know about.

 

[Portwrld]

As time goes on, it's become more and more apparent that we should just have gone with a prison bar colour variant in 1997.

We have to wear a guernsey with teal on it anyway, it may as well be the guernsey design that is synonymous with Port Adelaide.

We'd have avoided some of the identity shock we had for the first decade if we'd been wearing the bars at home, even if they were black and teal. The Prison Bar guernsey in any colours reads as Port Adelaide, and it was the one unique symbol of the club we could have carried forward.

I fully acknowledge why we refuse to compromise now, the black and white guernsey is sacred and we've already done all the compromising. But I think if we'd worn black and teal bars since 1997, we'd still be wearing them now, and we'd be having the same fight to wear the black and white bars that we're having anyway. We've long argued that we won't compromise but did that actually help us avoid any of the bullshit? I'd argue that it didn't.

I fully get the "yeah but black and teal bars isn't our guernsey" argument, i've made it many times myself. But instead we've now had a bunch of variants that are even less Port Adelaide than a black and teal PBs guernsey would be.

The Chevron guernsey has almost exclusively bad memories associated with it. It represents the worst era in our 155 years. We adopted it because it was a refreshing change to have a traditional looking footy guernsey after over a decade of 90s era mistakes, but it's not ours, it's yet another compromise, another push towards genericism that we should be trying to avoid.

Start pushing the Port Adelaide in our branding as hard as possible. Drop the chevrons as a bookend to this awful era. Wear the black and teal bars in home games, and keep wearing the original bars in showdowns.

Look, I’d love nothing more than to wear the Prison Bar jumper each week like we used to because that’s Port Adelaide.

However, in a world where Collingwood exists, if we rocked up and played with the PB jumper R2 against Richmond or worst R1 against Collingwood. There will be legal action to face. Now, I’d be happy if the club goes to court and fights for our right to play in the prison bar each week.

Which, let’s be honest, we shouldn’t have to argue our case, especially when, according to the book Destiny written by Dr. Norman Ashton, Collingwood agreed for us to have the colours, jumper, and the name being Magpies if we had won for three consecutive seasons.

Thank you, Bruno, from TBPA, for referencing the book in your TikTok.

However, we open up the can of worms of Collingwood arguing from a legal sense that where a foundation club, we came before them, and any contracts that go with the Collingwood agreement probably win.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Look at all the top teams that created dynasties, like the Hawks or Richmond; they all have recognisable brands that everyone knows of and bring in bigger money than a Macron does.

Do they bring in bigger money?

Ultimately Port, like all clubs, are canvassing a lot of brands and taking the best deal. Macron almost certainly offered us more than anyone else did, or the best overall package, or we wouldn't have signed with them.

I think you're ultimately underselling Macron as a sportswear brand. I think the quality of our product has been fine.

I'm just not sure what exposure you think, say, North and GWS, are getting over what we get by being with Puma. Do you think there's even one instance of someone buying a North guernsey because they saw it in a Puma store who would have been open to buying a Port guernsey if it was in the same store? It's not like Port guernseys are hard to find, you could walk into any Rebel Sport in the country and buy one.

Is the difference between Macron and Puma (in terms of AFL clubs) so significant that we should take a worse financial deal to be Puma's 6th AFL club?

Would it be nice to have Puma or Adidas next time? Sure. Is Macron a disaster? It's the best manufacturer we've used since Nike's last season in 2005, and that includes "global recognisable brand" Reebok who gave us the worst product we've ever had.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Port are literally last on their list .

After volleyball and random other sports.

Macron sponsored clubs | Worldwide Shipping

Find out all the clubs sponsored by Macron. Football, rugby, basket and much more. Discover the match shirts and the collections. Delivery in 48 hours.

www.macron.com

This is simply a reflection of the market from the perspective of a European sportswear brand. Portwrld keeps talking about exposure and reach, but it just isn't there for an obscure sport from the other side of the world only played in 1 country regardless of who brands you.

Utterly swagless brand aren't they. Bring in Kappa

As someone who follows a soccer club who has been sponsored by both Macron and Kappa in the last decade or so, Macron>Kappa. Kappa live off of the retro tracksuit stuff, which is great, but their bread and butter kits and training stuff wasn't as good. And Macron have significantly sharpened their branding in that time.

 

[backtozero]

Yeah, but image is everything.

Take Collingwood, for example, and you can do it with Sydney, Carlton and other clubs around that mark.

Look at Collingwood’s sponsors / Kit suppliers:

They are Nike, Emirates, KFC, AIA Health Insurance (who are on the front of the Tottenham jersey), and La Trobe Financial.

Now the first three brands, everyone knows who they are and what they do. By bringing in a top brand on board, we can take us to the next level.
money, and hopefully footballing success.

Yeah, except that their gear was made by Star Athletic for a few years not that long ago.

Yeah, exactly. Who?

Collingwood to partner with Star Athletic in 2013

Collingwood has announced a new apparel partnership with Star Athletic.

www.collingwoodfc.com.au

 

[chiwigi]

Exactly, we can and must do better than Macron, but unfortunately we are stuck with them for another four more years, and even if something happens that cans the deal and we go on the search for another supplier, we will end up with ISC, O’Neills, or some brand that very, very few people know about.

After Adidas, Nike, Puma, NB and Reebok I’d say Macron are the biggest name in team wear.

They aren’t exactly nobodies. Just their quality is average.

Also better than the likes of Castore who are coming through.

O’Neills are based in Adelaide for Australia, so wouldn’t be surprised to see them.

 

[TeeKray]

It actually somewhat surprises me that the AFL haven't done a deal by now to put every team in the same brand. Reckon you could find a company that would pay big money for exclusive rights plus the AFL themselves could clip the ticket on the way through. Might just be too difficult to negotiate out of all of the existing deals across the 18 clubs.

 

[Dylan8]

After Adidas, Nike, Puma, NB and Reebok I’d say Macron are the biggest name in team wear.

They aren’t exactly nobodies. Just their quality is average.

Also better than the likes of Castore who are coming through.

O’Neills are based in Adelaide for Australia, so wouldn’t be surprised to see them.

Macron to me screams mid table Serie A. No swag. No iconic retro kits. They're basically a Euro ISC. I'm a slave to beautiful brands, I think I would flat out spend more money on club stuff if it had a Nike logo.

 

[Dylan8]

As someone who follows a soccer club who has been sponsored by both Macron and Kappa in the last decade or so, Macron>Kappa. Kappa live off of the retro tracksuit stuff, which is great, but their bread and butter kits and training stuff wasn't as good. And Macron have significantly sharpened their branding in that time.

 

[El_Scorcho]

No iconic retro kits.

By this standard there can't be any new suppliers ever, though.

Look at the kits they're doing now, they're doing some really good work.

Would you rather be Crystal Palace or Bologna where you're Macron's flagship club getting a heap of effort and club specific stuff put into your kits, or Leeds or Fulham who are in off-the-shelf Adidas teamwear?

 

[Fizzler]

By this standard there can't be any new suppliers ever, though.

Look at the kits they're doing now, they're doing some really good work.

Would you rather be Crystal Palace or Bologna where you're Macron's flagship club getting a heap of effort and club specific stuff put into your kits, or Leeds or Fulham who are in off-the-shelf Adidas teamwear?

In fairness to Dylan’s point, I think given teamwear for on field uniforms isn’t exactly a phenomenon in the AFL, you’d probably almost take the Leeds situation over the Palace one. Granted, I wouldn’t exactly want Port being signed to Nike or Adidas knowing their track record in the AFL and I’d take Macron or O’Neills over them. But as for Puma? We both know they’re leading the game as of right now. You’d take them in a heartbeat if they had the same money and length on the table as Macron.

 

[El_Scorcho]

You’d take them in a heartbeat if they had the same money and length on the table as Macron.

Yeah, I guess that was my point to Portwrld earlier. Clearly we're getting a better package from Macron than we were offered elsewhere, and we can absolutely do worse than we're doing now. I'd absolutely love Puma but I don't think the difference is as much as is being made out here.

 

[Dylan8]

By this standard there can't be any new suppliers ever, though.

Look at the kits they're doing now, they're doing some really good work.

Would you rather be Crystal Palace or Bologna where you're Macron's flagship club getting a heap of effort and club specific stuff put into your kits, or Leeds or Fulham who are in off-the-shelf Adidas teamwear?

Yeah like there's a thing to a brand and its history. Come to me when I could possibly have some borrowed nostalgia for the Macron badge.

This is all of course pedantic, barely serious stuff from me. But yeah I think I'd take a bit of generic Nike merchandise over Macron, who aren't exactly doing elite bespoke work for us. We're just in Macron teamwear, which is mid as ****.

If we wanted to go to a smaller manufacturer who look like they put the yards in I'd like to see UCAN, whose Adelaide United stuff is fantastic. Just googled them thinking they might be a local company and it turns out they're Chinese. Mr Koch, get on the phone.

 

[Dylan8]

I'm sorry Mr Scorcho you cannot convince me Macron is good at all. Boring boring stuff basically BLK but with good colour production

 

[Lagooner]

Macron’s alright. This Perth Glory effort rocks.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Macron to me screams mid table Serie A.

Mid table Serie A is a nice aesthetic.

 

[Portwrld]

Mid table Serie A is a nice aesthetic.

Serie A - great league love it.

Macron - is the best deal possible because companies don’t take morons like Koch and Richo seriously when the run sporting club and in our case a professional Aussie rules club.

 

[Portwrld]

Yeah, except that their gear was made by Star Athletic for a few years not that long ago.

Yeah, exactly. Who?

Collingwood to partner with Star Athletic in 2013

Collingwood has announced a new apparel partnership with Star Athletic.

www.collingwoodfc.com.au

What happen after that?

 

[Portwrld]

Do they bring in bigger money?

Ultimately Port, like all clubs, are canvassing a lot of brands and taking the best deal. Macron almost certainly offered us more than anyone else did, or the best overall package, or we wouldn't have signed with them.

I think you're ultimately underselling Macron as a sportswear brand. I think the quality of our product has been fine.

I'm just not sure what exposure you think, say, North and GWS, are getting over what we get by being with Puma. Do you think there's even one instance of someone buying a North guernsey because they saw it in a Puma store who would have been open to buying a Port guernsey if it was in the same store? It's not like Port guernseys are hard to find, you could walk into any Rebel Sport in the country and buy one.

Is the difference between Macron and Puma (in terms of AFL clubs) so significant that we should take a worse financial deal to be Puma's 6th AFL club?

Would it be nice to have Puma or Adidas next time? Sure. Is Macron a disaster? It's the best manufacturer we've used since Nike's last season in 2005, and that includes "global recognisable brand" Reebok who gave us the worst product we've ever had.

With all due respect, Macron isn’t great like you’re saying it is.

Their products are figure-hugging AF, you have to buy 2 to 3 sizes up to get a good fit, never had that problem with any other kit manufacturer ever that made our stuff and stylistically they haven’t made any good merch apart from the PB and remake 04 home jumper.

The only merch that I’ve liked and bought from Macron is the coal training jumper back in 2021 from The Port Store, this one down below.



The rest have all been meh from a design perspective; there is not one piece of item again apart from the PB and 04 jumper that you would buy.

The Nikes, Adidas, Pumas, etc. of the world would offer more money. It’s not like we’re Adelaide Olympic, with due respect to them, but we wouldn’t be taking on a worse deal; we would be creating a deal that creates more people to view our stuff; it allows all parties involved to charge a high commission and more profit for everyone.

Better products, recognisable brands, more profit = win-win.

 

[rogerjames]

Everything else about our branding upon our entry in the 90's gets a bad rap and rightly so, but this is the best non-PB guernsey we've ever worn, don't @ me.

View attachment 2188307

Well chosen model

 

[Portwrld]

Yeah, I guess that was my point to Portwrld earlier. Clearly we're getting a better package from Macron than we were offered elsewhere, and we can absolutely do worse than we're doing now. I'd absolutely love Puma but I don't think the difference is as much as is being made out here.

Again, your target market at the moment isn’t international; it’s domestic.

Look at the top teams from a performance/ historical / big fan base in the AFL.


AFL - Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Sydney, Richmond.

They're all with one of the top brands. The big teams go with the big brands. We are a big team; we need to grow outside of SA even though. This really helps and does make sponsors easier to attract, and on-field performance aswell.

No disrespect is intended for any of our sponsors, because they put their money into our club, but we have to improve sponsors like MG, as they are a brand not well known compared to KFC, Emirates, Hyundai, Ford, HSBC, like Sydney has or an Vodafone like we used to be sponsored by them. Companies that people know in Australia and have a global base that should be the goal that I’d like to see from the clubs as the corporates can massively help in a marketing and financial perspective. We can be better.

 

[backtozero]

What happen after that?

They used ISC for about 5 years.

 

[Lefti93]

Port Adelaide Macron 2025 Travel Jacket

Port Store: Port Adelaide Football Club Official Online Merchandise Store. Shop now and support your club!

portstore.com.au

I don't mind this, $155 bit steep though.

 

[JayPea14]

Port Adelaide Macron 2025 Travel Jacket

Port Store: Port Adelaide Football Club Official Online Merchandise Store. Shop now and support your club!

portstore.com.au

I don't mind this, $155 bit steep though.

Agree it's nice but shouldn't be more than $90

 

[Lefti93]

Agree it's nice but shouldn't be more than $90

Yeah $90 is the exact figure I had in my head for what I'd pay up to.