MORE MERCH FROM ADIDAS, CELTIC FANS ASK: WHERE ARE THE SIGNINGS?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Jun 19
- 3 min read
I don’t like the commercial aspects of modern football. I think I’ve made that clear.
And before anyone responds with the usual, predictable retort, yes, I know “no-one is forcing me to buy it.”
Well, no-one is forcing Celtic and Adidas to release their 3rd new set of merchandise in the past seven weeks either, but here we are. That argument cuts two ways.
Adidas Celtic Collaboration Benefits the Club, But There are Limits
At this point, Celtic merchandize drops are almost as frequent as Rangers share issues, and about as welcome among the fanbase.
I’ve already had my rant about the price of football jerseys, but the new training kit prices are ridiculous.
I think the Twitter account “Everything Celtic” summed it up best for me:
“45 quid for a training top?
"The game’s gone.”
45 quid would be a reasonable price for an actual jersey, not a training t-shirt.
The constant squeezing of the fans for more money also comes at a time when the club still haven’t made any substantial moves in the transfer market. These two issues aren’t necessarily related, after all, merchandise launches are usually planned moths in advance.
However, like so much of Celtic’s PR and marketing, it’s not a good look. Asking fans to cough up more and more money for overpriced merchandize, whilst the transfer biscuit tin remains tightly shut is bound to rub a lot of fans up the wrong way.
Couldn’t this have waited another couple of weeks? Until we’ve got some players in the door and fans can actually see an end product to the incessant bilking of them by Adidas and Celtic.
Again, this is basic PR and marketing strategy. It’s embarrassing that Celtic still don’t get this.
I praised the club earlier this week, because we do seem to be moving far quicker in this transfer window than we usually do. However, none of the major names heavily linked with us have actually signed yet.
Until at least some of those deals are over the line, asking fans to spend more money, just weeks after a new kit launch, season ticket renewals, and the latest in what seems to be an annual line of Celtic Sambas, is, for want of a better phrase, a total and utter p*ss take.
Even then, 45 pounds for a t-shirt that we know costs less than a fiver to make is nothing but greed, pure and simple.
Funnily enough, exact replicas of these new training shirts have already appeared on the usual East Asia-based based websites for the equivalent of about 10 to 15 quid.
Now, I’m not encouraging anyone to fund counterfeiting operations, and deprive the club of money.
However, nor will I judge anyone who chooses to do so, in light of the utterly ridiculous prices being charged for the official versions.
Football globally continues to hemorrhage millions of pounds in lost revenue to Chinese knock-off jersey manufacturers every year. All because they want to have their cake and eat it too.
If you want fans to buy the official kit from the club directly, charge an affordable price.
These Chinese factories aren’t run as charities. I’m sure they still manage to turn a decent profit for producing merch of near identical quality.
Sometimes, less is more. It seems Celtic and Adidas still refuse to see that.
