Arsenal Goalkeeper Kits

I recently vented my frustrations over on the Arsenal Home Kit thread about Arsenal's GK kit policy.

For those that don't know, Arsenal wear many different GK kits over the course of the season, sometimes as many as four. Last season, for example, Alumunia wore kits that were black, navy, light grey and yellow.

Unfortunately, it's Arsenal club policy to only release ONE of these at retail. Last season they picked the navy one. This year it's a rather dull black number.

If you're an Arsenal fan, or just a fan of good football kits in general, then I'd be very grateful if you could have a read and sign my petition.

Hopefully in a few weeks we'll have eoungh names to present to Arsenal, and they'll release ALL the goalkeeper kits, allowing fans and neturals alike to have a choice as to which one(s) to buy.

Here's the link in full: http://www.petitiononline.com/asnlgk1/petition.html

Many thanks in advance!

ive signed it for you

dont really know why cos im never gonna buy an Arsenal shirt.

I like the black goalkeeper kit. Even if i didn't i wouldn't sign a petition. I am not an Arsenal fan so why should i/others get involved on what the club does. I wouldn't be happy if people supporting other teams had a say in what my club done.

I see what you're saying, Geordie JJ - thanks for the feedback, even if I can't convince you.

But you post a lot in this forum because you are interested in football kits in general. You wouldn't have viewed this thread if you didn't.

To be honest, I don't care if people love Arsenal or hate Arsenal. I'm just hoping that we can all unite in our interest in football kits, and ensure that these are released.

I think it's a crying shame that some of the nicest kits Arsenal have had in recent years weren't released. Given that Arsenal have seldom wavered from the yellow or blue away kits in recent years, there's not much variety in the Arsenal wardrobe - and we've had some excellent GK kits in the past in shades of bronze, purple, light grey and sky blue - none of which colours are likely to appear on an outfield kit any time soon!

And I see no reason why fans of other clubs can't join in, too. How could any Gooners react negatively to fans of other clubs voting in this matter? If the Arsenal fans agree with me, then they'll welcome other fans' votes with open arms! And if they don't, then there's no harm done, is there? It's not like I'm petitioning Arsenal to spend £30 million on Peter Enckelman, is it?

As I say - signing won't hurt anybody, and it might just help make the world of kits a bigger and more colourful place.

And in the end, that's what we all want on this forum, isn't it?

i quite like the shirt they're selling. but either way, i'd never buy a goalie top.
how many other premiership teams sell more than one goalie kit?

Well, last year, for example, Spurs had three different ones available, Man Utd had four!

I'm not saying that the black GK kit that's for sale is bad. For all I know the away GK kit might be horrid.

I'm just saying it would nice to have that choice.

I realise that GK kits don't sell as well as outfield kits, I fully understand that. Not everyone wants a GK top. But as I said before, if clubs such as Huddersfield Town can offer their supporters a choice of goalie kit (see here for example), then why can't a big club like Arsenal?

Because Almunia's Mum makes them by hand.

i completely understand what you're saying. but i think you've just pointed out the reason that they only sell one...thats because the demand isnt there. it would be good to have the choice, but it probably wouldnt be worth their while money wise perhaps.

good old Manuels mum!

Spurs had 4 btw. Black, Green, Yellow, Blue.

NOt signing the petition because I don't care

four! did fatty robinson keep needing new ones to cover his big belly?!

no, he got hungry and ate the other 3.

That may be true - GK kits aren't exactly big sellers!

But, as I say, I find it strange that many clubs in the lower tiers of English Football can release at least two GK kits, but Arsenal - with their worldwide fanbase - only bring out one.

One idea suggested is that they don't have a big 'name' goalkeeper these days. In the 1990s, David Seaman was one of Arsenal's star names, and many kids bought the goalie top just to geat 'Seaman 1' on the back.

It's the same with Robinson at Spurs. He might not now be the player he once was, but in his first few seasons at Spurs he was excellent. Arguably the Premier League's best keeper at the time. He was rightly called up to the England squad and became one of Spurs' big-name players. As a result, sales of the GK kits may have increased, so the club got into the habit of releasing four at a time.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, Lehmann was always a cult hero rather than a mainstream one, and Almunia has hardly set the world alight. Manchester Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool all boast international goalies.

Maybe if we signed a star international keeper instead of some 14-year old French wonderkid no-one's ever heard of, perhaps the 2nd keeper kit may well return...

cant they just have 2 really unusual coloured gk kits that wont clash then put them both in the shops

theres simply no demand for it.
the club wont sanction the mass production of 4 different kits just because someone wants a better variety of colour. the only reason they have the different colours is to not clash with other teams in opposition.
theyre not selling the colour when they sell the one GK jersey each year, theyre selling the fact that its the Arsenal GK kit, with the specific colours irrelevant.

Having to sanction mass production of four different kits would incur unnecessary costs compared to just releasing one. So purely on a business level, and common sense level, I dont think it would work, pretty pointless and a bit of unneeded comotion just for the want of a bit of colour...

So there's enough demand for two different Huddersfield GK kits, two different Charlton GK kits, two different Colchester United GK kits, four different Spurs GK kits, but poor old Arsenal with only their small fan base only have enough demand to release one each year? How does that work?



I'm not saying that ALL 4 should be released necessarily - even two would be nice! Just like two GK kits are released each year by the likes of, erm, Darlington.



Are you sure? Why use four colours when two would suffice? Why not just wear the Blue one all the time, and wear a Green one when there's a clash. That way, they wouldn't even NEED any other GK kits, beacuse no-one Arsenal are likely to come up against play in green and blue!

The only reason Spurs and Man Utd have four GK kits is to fleece the fans. There's absolutely no need whatsoever for any more than two. So why do Arsenal have four? It's nothing to do with fleecing the fans (because they only release one) and it's nothing to do with kit clashes (because all you really need is two at most). So there's no logical reason why the club have as many as 4 GK kits in the first place!!!



That might be the case, but at the risk of sounding like a stuck record - WHY DO OTHER SMALLER CLUBS RELEASE MULTIPLE GK KITS AND NOT Arsenal!!???



The last time Arsenal released two GK kits was in 1997. You have to remember at the time that Arsenal were not a big club. The previous year they had finished third in the league, fifth before that and fourteenth the year before that. At the time, they had never participated in the Champions' League and were seen very much as outsiders for winning the league. THAT was the state of Arsenal FC the last time they released two GK kits.

But look at them now - in the Big Four in England and arguably one of the top 10 teams in Europe. A massive and still-expanding fanbase and a ginormous new stadium to fill it every week. There's no doubt that Arsenal are at least five times bigger then they were ten years ago - so why have they cut down the number of GK kit releases even though the club has increased in size? That just doesn't make sense.

Oh, and I'll say it again - WHY DO OTHER SMALLER CLUBS RELEASE MULTIPLE GK KITS AND NOT Arsenal!!???

We don't bring out the millions of GK kits because the club has respect for the fans and don't rip them off like Tottenham with their millions of kits each 2 yrs

I dont know if theres restrictions against it, but I think the logic for it comes from the fact that smaller clubs rely on their on pitch performance, and anything they can sell to generate revenue is beneficial... if they wear it, sell it, someone will buy it.
As for Arsenal, theydont need to rely on it, their income comes from a wide range of activities , and maybe they dont see the need to release variations of the kit.

Plus, its Nike,.... they dont do anything spectacular, no doubt it will just be a weird colour on a plain-ish tshirt that u can buy from any shop, with the niike Arsenal and emirates logo stuck on it..
million percent mark up for the club.

starfish, i think the financial reason is reason enough not for them to release more than one. smaller clubs doing it is irrelevant!

Okay, here's an example, using made-up figures to illustrate my point.

Colchester United, have, say, 100,000 fans worldwide, of which only a small percentage (say, 1%) want to buy an away GK kit. Assuming the club make a £10 profit on each shirt sold, this would make their total profit £10,000 from the sales of the away GK kit.

But take a team like Arsenal, who have, let's say, 2 million fans. If 1% buy an away GK top, that's a massive 20,000 away GK kits sold!

And because Arsenal sell 20,000 rather than Colchester's 1,000, we have what economists call Economies of Scale. Basically, it means that items mass-produced in greater numbers cost less per item to produce. Therefore the profit made per kit should be higher. So let's assume that Arsenal make more profit per shirt than Colchester, say £12.

That means that Arsenal make £240,000 from sales of the away GK kit. That's the same amount they paid for Nicolas Anelka!

So to say it's not worth doing for the bigger clubs is a bit of a silly statement - especially considering Man Utd had four last year!

It just seems to me that MOST clubs release multiple GK kits, from Machester United, Chelsea and Liverpool right down to Rochdale and Scarborough.

One of the only clubs that don't is Arsenal. And I think they should, that's all.