NZRU to blame for rugby rip-off

Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, August 5th, 2011 - 48 comments
Categories: capitalism - Tags: ,

Adidas was founded by a Nazi who lied that his own brother was SS to get him in deeper trouble when the brother was captured by the US. That cut-throat attitude persists. I don’t know why people want to wear All Blacks shirts. Adult equivalent of a 5 year old wearing a superman costume. But the NZRU shouldn’t let them be ripped off like this.

And $220 is a massive rip-off. Over twice the sale price in other countries. When we see that same price differential for milk, they say it’s about foreign stores buying in bulk. But NZ is clearly the world’s biggest market for All Blacks shirts. Truth is, they’re price-gouging.

Adidas is screwing the little guy at both ends. We’re meant to pay over 10 hours’ income on the average wage for a shirt. People making them get paid 60 cents an hour.

Now Adidas is trying to stop their foreign resellers doing an end run round their extortionate prices by selling to Kiwis online.

Like I say, I don’t get it myself. But seeing the most passionate fans of rugby ripped off by the foreign company ‘their’ Rugby Union gave the clothing contract to leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This is supposedly the national game. The NZRU should be inspiring that spirit. Not letting its supporters be milked for every cent they have.

48 comments on “NZRU to blame for rugby rip-off ”

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  1. Colonial Viper 1
    5 August 2011 at 11:51 am

    Cynical NZ corporates treat the NZ consumer like dumb cows: herd them, milk them, and one day off to the slaughter.

    Hey here’s a good idea lets give the NZRU more tax payers and ratepayers monies for their pet projects eh, they are so deserving.

    • Colonial Viper 1.1
      5 August 2011 at 12:02 pm

      I’ll add that because the NZD is so much stronger than 6 months ago, the prices of these imported shirts should have come down, not gone up.

      They’re really having a laugh at our expense.

      These bloody things will be $75 in November anyway.

  2. Maui 2
    5 August 2011 at 12:10 pm

    .. even less at the Op Shops

  3. Joe Bloggs 3
    5 August 2011 at 12:14 pm

    well it didn’t take long for this particular post to invoke Godwin’s Law.

    Speaking of which, Godwin’s First Corollary is that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress.

    Irrespective of Godwin’s Law and its corollaries, laying the blame at the feet of the NZRFU is hyperbolic in its own right.

    The NZRFU licensed use of trademarked All Black materials – it’s not responsible for pricing strategies. That’s the domain of adidas – but irrespective of the adidas pricing strategies, the choice of whether to buy or not to buy sits squarely with the consumer.

    There’s no compulsion to buy jerseys from local suppliers.

  4. Dan 4
    5 August 2011 at 12:14 pm

    While your argument is correct, the sentence reading:

    ‘I don’t know why people want to wear All Blacks shirts. Adult equivalent of a 5 year old wearing a superman costume.’

    is repugnant. I disagree with workers being paid pitiful wages, I disagree with rugby being priced beyond the reach of 90% of its fans, but heaven forbid if I want to wear a supporter’s jersey of one of my favourite teams, apparently.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.1
      5 August 2011 at 12:18 pm

      You like paying to wear a private companies advertising?

      • Dan 4.1.1
        5 August 2011 at 12:27 pm

        I like to support sports teams I like, if that answers your loaded question? I support the ARFU and my local rugby club when I buy their jerseys too.

      • The Voice of Reason 4.1.2
        5 August 2011 at 12:32 pm

        I don’t mind, Draco. Particularly so if it’s a sponsor I respect and whose products I swear by. If there is a better looking bit of kit than this, I’m a jellied eel.
         
        As to the substance of the argument, the whole tournament is a colossal rip off, so no surprises that the NZRFU want to add to the wedges of tax payer dosh they are already trousering by fleecing the fans. And mainly Kiwi fans at that, because it is becoming increasingly obvious that overseas interest is flat, mainly due to the economy, I guess. It wasn’t too flash in the real World Cup in South Africa either and that’s reasonably handy to Europe. 
         
        My prediction is that the NZRFU will be bussing in schoolkids to fill the seats at games because empty stands look awful on telly. Adults can look forward to plenty of bargain tickets for the same reason at each game in the first rounds, at least.

      • pollywog 4.1.3
        5 August 2011 at 12:33 pm

        I’d rather bootleg their shit and put my own spin on it…

  5. Speaking Sense to Unions 5
    5 August 2011 at 12:24 pm

    you can get them for NZ$190 at the official site. NZ$300 for the limited edition.

    it’s expensive but it could be that’s just an indication of the material used, it’s one of those fancy sport materials. It’s not hard to find similarly priced clothing with specialised material in sports and adventure shops.

  6. pollywog 6
    5 August 2011 at 12:50 pm

    I’m gonna rock my own Russian Bears one , in yellow on red naturally…

  7. Tiger Mountain 7
    5 August 2011 at 1:04 pm

    Agree with Voice that the RWC is likely to be a bit of a flat tyre. The NZRU does not help at all with such pricing. Answer-don’t buy the bloody merchandise even if you can just afford it. I am a car racing fan but would not touch the offical clothing with a 20 foot pole because the organising companies are greedy bastards.

    Branding is hard to escape and most of us heh, buy into it eventually intentionally or otherwise. But sweated labour is another matter, that only Unions and Fair Trade supporters seem to care about. Pakistani 10 year olds making soccer balls is regularly raised on the occasion of the real world cup, ooh how terrible! and then forgotten about except by groups like the IUF and other international union groupings that battle away.

  8. Wayne91 8
    5 August 2011 at 1:17 pm

    No one but me will decide if I want to buy the All Blacks jersey to wear to support them.

    Addidas sponsor the All Blacks which helps keep a lot of our Rugby talent in this country – Therefore I will support both Addidas and the All Blacks – my choice

    Im no different to the millions of people around the world who support thier teams by wearing thier jerseys/scarves/caps whatever.

    • Colonial Viper 8.1
      5 August 2011 at 1:43 pm

      Good to see easy marks like you. Makes a corporate CFO’s heart warm on a cold winters day.

      (nice play on the “it’s my choice to be fleeced” liberatrian meme)

  9. McFlock 9
    5 August 2011 at 1:54 pm

    If someone wants to look like a dick, I’m the last person in a position to criticise.
    But it’s a bit like the way Carisbrook was run (and, almost certainly, the white elephant will be). The ‘brook was old and crappy, fair enough, but the real issue I had with it on the few times I went there was that they didn’t miss a single opportunity to overcharge for small portions of utter crap – beer in plastic thimbles at handle rates, potato grease-sacks in paper thimbles at meal rates, and so on.
    Then they wondered why people stopped going. 
      
      
    The basic rule of farming is that if you skin the sheep once, you can’t shear it annually. NZ rugby hasn’t figured that one out.

    • Morrissey 9.1
      5 August 2011 at 1:59 pm

      Then they wondered why people stopped going.

      There’s no mystery about it: the reason is night games in the middle of a Dunedin winter. Why anybody goes is beyond me.

    • insider 9.2
      5 August 2011 at 2:15 pm

      there were those long cold concrete urinals too

      • McFlock 9.2.1
        5 August 2011 at 2:31 pm

        Yeah, but the fact it was outside and spartan could have been offset by good, hot food at a fair price.

  10. Maui 10
    5 August 2011 at 1:56 pm

    .. or less

  11. felix 11
    5 August 2011 at 2:08 pm

    It’s a fuckwit tax levied by Adidas.

  12. insider 12
    5 August 2011 at 2:14 pm

    Coming next on the Standard, the people’s champion:

    – iPhone 4 in white, a $1000 rip off?
    – why is it I still have to pay over $40 for a decent Otago pinot? What happened to the wine glut?
    – Will no-one rescue me and help me get a decent latte under $4 a cup?
    – Bread or cake? You choose!

    Viva la revolucion amigos!

  13. tc 13
    5 August 2011 at 4:41 pm

    Insider you need to get out more….plenty of top pinot less than $25 from all over NZ. Shop around, as for paying $1000 for the same kit in white….fools and their money etc etc which I think sums up the AB jersey issue.

  14. SHG 14
    5 August 2011 at 5:06 pm

    Zetetic, I’m sure you also must have made all these comments when Clare Curran decided to wear an Adidas jersey in the House, right?

  15. Bill 15
    5 August 2011 at 6:37 pm

    This is supposedly the national game. The NZRU should be inspiring that spirit. Not letting its supporters be milked for every cent they have.

    Calling it the ‘national’ game implies that it is somehow ‘belongs’ to citizens of this society. But I reckon the 20 corporations and companies listed below reckon that’s not so. And since I guess there are commercial obligations built into every All Black’s contract, hence the endless endorsements, that they also reckon differently…or a least don’t give a toss when the money’s up for grabs.

    Truly inspirational.

    Adidas.
    Sky Corp.
    Air New Zealand.
    IVECO.
    Coca-cola.
    Mastercard Corp.
    Lion Nathan.
    Ford.
    Unilever.
    Telecom.
    Sanitarium.
    ITM.
    Downer.
    Investec.
    BNZ.
    Barkers.
    Nissui Corp.
    Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp..
    Sealegs Corp..
    Moet Hennessay Louis Vuitton (LVMH)

    • Colonial Viper 15.1
      5 August 2011 at 6:52 pm

      Sucking the money out of the plebeian masses for corporate shareholder coffers.

      • Bill 15.1.1
        5 August 2011 at 7:10 pm

        Like any other business, the object of the enterprise is to make money. Sport is business. Big business. Sport comes with emotional attachment; a sense of identity or loyalty built up over decades or generations.

        It’ll disappear bye and bye (the sense of identity etc).

        • Colonial Viper 15.1.1.1
          5 August 2011 at 7:17 pm

          And sport never used to be business. Then it came under the sway of those looking to commercialise and financialise everything and anything including the kitchen sink.

          Have NZ’ers really enjoyed better sport because of “professionalisation”? Are the All Blacks that much better on the field because of “professionalisation”? The framing in itself is a CT joke.

  16. Pascal's bookie 16
    5 August 2011 at 6:52 pm

    lol to the righteous supporters of adidas.

    Guess you’ll all be happily buying Heineken in the pubs come RWC time too? Hope you notice they are shrinking the size of the branded glasses just for the occasion. Still though, it helps the ABs right? Somehow.

    Wonder too, how many peeps so keen to rush out and buy a jersey (instead of a scarf, or a jacket or a beanie or whatever) moan about selections and decry the devaluing of the sacred jersey inherent in the rotation policy. pffft.

    • vto 16.1
      6 August 2011 at 8:21 am

      lol. I would like somebody to explain what benefits professional rugby has brought to the average NZer.

      Anybody know? Because I certainly don’t.

      • James Stephenson 16.1.1
        6 August 2011 at 12:14 pm

        Was it supposed to bring benefits to the average NZer?

        It’s brought a lot of benefits to the players and the way it has been implemented here has at least left control of the game in the hands of the NZRFU, rather than rich club owners with bugger all idea about the traditions of the game, as in the UK.

        Oh yeah, and Adi Dassler was the “Nazi” that supplied shoes to one Jesse Owens in 1936 as he rather effectively went about showing up Hitler’s regime. Yes, he joined the Nazi party later but then so did Oskar Schindler – the truth or otherwise about him betraying his brother is lost in the family feud and best not given much weight.

        • Pascal's bookie 16.1.1.1
          7 August 2011 at 1:22 pm

          “traditions of the game”

          lol.

          Since when was it traditional to wear a jersey you hadn’t earned? Notice how the provincial union competition is now seen purely as a feeder to the super-whogivesafuck?

          How about all the daytime matches you can take the young kids to?

  17. infused 17
    6 August 2011 at 1:09 am

    Been shopping overseas for years. Wonder why NZ retails is dying. Cause they are fucking muppets that’s why.

    • Colonial Viper 17.1
      6 August 2011 at 1:11 am

      yeah bask in the destruction of hard working NZ’ers businesses.

      Same with most NZ business managers I guess. Mediocre to shitty.

      Only way they can think of turning a profit is to suppress wages and ask Key to reintroduce slave level youth wages.

  18. millsy 18
    6 August 2011 at 3:09 pm

    Rugby lost its soul years ago.

    Go to a game now and its all advertising. I realise it pays the bills, etc, but when I pull up the old games of the ’70’s in youtube I kinda like the way that there were no sponsorship logos etc everywhere, and the advertising as discreet.

    Obviously the game couldnt stay amateur, but I think the way that professionalism was introduced has been detrimental to the game.

    • Colonial Viper 18.1
      6 August 2011 at 3:29 pm

      the way that professionalism was introduced has been detrimental to the game.

      Managed for maximum ROI in minimum time. Hence the serious tackiness, eye gouging in your face’dness of it all.