An official training range release as part of the hotly anticipated Rangers 150th collection has heralded a mixed response as Gers fans eagerly await the club’s home kit for season 21/22.
In fact, so many were eager to see the club’s home kit for the first time – especially after a leaked image apparently revealed the kit online – they were hovering over the official online Rangers store all morning.
A countdown timer had previously invited fans to sign up to an early release of what most – given Castore’s involvement – would reasonably assume is related to the club’s retail.
But instead of the new home kit, the club released a series of new training range designs which have – certainly – received a mix reaction.
The Champions of Scotland celebrate their 150th anniversary next season and as such the badge on some of the range included a special banner to recognise this.
There are sharp blue, black & orange, and red, black & gold themed efforts and you can have a closer look HERE.
Whilst plenty have enjoyed the new training range, there are a couple of reasons why some have found criticism, with plenty of supporters holding Castore under scrutiny.
The retailer enjoyed a remarkably fruitful debut season at Ibrox commercially; the money Castore have generated in shifting almost 500k products is very much welcomed by the likes of Director of Commercial and Marketing James Bisgrove.
The brand’s official match kit designs and training ranges were also immensely popular.
But there were issues in supply, quality control and customer service which many felt very much had to be ironed out during this campaign no matter the strength of the retailer’s early contribution.
This has heaped a lurching scrutiny and atmosphere into the mix which it is up to Castore to respond to via their performance.
Rangers fans are infamously not always an easy crowd to please with standards high on and off the pitch.
Enter Sports Direct
For whatever reason, Rangers fans were left frustrated by Sports Direct sharing the training range on their official website half an hour before the Gers released it on theirs.
For the second season in a row, the retailer appears to have access to the club stock and more than that, is grabbing part of the attention.
This could very much be a legacy issue pertaining to those infamous old contracts – where Rangers were held to ransom on unfairly weighted retail deals. Sports Direct might even have just decided to buy them.
But some are still reeling, even if no one – other than Sports Direct – is asking you to buy from their website or even if Rangers legally had no power to stop them selling the kit.
It is, however, for supporters sick of any reminder of the retailer – especially when mentioned alongside our current one – embarrassing.
Sports Direct’s involvement undoubtedly put pressure on whatever Rangers were going to release and this built around the home kit release that never was. Even if Rangers never said it was going to be launched today.
When the kit never appeared – and whilst a wider training range than stocked by Sports Direct did – there was lingering frustration even if an undoubtedly positive reaction.
Grumbles pertaining to the release coming late also coincided with other more subjective issues regarding the release.
Had the Sports Direct situation not happened, these might’ve not been quite so loud.
But when you combine all of this with the kit leaks this week – whilst not derailing the campaign – it may well have heaped further pressure on the official strip release.
Given the scrutiny around the retailer from a section of fans, that’s a pressure they might’ve wanted to avoid, whenever that may be.
James Bisgrove has previously claimed that this will be sometime in June, but only last week fans were getting antsy on Twitter.
