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Thursday, 31 December 2009

Review of the Year 2009

As the year draws to an end it seems fitting to recap on the events of 2009 in the WarbyGK office. I'll try to keep it brief as if you're like me you'll have switched off after the third paragraph!

2009 has been a great year from our perspective and very much in line with our business plan. We have launched the Portiere Pro goalkeeper gloves, got ourselves a new logo, recruited professional goalkeepers to wear WarbyGK, kitted out kids in Africa with goalkeeper gloves and even, regrettably, had to say no to the opportunity of having Neville Southall wearing the Legends! On top of this our gloves have been worn in an England International, in the FA Cup (even lifted the FA Youth Cup) and have saved at least 6 penalties on their debuts. To say this year has been eventful would be an understatement.....

The long awaited Legend goalie glove was released in October, a development process which began as early as April when we began talks with Salisbury City FC's James Bittner. Bitts is a glove freak and wanted specific things for his gloves, so we duly obliged! Made from Neoprene, Bitts' SMU's have Internal Latex, traditional closure and all in a Negative cut, and the feedback from this development went into producing perhaps our best glove so far. 2009 has also seen WarbyGK make several new contacts in the professional and amateur games, attract new online retailers, agree distribution deals with agents in Australia and USA and achieve a massive 740+ fans in our Facebook Group! That was the brief story of 2009, now let's look to WarbyGK 2010......

Happy New Year and thanks for your support in 2009!

28 December 2009

Well, that's Christmas out the way for another year, and blimey don't my kids know it. The amount of presents they got from Santa this year was unbelievable and you have to wonder exactly where Santa puts all these presents in his sleigh!

There isn't a great deal planned this week as everything will be interrupted by New Years on Friday, so I'm going to take the opportunity to tidy the office, and sort the inevitable mountain of paperwork....I have a feeling that the shredder will be working overtime today (and the kettle probably!). I hate mess and, for a business that sells goalkeeper gloves, it is unbelievable the amount of mess generated and when others people's idea of tidying up is just to put mess out of sight rather than sort it out I may have a long day ahead! Still at least it's Bank Holiday in the UK today so I'm on my own in the office, apart from if the kids pop in to visit Daddy (and create more mess probably!) so I'm expecting to be able to get quite a bit done today as usually my most productive hours are from 0630 - 0830 and that's when when the others turn up! I suppose that's the goalkeeper in me, single minded and happy to take sole responsibility for my actions (and damn unsociable too!)

I am amazed at how well this year has gone, and what has amazed me even more is the level of support that WarbyGK Goalkeeper Gloves have generated and I am personally extremely hopeful of building on this loyalty for 2010 although I expect to see several new competitors jump on the band wagon again this year, however rest assured that we will be heading the trail for them to follow as usual, though we will stay loyal to our ethics and truly look after all the number ones!

     Picture courtesy of www.BoroPics.co.uk

Thursday, 24 December 2009

Oooh, you tease!

I genuinely was going to blog about other things today but this thread on The Glove Bag last night made me alter it slightly. I must admit when I read the thread title that I thought someone else had passed up our information and was going to need a quiet word, but fortunately this isn't the case!

As regular readers of this blog will know, we have been developing next years range of gloves and we have sent pairs out for trial to our contracted goalkeepers. The feedback that we are receiving has been tremendous and I can foresee that there's going to be arguments within WarbyGK as we strive to develop this range further. As said before this development will sit above the current Portiere Pro range to ensure that we can compete on the next level and offer a high performing range of top quality goalkeeper gloves. Believe me, I really wish that I could show you all the options we have but, as ever, I am outvoted within the team so they will majorly stay under wraps for now but will inevitably pop up on our keepers between now and the end of the season.

I'll finish today by saying a massive thank you to all your support over this festive season, I have been blown away by the level of sales achieved and hope that come Christmas morning you really do get everything you've asked for (and also anything ordered in the wrong size can be sorted out, no problems!).

Merry Christmas to all our customers!

21 December 2009

We've just had one of our strongest weeks, as I imagine that most people have now finished their Christmas shopping and are just looking around for some "stocking fillers". Seeing as our most expensive goalie gloves are under £30 then what better way to treat the goalkeeper in your life (or yourself, either way it's a great idea!)? The snow that we've had in the UK has made everything, including me, feel really festive and I'm hoping that it will stay until Friday at least but knowing how things work the sun will come out Thursday and ruin it! There's only a couple of downsides to the snow, one is that the cold cripples my knee and the other is my white Jack Russell dog disappears when I take him out for his walk in the morning - perfectly camouflaged!

We have been busy making arrangements with a distributor in the States also this week, there are a few more i's to dot and t's to cross but we are 95% there with the agreement, and I for one am really excited about this and it just shows the strength of the business that we have these (Australia and USA) arrangements in place. We will naturally update you as soon as we have confirmation, so please watch this space.....

I'm going to end my giving reference to our Facebook group which, at the time of writing, has over 670 members!! This is a fantastic achievement considering that we don't overly publicise the group, and again is something that I am really proud of within the WarbyGK banner, so thanks to all those that have joined already and if you haven't then why not?!

Thursday, 17 December 2009

Nearly here!

Just over a week now until the little fat man sneaks into our houses with a big sack, and then after the Police have sorted out the burglary it'll be Christmas day and Santa will come! Just so you know the last posting date for Christmas is 21 December 2009 and we will do our best to make sure that all orders placed before 1730 GMT will be despatched as we will take them personally to the Sorting Office, however life will be much easier if you don't wait until the last minute!

It's been during the festive period that I have been able to reflect on the development of WarbyGK goalkeeper gloves. I have spent the majority of this week away from the office as my kids have been doing their nativity plays at school (and they have been fantastic as Angels and Stars), and in the moments I get to myself (walking the dogs mainly!) I have been able to think back at my "other" baby, the gloves business. We have come a long way since the launch of the Goleiro Pro-T, a glove which really helped to get our brand established and gave us a solid platform on which to grow, and I look at all the developments between that point and now with great pride. We've had strong international sales, moved into a purpose built office space, been on the TV, played for England and now with pictures of Simon Rayner wearing our prototypes for 2010 it really excites me as to what the future has in store for us.......

Heard on Radio One this morning that heavy snow is predicted for this area later today, can't be just me that's excited about that surely?!

14 December 2009

Blimey, there's more to this goalkeeper glove business than anyone could ever have imagined at WarbyGK's conception back in 2007. I was in the office yesterday...on a Sunday! I always thought that I was allergic to working the weekend but it seems not, there's no rash appeared yet!

I called in just to give the despatch department a breather tomorrow morning, as we are inevitably busy on a Monday morning, even more so now it's Christmas, as it seems that a lot of goalkeepers place their orders at a weekend. I guess they must wear them on the Saturday and Sunday before realising that they actually need new gloves. I know many grass roots keepers that simply leave their gloves in their kit bags from weekend to weekend and then complain when they don't last very long! And come Saturday afternoon when they're wearing gloves with their fingers poking out they then decide to buy some new gloves!!

We've decided to add a GK Training section to the website, more as a trial initially to gauge feedback and it's value to the site as a whole. This will be updated regularly and again WarbyGK can offer you things that other glove brands simply do not, and the idea of the drills is based around just one goalkeeper and one server as this is the situation that many goalkeepers are faced with. If you have any coaching drills that you want to share then please email through to info@warbygk.com and we'll do our best to add them to the site.

Thursday, 10 December 2009

RIP Kings Lynn FC

It is with deep sympathy for the fans that I write this blog beginning about the sad demise of Kings Lynn FC, I have been following the events closely as they aren't too far away from the WarbyGK HQ and when the official announcement was declared just yesterday it generated a sad day for football in our area.

These events and also personal experiences highlight the dangers of poor management, and as I am involved with WarbyGK it is vitally important to me to ensure that we can grow organically and within our means. This has meant that I have had to go from footballer to businessman in just a few short months and have recently studied many aspects of business and I am really, really proud with how WarbyGK Goalkeeper Gloves has grown into a strong identity whilst maintaining a high level of integrity. For example just yesterday we were approached with a proposal to sign up some endorsees, but as they are currently listed with a competitor I wasn't interested - we don't need to do that! As with everything I've ever done in my life, it will be done my way and to abide by my morals. Yes, this attitude has cost me in the past (I've walked out of coaching jobs because the clubs behaviour didn't or wouldn't meet my standards) but I'm a stubbornly proud individual and I treat people as I expect to be treated and hopefully this shows within the WarbyGK family.

Anyway......good luck to the Linnets fans, you have some exciting times ahead with your inevitable phoenix club!

07 December 2009

You would expect things to be slowing down for Christmas wouldn't you? Not so it would seem as this last week I have literally been camped in the office as there are endless tasks to complete daily. It really has been a blessing being laid up with my knee, as in all honesty I don't think I could have fitted coaching in too so as the saying goes "every cloud...." and all that!

We are generating some feedback from the samples that were despatched last week, but we always like to get the comments from when the gloves are new, during use and then when they're finished with as this gives a much clearer picture to the quality of the materials and manufacture. Just for your information the latex palms were currently trialling are: 3.5mm Giga Grip, 4mm Super Soft, 3.5mm Mega Grip, 3mm Super Soft, 3mm Adesivo, 3mm Acqua Interna plus the good old 4mm TotalSoft! We are also expecting more samples from other factories too so currently it is a very busy time delegating the different glove designs to different manufacturers, spending hours on the phone and then following this up with an email etc, plus when the gloves arrive it's then a case of which goalkeepers to send which palm to? It is really surprising just how time consuming these little tasks are, and in all honesty before my operation I always felt that the office staff could perhaps achieve more as I was then in and out of the office, but now having spent the last few months sitting behind a desk it has really opened my eyes to exactly how long everything actually takes......making a coffee is at least ten minutes!

Lastly we have added a new link to the website, www.boropics.co.uk as they have been generous enough to supply images of our contracted goalkeepers for free. It is really heart warming to know that people can still be generous in todays day and age so massive I must say a massive THANK YOU to them!

Thursday, 03 December 2009

Bah Humbug!

Tuesday 01 December 2009, make  a note of it in your diary as it was the first time that I have voluntarily walked out of the office! We each have a list of jobs or tasks  to perform, and these are carefully written up on the Friday ready for Monday morning (my list always seems to be the longest though!) but NOWHERE on these lists were "Put up the Christmas Decorations"! As soon as I saw the christmas tree coming through the door that was it.....I was off, ring me when you're finished!!

We have been busy with our business plan this last few weeks, and armed with some comments from this thread we have been out at the weekends to speak to some grass roots goalkeepers to gain their feedback also. It was a great exercise to do because as I've said before goalkeepers are just SO passionate about the position and chatting to them in their natural habitat provides wonderful unbiased feedback that is absolutely priceless for any business. This feedback is helping to cement our original thoughts on how to organically grow WarbyGK and provides us with a clear vision of how to move forward and I think that people from the outside looking in will inevitably have their own opinions, but I have always been BIG on staying loyal to your beliefs and am extremely confident that we are doing things the right way. I am lucky in that I am surrounded by contacts with enough business experience to turn to for re-assurance and advice, and as easy as it would have been to jump straight in at the deep end (my normal habit!) with raising finance, investment etc to immediately challenge the established brands but I feel that the way that we have established ourselves in a very crowded market will give us the necessary platform to grow. "Any man can buy a field of corn to feed his family once, but the real winner is the man that can grow his own corn and feed his family forever" - Bob Warby 2009 (I'm now a philosophist too! I'm adding that to my CV!)

2009:   September   October   November   December