Thursday, 20 May 2010

The gloves are officially here!

It  has been a loooooooong 5 weeks since WarbyGK sold out of goalkeeper glove stocks, however I am delighted to announce that the first designs of the new range are officially sitting in our warehouse! The immense success of our "Try Me, Love Me" promotion tempted thousands of goalkeepers into the Warby brand and as the promotion rumbled on over the weekend it was fast dawning on us that we may have to make a contingency plan for low stocks!

This was the case as, on the third morning we were cleared out of every pair of the Portiere Pro range so the emergency plan kicked in and we rushed forward the consignment that was due in for the end of June. As all the testing was complete and we knew which latex grips we were going with, all we had to do then was to marry the design and colourway to the grip - this is very time consuming as we played around with different colours, features, cuts etc and then participated with focus groups to allow us to choose the optimum design for each goalie glove.

The gloves have been sent away for the imaging, and we will have them in 360 degrees again, exactly as we had the Legends last year as we were the pioneers in displaying goalkeeper gloves in this manner, and then they will stay in the studio to harvest further images so that the updated website can be finished in time for the official launch towards the end of this month. There is so much more to the preparation than you could possibly envisage, however pre-launch will be offered to our Facebook Group and Newsletter Subscribers so make sure that you've got yourself signed up to these now!

17 May 2010

They say no news is good news right? Well, that's maybe true if you aren't waiting for your consignment of goalkeeper gloves to be delivered! We have changed factories away from our previous suppliers of two years and there will always be the inevitable teething problems......turns out that our container has been sat in Dubai over the weekend! Our gloves have had better holidays than me recently! All being well, we anticipate delivery to our warehouse on Tuesday and that is when the work begins.........

We will offer exclusivity to our Facebook Group and Newsletter Subscribers whilst the gloves are away being photographed and prepared for the official launch, so for your opportunity to be one of the first of an army of goalkeepers wearing the new Warby Goalkeeper Glove range then make sure that you join the Group and also sign up for our Newsletter - no excuses now!

On the other side of WarbyGK, all the behind the scenes developments are slowly building pace now and will be available for the support of the fantastic new range of Warby Goalkeeper Gloves, once the gloves have done their bit in the photography studio then the final pieces if the jigsaw can be completed and we are then good to go - watch this space!

Thursday, 13 May 2010

What's going on?!

It has been a really strange few weeks for the goalkeeping community, with a substantial amount of goalkeepers being released from their contracts with pro clubs. Our endorsees have suffered a hit with the likes of Simon Rayner (Crawley), Nick Liversedge (Darlington) and Leigh Overton (Grimsby) all being shown the door, but outside of WarbyGK the likes of Danny Potter (Cambridge Utd), James Pullen (AFC Wimbledon), Shane Gore (Luton Town), Laurie Walker (Cambridge Utd) plus higher profile casualties like Nicky Weaver (Burnley) and Anti Niemi (Portsmouth) have all been added to an ever growing list of goalkeeping casualties....

On the brighter side, Danny Naisbitt has agreed terms with Cambridge United FC, Adam Collin has seen off the challenge of ex-Chelsea keeper Lenny Pidgeley to be offered new terms whilst Pidgeley himself has been allowed to leave Carlisle United, young Aaron Butcher at Boston United has been offered a new contract over last seasons first choice Tom Evans, who has also been released so the ever growing list of casualties has opened some doors for others on the wonderful football merry go-round.

I may be wrong but I cannot remember this many released goalkeepers in recent history, and whilst I'm confident that the majority will soon find new clubs it is certainly another eye opener towards the frailty of professional football contracts. It is a whole new world when you are released and suddenly you are unemployed for perhaps the first time in your life, your priority is to source a new club and often that means dropping down the pyramid to find first team football, a prime example was a lad we had with us last season who joined us from the Blue Square Premier and is now plying his trade in local football.

As Jimmy Greaves famously said "It's a funny Old Game!"

10 May 2010

Ok, ok....at first it was funny but now it's just downright irritating! My windscreen was frozen again this morning - it's May for crying out loud, what's going on?! Less moaning and let's crack on....

As it's May we all get the inevitable end of season withdrawal symptoms as the majority of us have been involved with mid table obscurity and something of a non-entity of a season. Perhaps a couple of good results here and there, followed by a few horrific defeats but by an large an unmemorable season. Unless you follow Chelsea......

"Right boys, all you need to do is equal or better Man Utd's results and you'll be champions. That's it, simple and straight forward....." 8-0 later and they were crowned deserved champions and what an emphatic way to win the league! I'm not a Chelsea fan (though they did offer me trials as a youngster which I never attended - doh!) but I have to applaud the style in which they took the crown, and am now looking forward to my day of football next Saturday when they entertain Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final. The wife already knows that on May 15th, the Sofa and TV are mine!!

As a side note, WarbyGK endorsee Simon Rayner has been released by Crawley Town FC, but Aaron Butcher has been offered a new contract at Blue Square Giants Boston United. Salisbury City's James Bittner and I have been discussing his new SMU's and WarbyGK have irons in a few more fires so to speak! I also have to send my commiserations to Leigh Overton who's Grimsby Town side got relegated to the Blue Square Prem this Saturday gone (it all went downhill at Grimsby since I left a few years back!!!) and also to Darlington's Nick Liversedge who broke back into the team that was already relegated in what must have been a long season of uncertainty for all concerned at the Northern Echo Arena.

Thursday, 06 May 2010

Grr....Bank Holidays!

Firstly, my apologies for there being no blog on Monday due to it being a Bank Holiday in the UK. I promised the family that I'd stay away from the office when I came home on the Friday and I have to say the temptation to pop in and see how everything's going was incredibly strong, BUT I managed to stay away and had a (rare) weekend with the kids and loved every minute of it!

Upon my return on Tuesday morning, there was the inevitable mountain of emails to wade through and amongst the offers for Viagra and Bank Account Password Reset requests, there was a little pearler......the new gloves are off the production line and a meeting with the Cargo Agent had been scheduled. After driving to their office in Feltham, Middlesex to dot the i's and cross the t's we are officially now all set and are just waiting for the initial consignment to hit the UK shores. Just as well really as we are replying to daily emails asking the whereabouts and release date of the new gloves, and even though it is now the end of the UK football season, it is the start for many other countries so the sooner these fantastic new gloves arrive the better!

Finally a brief congratulations to three of our lower level endorsees, as they have all achieved promotion this season: Glyn Thompson and Keiron Blackburn will now be playing in the Blue Square Premier next season with Newport County FC and Boston United's Aaron Butcher will be plying his trade in the Blue Square North next year (unless the FA decide to demote Boston again for whatever reason! Google it, you'll see what I mean!).

April

-FAQ