New Jerseys?

[screenexile]

O'Neill's are really revolutionary with their designs 

When are we going to get into the 21st century and bin this illegal monopoly on playing gear from O'Neills?

Dunno whereyou are getting the "illegal monopoly" bit from. Theres plenty of other suppliers in the marketplace. O'Neills cant be beaten on quality and I think clubs and county are pretty loyal to them as well.

Indeed there isn't... All playing apparel for the GAA MUST be manufactured in Ireland for Club and County football and Hurling (Not sure about Camogie and Ladies Football but think they're the same) which means there are very very few sports companies who can compete with O'Neill's monopoly on that!

Azzuri threatened for a while but they aren't even close!

Hmmm....if a company has design rights and IP and gets its products made elsewhere then its considered an Irish product in most cases...happens everywhere...do you really think all the 1,000s upon 1,000s of county, club, schools jersies not to mention other gear is made in Strabane or Dublin...smell the coffee

What are you talking about? Everyone knows the rule that playing gear must be 'manufactured in Ireland' which is why Adidas/Puma/Nike aren't able to enter the market and why small operators like Azzuri/Masita/Kukri/McKeevers/Gaelic Gear can never get a proper foothold in the market.

Is there any County team left that uses a company outside of O'Neills for their playing gear??!!

[Owenmoresider]

O'Neill's are really revolutionary with their designs 

When are we going to get into the 21st century and bin this illegal monopoly on playing gear from O'Neills?

Dunno whereyou are getting the "illegal monopoly" bit from. Theres plenty of other suppliers in the marketplace. O'Neills cant be beaten on quality and I think clubs and county are pretty loyal to them as well.

This.

We;ve had gear from Kukri, MAsita and O'Neills, as well as training tops, tracksuits and the like from a good few others at this stage. You can't beat O'Neills for quality, longevity and even appearance I think.

We just had an option for our development squad. Free top from one of those other manufacturers, or a €15 contribution to get an O'Neill's one. The parents, to a man/woman, picked the O'Neills, even though it was going to cost them €15.

Sligo had Azzurri for years and while their jerseys weren't particularly appealing (how hard is it to do an all-black jersey) and had a constant need to throw in other colours (grey FFS) and lines and other pointless crap on the jersey design, the quality of the jersey itself was fairly ok, and their other stuff, jackets, polo shirts, hoodies etc. was actually decent. Unfortunately they've decided to go off to Kukri in recent years and they seem to be inferior in every respect, wouldn't go near any of their gear at all.

[Walter Cronc]

O'Neill's are really revolutionary with their designs 

When are we going to get into the 21st century and bin this illegal monopoly on playing gear from O'Neills?

Dunno whereyou are getting the "illegal monopoly" bit from. Theres plenty of other suppliers in the marketplace. O'Neills cant be beaten on quality and I think clubs and county are pretty loyal to them as well.

Indeed there isn't... All playing apparel for the GAA MUST be manufactured in Ireland for Club and County football and Hurling (Not sure about Camogie and Ladies Football but think they're the same) which means there are very very few sports companies who can compete with O'Neill's monopoly on that!

Azzuri threatened for a while but they aren't even close!

Hmmm....if a company has design rights and IP and gets its products made elsewhere then its considered an Irish product in most cases...happens everywhere...do you really think all the 1,000s upon 1,000s of county, club, schools jersies not to mention other gear is made in Strabane or Dublin...smell the coffee

What are you talking about? Everyone knows the rule that playing gear must be 'manufactured in Ireland' which is why Adidas/Puma/Nike aren't able to enter the market and why small operators like Azzuri/Masita/Kukri/McKeevers/Gaelic Gear can never get a proper foothold in the market.

Is there any County team left that uses a company outside of O'Neills for their playing gear??!!

Are Sligo not kukri? A lot of clubs are now using a mix of manufacturers for training gear. Adidas, Puma, Nike and Uhlsport are a few I can think of. Kerry were Adidas around 96/97 but then the GAA stepped in I believe.

[Owenmoresider]

O'Neill's are really revolutionary with their designs 

When are we going to get into the 21st century and bin this illegal monopoly on playing gear from O'Neills?

Dunno whereyou are getting the "illegal monopoly" bit from. Theres plenty of other suppliers in the marketplace. O'Neills cant be beaten on quality and I think clubs and county are pretty loyal to them as well.

Indeed there isn't... All playing apparel for the GAA MUST be manufactured in Ireland for Club and County football and Hurling (Not sure about Camogie and Ladies Football but think they're the same) which means there are very very few sports companies who can compete with O'Neill's monopoly on that!

Azzuri threatened for a while but they aren't even close!

Hmmm....if a company has design rights and IP and gets its products made elsewhere then its considered an Irish product in most cases...happens everywhere...do you really think all the 1,000s upon 1,000s of county, club, schools jersies not to mention other gear is made in Strabane or Dublin...smell the coffee

What are you talking about? Everyone knows the rule that playing gear must be 'manufactured in Ireland' which is why Adidas/Puma/Nike aren't able to enter the market and why small operators like Azzuri/Masita/Kukri/McKeevers/Gaelic Gear can never get a proper foothold in the market.

Is there any County team left that uses a company outside of O'Neills for their playing gear??!!

Waterford use Azzurri and we use Kukri, God only knows why.

[Walter Cronc]

O'Neill's are really revolutionary with their designs 

When are we going to get into the 21st century and bin this illegal monopoly on playing gear from O'Neills?

Dunno whereyou are getting the "illegal monopoly" bit from. Theres plenty of other suppliers in the marketplace. O'Neills cant be beaten on quality and I think clubs and county are pretty loyal to them as well.

This.

We;ve had gear from Kukri, MAsita and O'Neills, as well as training tops, tracksuits and the like from a good few others at this stage. You can't beat O'Neills for quality, longevity and even appearance I think.

We just had an option for our development squad. Free top from one of those other manufacturers, or a €15 contribution to get an O'Neill's one. The parents, to a man/woman, picked the O'Neills, even though it was going to cost them €15.

Sligo had Azzurri for years and while their jerseys weren't particularly appealing (how hard is it to do an all-black jersey) and had a constant need to throw in other colours (grey FFS) and lines and other pointless crap on the jersey design, the quality of the jersey itself was fairly ok, and their other stuff, jackets, polo shirts, hoodies etc. was actually decent. Unfortunately they've decided to go off to Kukri in recent years and they seem to be inferior in every respect, wouldn't go near any of their gear at all.

I've bought a couple of Ulster training tops by kukri recently and they've been top drawer. Maybe kukri have ranges of quality based on cost?

[rosnarun]

Come on men - O'Neills have no competition with playing kit. Irish made and licensing has created a monopoly - kukri don't have the wherewithal to break into the market but the uptake of clubs in the north using international brands for training and leisure wear paints a picture.

If the market were opened up O'Neills would be cleaned out on design, quality and particularly customer service.

O, and the Irish produced rule is completely illegal under EU law but just has never been challenged.
O'Neills jerseys are all produced in the Far East anyway and sublimated in strabane and Dublin.

The GAA is not a government Organization and therefore these rules would not apply . when the EU want to Subsidize the GAA then maybe they could could call the odds untill then Fair play to the GAA for supporting Irish jobs which im sure causes them to lose income as the the foreign companies would love to get a slice .
real case of damned if you do damned if you don't

[laoislad]

Laois had Azzurri for a good few years and the jerseys were always crap imo. Not the designs more the quality of them.
The training gear and things like hoodies and polo shirts though was pretty good quality stuff.

[Croí na hÉireann]

New Limerick one too, again the fecking logo lets it down, JP should have insisted the front of the jersey was just left blank.

[OgraAnDun]

The main problem with o' neills is that club orders have to be paid upfront  or a substantial deposit.
There is no need for them to deliver on time when they already have your cash banked.
Getting initials on gear is difficult too.

The lad in our club that deals with them has no such problems..

Same with us. Any time I've been in contact getting personal stuff they've been straight back to me and dead on about it, top service.

I think it's a case of luck of the draw. I've never had problems through club or school but I know people organising gear in other clubs that had serious problems from O'Neill's in terms of delays and mistakes.

[PMG1]

Our club has got a lot of gear from MFC Sports in the last 2 years, new kids on the block gear is as good as o'neill's and 15% cheaper.

[JimStynes]

The big thing that annoys me about O'Neills is the sizing! Their stuff is massive. I would be around L or XL in most of the Adidas and Nike type gear. I could get away with wearing the normal fit small mans jersey. Things like skinny tracksuit bottoms is a nightmare to find the right size for some of the small fellas on our club senior side.

I am doing the gear for our club and I have found their staff tough enough to deal with, although a lot better than they used to be! They are also very expensive but I think the big thing is their quality is excellent. People will happily pay a little more for good quality. I was sold by the Adidas and Nike club gear when it first came out around the clubs, but now I think it looks a bit spidey and crap looking actually. The under armour gear that Queens university got a few years ago was lovely looking. I was just saying the other day it is amazing the amount of O'Neills gear that the young ones run about in nowadays. It seems to be the 'cool' thing to wear.

[general_lee]

A lot of the adidas, Nike, puma etc gear is absolute shite, people think they're getting a good deal on a major brand when in reality the merchandise is total bollox. You might think your team looks like Chelsea or Bayern Munich in their adidas tracksuits but actually compare them with the proper team wear that these brands do and you'll see a world of difference. Our club actually did a big order and a friend of mine who plays for an Irish league team had the same kit manufacturer at the same time, night and day between the two. In that sense, oneills is actually quite good value as it imo matches the main brands for quality whilst also being competitive on price.

[muppet]

This jersey was a great idea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy0jUxB1z5s

[rosnarun]

The big thing that annoys me about O'Neills is the sizing! Their stuff is massive. I would be around L or XL in most of the Adidas and Nike type gear. I could get away with wearing the normal fit small mans jersey. Things like skinny tracksuit bottoms is a nightmare to find the right size for some of the small fellas on our club senior side.

I am doing the gear for our club and I have found their staff tough enough to deal with, although a lot better than they used to be! They are also very expensive but I think the big thing is their quality is excellent. People will happily pay a little more for good quality. I was sold by the Adidas and Nike club gear when it first came out around the clubs, but now I think it looks a bit spidey and crap looking actually. The under armour gear that Queens university got a few years ago was lovely looking. I was just saying the other day it is amazing the amount of O'Neills gear that the young ones run about in nowadays. It seems to be the 'cool' thing to wear.

could there be any hidden link there?

[Unlaoised]

New Cavan Jersey is like a Laois jersey......

O'Neills is by far the best gear last the longest aswell I should know Ive been washing juvenille kits for donkeys years!