Calum Chambers (right) wearing the shirt in question during Aston Villa's Europa Conference League match against Legia from Warsaw. Photo: Getty Images/Adam Nurkiewicz
Castore faces a battle to get more football clubs to leave the embattled firm amid growing complaints about its kit and other products.
The sportswear maker previously considered One of the biggest recent success stories in British business, this week was gripped by unprecedented uproar over the Aston Villa «wet-look» shirt fiasco.
Now a Telegraph Sport investigation has revealed complaints about various problems at clubs in England made a deal with Castore.
Findings include:
- Last season, Wolverhampton Wanderers had the same problems with Castore's form as Villa.
- Charlton Athletic held talks over their partnership with the firm amid complaints from fans.
- Various problems in clubs. due to the quality of playing shirts or replicas, the late delivery of training equipment for players or official paraphernalia for fans.
- Villa will wear their wet-effect shirts again this weekend, despite warnings from experts that that it may take several weeks to fix the problem with them.
- Castor have spoken to other clubs this week to ensure they are happy with their shirts.
The Villa shirt debacle is just the latest scandal to hit Castor since the move to the design of football kits. < /p>
From the very beginning, the company, founded just eight years ago by two brothers from Liverpool, Tom and Phil Beahon, had problems with its first club, Rangers.
The problem is particularly evident on Aston Villa's home shirts, which quickly darken during games. Photo: Getty Images/Mark Atkins
The company was forced to apologize shortly after releasing its first uniform three years ago due to a variety of complaints from fans. from poor quality products to poor customer service, which the company was committed to addressing.
The problems continued after Wolves and Newcastle became Castore's first Premier League clients the following summer.
Telegraph Sport was told that the former player's form last season had similar problems to those Villa are currently facing, raising questions about lessons learned.
Photos of Nelson Semedo also emerged earlier this year in a Wolverhampton T-shirt with an inverted crest, and then another one torn off from the front.
Meanwhile, this season saw the arrival of Villa players who joined Castore's stable last year, and Newcastle have been photographed at sporting games on more than one occasion. badly torn shirts.
During Newcastle United's 8-0 win over Sheffield United, Anthony Gordon's shirt broke in the last minutes of the game. Photo: Getty Images/Michael Regan
The latter club recently invoked an exit clause from their kit deal to switch to Adidas next season amid numerous complaints from fans about product standards, although they stressed on Thursday that they themselves consider the quality of the firm's products to be «extremely poor». high.»
Villa are now expected to agree to an early termination of their own contract.
Charlton have held talks over their partnership with Castore following questions raised by their supporters, although Telegraph Sport have reported that the First League team is currently supporting the company.
According to fan forum minutes, complaints center on the club shop, which is run by Castore, and at a meeting this month, chairman James Rodwell acknowledged problems in what he described as an «unsatisfactory scenario.»
The firm also operate the Mansfield club shop -Town, which has a sign on its door that reads: «Abuse if [sic] of any kind will not be tolerated in the club shop», while the Telegraph has been told of examples of shirt-ripping letters since the League Two team joined this summer Castore stables.
There were also reports of «teething problems» at the firm, including delays in the delivery of training equipment for players or official merchandise for fans.
One club official became angry when asked whether he had any problems with Castore, and replied: “How long do you have time? I've been in professional football for 20 years and it's really bad to be honest; this is very bad.
“Oh my God, I don’t even know where to start.”
Others from teams that worked with Castore, who is now worth £1 billion, accused the firm of «getting too big too quickly» and cited high staff turnover as another reason for its problems.
Among the first to raise the alarm about Villa's shirt problems was Rob Warner, an experienced kit designer whose stripes include the stripes for Italy's 2006 World Cup winners, Manchester City's first Premier League title, and World and Olympic Usain Bolt's 2008 record. 100m sprint
Warner, a Villa fan who is now training the next generation of kit creatives at the Spark Design Academy, told the Telegraph that the wet look problem will not be resolved for the men's and women's next games this weekend.
“If they really insisted on fire drills, they could probably turn things around in four to six weeks,” he said.
“I would be absolutely amazed if they didn’t do something.” about it. It's just too damaging to the brand.» Calling it a «perfect storm,» he added, «As far as it being so loud, I've never seen anything like it.» < /p>
Warner said he examined the shirt in question and couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it, but suggested it might be an issue with a so-called «wicking coating» that's designed to prevent saturation.
Told that Wolves had faced similar problems last season, he said: «I'd like to think people wouldn't make the same mistake twice.»
He also said he had suffered the same same fate. This could hardly happen to a recognized brand.
“As for brands such as Puma, Adidas, Nike, these are huge organizations. They have a lot more leverage that they can use.”
Castor also has kit contracts with the England cricket team and the country's three biggest rugby clubs: Saracens, Bath and Harlequins.
Joe Marler, who plays for the latter and currently plays for for England at the World Cup, refused to wear the brand's jersey last season because it was too tight, and instead chose to wear a replica shirt.
But Telegraph Sport has been told that is no longer the case and has otherwise found nothing but praise in cricket and rugby for the brand, which got its big break four years ago when it signed Sir Andy Murray, now one of its biggest investors.< /p >
Even those associated with football clubs who lived through the problems with Castore had a lot of positive things to say, not least about the firm's «bespoke» products in the world of «cookie cutter» kit design.
< p>But Warner agreed with accusations that Castore had overexerted himself, saying: “Football is such a difficult sport. This requires a huge workforce and the logistics are incredibly complex.
“It takes large, experienced teams to handle this. These guys have done incredibly well and many of their products are very good. But they went very deep into professional football very early on in the company's journey.»
Telegraph Sport reported that Castore had spoken to other clubs this week and had found no evidence of the problems facing Villa , were more serious. widely reported.
The firm finally broke its silence on the Villa fiasco on Thursday, with a spokesman saying: “We are working closely with the club to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and meet the standards we expect . We would like to thank the club for their patience and support to date.
“As a proud new British brand, we always hold ourselves to the highest standards and strive to do everything we can to continually improve the performance of our products. This means that any customer concerns should be resolved promptly and humbly.”
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