GAA, Boxing and MMA gear business

AsianIrish

Hello Forum People,

I am based in Cork and planning to start an online business selling mainly GAA, MMA and Boxing merchandise. I have two factories in Asia who are willing to work with me. The quality is great of their products. I also want to go to clubs in Cork for all three sports and sell them directly. Anyone has any past experience?
Anyone here into MMA and boxing who can give some advice about price clubs will be willing to pay. Thank you.

Buttercake

AsianIrish wrote: »

Hello Forum People,

I am based in Cork and planning to start an online business selling mainly GAA, MMA and Boxing merchandise. I have two factories in Asia who are willing to work with me. The quality is great of their products. I also want to go to clubs in Cork for all three sports and sell them directly. Anyone has any past experience?
Anyone here into MMA and boxing who can give some advice about price clubs will be willing to pay. Thank you.

Is it going to be official branded gear or like the gear you find in Aldi/Lidl/Gift Shops?

I don't see any sports fans buying gear unless it's official.

AsianIrish

It won't be the aldi/lidl/gift shops quality. It will be official brand gears.

The UFC have an exclusive deal with Reebok now which comes into play in July, you'll find most of the MMA gear from here on with be done by them and sold in the usual retail outlets.

AsianIrish

Thanks for all your help. The products I intend to sell won't be coming from Reebok factories. I have some photographs but do not know how to upload them here as reference.

Bandara

You will not be able to just start selling brand names without a distribution channel deal.

as an example you cant import and start selling Nike runners tomorrow even if the factory will supply you, Nike would absolutely slaughter you

People pay million to agree distribution rights for big name products, and MMA is a huge growth right now and is extremely tightly controlled

AsianIrish

Bandara wrote: »

You will not be able to just start selling brand names without a distribution channel deal.

as an example you cant import and start selling Nike runners tomorrow even if the factory will supply you, Nike would absolutely slaughter you

People pay million to agree distribution rights for big name products, and MMA is a huge growth right now and is extremely tightly controlled

I know this very well and thank you for reminding me of this. I will never be able to compete with these brands but what I have is for price conscious people who want to pay less but not want to compromise on quality.

BTW, in GAA many brands you see in Mahers, Cummins and Lifesports are being made by my friend. I know how much we sell these brands to importers and how much they sell in the shop. I am quite strong when it comes to GAA items.

Bandara

AsianIrish wrote: »

I know this very well and thank you for reminding me of this. I will never be able to compete with these brands but what I have is for price conscious people who want to pay less but not want to compromise on quality.

BTW, in GAA many brands you see in Mahers, Cummins and Lifesports are being made by my friend. I know how much we sell these brands to importers and how much they sell in the shop. I am quite strong when it comes to GAA items.

sorry maybe I misunderstood, you said previously "It will be official brand gear"

Hence I presumed it would be branded gear like TapOut etc etc

What brands are you talking about ?

AsianIrish

LS, FIT, Krakal etc

bpb101

i dont play any of these sports however why would you only do 3 sports?
like i can see how you may if you want to specialize and do ufc and boxing but throwing in gaa looks just like that , its thrown in. Looks like you got a job lot of gaa stuff on the cheap and trying to flog it
There is nothing linking these sports

take for example some places may do just ball sports, and thats grand , but either do a wide range of sport or specialize.

AsianIrish wrote: »

LS, FIT, Krakal etc

also , never heard of any of them and a quick google says the same

AsianIrish

bpb101 wrote: »

i dont play any of these sports however why would you only do 3 sports?
like i can see how you may if you want to specialize and do ufc and boxing but throwing in gaa looks just like that , its thrown in. Looks like you got a job lot of gaa stuff on the cheap and trying to flog it
There is nothing linking these sports

take for example some places may do just ball sports, and thats grand , but either do a wide range of sport or specialize.



also , never heard of any of them and a quick google says the same

Well, they are being sold in most of the shops in Ireland and in big quantity. Thank you for the advice though. I wish I can post some photos here but I am still a newbie and I can't

_Tombstone_

AsianIrish wrote: »

Well, they are being sold in most of the shops in Ireland and in big quantity. Thank you for the advice though. I wish I can post some photos here but I am still a newbie and I can't

Use Imgur, here's a little guide-->imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/201767293

I have to take out the beginning of the address^^ as I'm new and can't post links so you'll have to do the same.

Lots of little tools to make it even easier here-->imgur.com/tools

DamienKelly

Hey OP

Can you just clarify, Are you selling official clothing, imitation clothing or your own design?

AsianIrish

Own design, no imitation and some official

DamienKelly

The official gear you will need a licence from the GAA and purchase directly from O Neils factory in Walkinstown. You wont be able to get official gear manufactured yourself. If you come up with some good designs and get a good website up and running that is well advertised and attracts visitors you could do well.

I dont know too much about the MMA but it seems to be getting more and more popular every week. If you could get an online store up and running seling MMA gear and stuff I'd imagine it could be very succesful but again Id imagine you will need a licence from the MMA

BnB

DamienKelly wrote: »

The official gear you will need a licence from the GAA and purchase directly from O Neils factory in Walkinstown. You wont be able to get official gear manufactured yourself. If you come up with some good designs and get a good website up and running that is well advertised and attracts visitors you could do well.

That is not true

Firstly, there are a number of suppliers (not just O'Neills) who are authorised to make official GAA gear (i.e. Use the GAA logo on their gear). See the link below

http://www.gaa.ie/tickets-and-merchandise/approved-suppliers/

Secondly, if you want to make county gear, it's not the GAA you need to talk to, but to the individual County Boards. Because the County crest is the property of the County Board. As far as I know most County Boards are with O'Neills and to be honest, with you just starting off, it is highly unlikely that you will make any inroads with any of them.

If you are interested in going after the GAA market, you are better off starting with Clubs. But just to say - I am in the middle of setting of a Club Shop myself at the moment and I am looking at suppliers and it seems to be a fairly competitive market.

AsianIrish

Thank you, just so you know a friend of mine is selling to 2 very big irish companies all GAA gear but they are not approved by GAA but still good quality. He does not say GAA approved on his gear.

BNB pm me what you want, i may be able to help. Regarding boxing and MMA i am getting my first lot of samples in two weeks time and i will visit clubs first to see what and from who they buy.

My quality is really good and prices are competitive.